The Dead by Daylight developer has just acquired Midwinter Entertainment, the studio known for the 2021 free-to-play shooter Scavengers. In the same move, the console release of Midwinter’s PvPvE game has been canceled.
According to a press release, Midwinter Entertainment will officially join up with Behaviour Interactive on June 2. The press release goes on to say that Behaviour Interactive will see a tremendous benefit from this acquisition, as it will allow Midwinter to develop some potentially significant new IPs for the Dead by Daylight developer. The acquisition will also serve as a net positive for Midwinter Entertainment, mostly due to the prestige of working with the developer of such a popular IP.
What do the companies have to say about it?
According to Rémi Racine, the president and executive producer at Behaviour Interactive, the developer specifically chose to acquire Midwinter Entertainment because they both share “similar values.” Meanwhile, Mary Olson, the studio head at Midwinter Entertainment, concurred with this sentiment, saying that “the alignment across the teams was striking, and in my experience rare.”
Previously, the technology company Improbable owned the Scavengers studio. As such, the acquisition by the Dead by Daylight developer does not necessarily mean that Midwinter will lose any independence that it had previously. Only time will tell if the acquisition will result in an IP that truly resonates with players.
Soon after its initial release back in 2016, developer Behaviour Interactive’s Dead by Daylight has become quite the success. It continues to receive new batches of content on a regular basis, with much of it coming in the form of crossovers with other popular horror franchises. Just today, Behaviour hosted an 1.5-hour-long livestream revealing a dizzying amount of new content pertaining to the game, a testament to its impact and enduring popularity. With this in mind, it should probably come as no surprise that Behaviour Interactive would become big enough to join the studio acquisition trend that has dominated headlines recently.
