Players of Dead by Daylight are fuming after developer Behaviour Interactive announced a partnership with Boss Protocol and Park Avenue Entertainment for a Pinhead NFT (non-fungible token). Hellraiser’s Pinhead joined Dead by Daylight, the popular asymmetrical multiplayer survival horror title, in September, becoming the latest horror film icon in a large roster of licensed characters that players can survive against or take control of during matches.
NFTs are a blockchain-derived proof of “ownership” that use an environmentally disastrous blockchain technology, and they can be granted to people who buy certain data online. These can come in the form of images, artwork, or any other digital item. While favored by some, NFTs have been heavily criticized by many due to the practice’s ties to an ever-growing scene of scammers and negative ecological impact. With NFTs becoming mainstream in the cryptocurrency market, popular game companies like Sega have introduced exclusive NFTs, and playable NFT video games have been growing in popularity in recent months.
Announced in a tweet, Behaviour Interactive revealed it had been working behind the scenes for months with Boss Protocol and Park Avenue Entertainment to adapt in-game Hellraiser models for use as NFTs. With The Boss Protocol website displaying Hellraiser‘s exclusive Pinhead character model from the game (as well as a Chatterer, a Lament Configuration, and another mystery item), the developer later clarified that there would be no exclusive in-game content locked behind NFTs when they will be distributed outside of the game. However, Behaviour did admit ownership of the NFTs would give access to additional digital items in the future. The studio has received significant backlash from players like theevilswithin, and Dead by Daylight’s playerbase on Steam dropped significantly after the announcement, with some players going so far as to review-bomb the game and its individual DLCs on Steam.
Many upset players also reasoned Dead by Daylight could be removed from Steam and be forced to issue refunds because of Valve’s new blockchain policy. Valve recently announced it will be removing and banning Steam games including cryptocurrency exchange or NFTs, giving developers which use blockchain technologies an opportunity to revise their titles ahead of the policy taking effect. In response, Behaviour issued another statement noting that it does not sell any NFTs itself and that Dead by Deadlight uses no blockchain technology or will it in the future.
Despite the official responses and reassurances, Dead by Daylight’s NFT backlash online appears to be far from over after becoming the latest company to publicly promote its game with exclusive NFTs. While blockchain technology and NFTs don’t appear to be going away anytime soon, moves like Steam’s blockchain ban and the stiff player reaction to Dead by Daylight‘s flirtation with blockchain could keep NFTs from entering mainstream gaming at the moment.
Dead by Daylight is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, and Stadia.