Dead By Daylight developers Behaviour Interactive have announced that they're acquiring Red Hook, the creators of Darkest Dungeon.
This is the same Behaviour Interactive who recently laid off a bunch of people, cancelled a game and closed a studio, Midwinter Entertainment, after snapping up a bunch of developers (the others are SockMonkey, Codeglue and Fly Studio) over the past two years.
Darkest Dungeon is a horror game like DBD, so I guess the acquisition chimes from that perspective. All the same, my snap judgement is "yikes".
Red Hook will remain "a fully independent studio" under Behaviour, according to a definition of "independent" that has yet to be shared in full. "Darkest Dungeon has long been a series we've admired, enjoyed (and maybe even lost a little sleep over) as fans, and the opportunity to welcome Red Hook as a fully independent studio under the Behaviour banner is nothing short of a thrill," reads a statement on social media. "We look forward to supporting Red Hook as they continue to do what they do best: put your sanity to the test." In a separate release, Behaviour CEO and co-founder Rémi Racine characterised the move as, essentially, a corporate exercise in adopting a fresh child because your festering, stay-at-home, gimlet-eye son needs a new playmate, bless him. "Earlier this year, we established an ambitious goal for our future as a publisher - to make Behaviour synonymous with horror, and surround Dead by Daylight with a library of similarly exceptional horror games," he wrote. "Our acquisition of Red Hook is another emphatic step towards this objective, with more to come." 'Surrounds', eh?
I'd keep your distance, Red Hook. If there's one thing Dead By Daylight is known for, it's cannibalising characters from other horror fictions.