Talking European Expansion, Dead by Daylight and Meet Your Maker with Behaviour Interactive -.

Very recently, prior to the buzz and chaos that was Gamescom 2023, Canada’s Behaviour Interactive announced the third studio it is opening in Europe. After acquiring two different studios in the UK, now known as Behaviour North and South, the huge company, known for Dead by Daylight and now Meet Your Maker, turned its attention to continental Europe for a new studio in the Netherlands. Called Behaviour Rotterdam, we had the chance to ask Behaviour’s CEO Remi Racine and EVP Wayne Meazza a few questions about this new studio and also its two current biggest titles.

Gamereactor: Behaviour Interactive has been expanding quite rapidly across Europe lately. How does having two studios in the UK further enable Behaviour to realize the visions for its games, and can we expect more European Behaviour studios in the future, besides Behaviour Rotterdam?

Behaviour Rotterdam, our newly acquired studio, will partner with our two existing UK studios to give us access to Europe’s rich pool of gaming talent. Our goal is to grow all three of these studios and we hope our involvement will serve as a catalyst for their local gaming industry.

From a strategic perspective, we are very excited to expand our European presence, increase our visibility and strengthen our position as work-for-hire leaders. While our primary focus is on increasing the capacity of these studios, we are always considering other opportunities to accelerate our growth.

GR: What makes Rotterdam such a desirable location to open another Behaviour studio, and what will the studio primarily work on for Behaviour?

We had several team members come to Rotterdam during our conversations with Codeglue. While it clearly has a reputation as a global trade center, it’s also a beautiful, cosmopolitan city. Overall, the Netherlands is a hotbed of gaming talent and we are very excited to grow Behaviour’s presence there.

Behaviour Rotterdam is part of Behaviour’s service division. Their addition enhances our external development expertise and we will leverage that expertise for work-for-hire and co-dev projects for some of the industry’s leading publishers and developers.

GR: What led you to SockMonkey, AntiMatter and Codeglue, and why were these two developers a perfect fit for the Behaviour family?

SockMonkey, AntiMatter and CodeGlue all shared a culture similar to Behaviour’s – one that emphasized innovation and promoted work-life balance, creative collaboration and personal growth within a supportive team. Finding partners who share this culture is critical to us as we consider any expansion opportunity.

GR: What is the next step for behavior on a global scale? The company is and is still growing rapidly, so how do you effectively manage this growth?

Maintaining culture while growing is always a challenge. However, our culture has also been a foundation of our success, which is why our priority is to both protect and celebrate it. That’s why finding partners who share this culture is so important to us.

GR: Alien is coming to Dead by Daylight and Nicolas Cage has already arrived. I assume there will be more great collaborations in the future, but can you tease further about what you have in store?

I can’t give anything away, I can tell you that we are not slowing down. We have some great surprises planned – so players will want to keep their eyes open!

GR: Hypothetically speaking, is there a specific franchise or personality you would like to bring to Dead by Daylight?

I really can’t say – we are considering many franchises. What I can say is that we still have surprises in store for our players.

GR: As we see a variety of games in development with Unreal Engine 5, have you considered porting Dead by Daylight to the engine, or perhaps using it as a base for whatever the future holds for the title?

We are always looking for the best ways to improve our players’ experience, and Unreal Engine 5 is on our radar for this reason. We are currently exploring how moving to Unreal Engine 5 would improve our player’s future experience. Stay tuned!

GR: How is the Dead by Daylight movie progressing? Is there an update on plot, cast, directors, etc., or perhaps a timeline of when we can expect more?

No update to share for now, except that we are in the process of recruiting a director. The process is well underway and we will share more with you as soon as we have more news. We are very excited about this!

GR: How do you feel about managing a user-generated content title like Meet Your Maker? Would a UGC game be something you would explore again in the future?

Managing a user-generated content title like Meet Your Maker has been an incredibly rewarding experience for us. The imaginative minds of our community have not only impressed us, but also entertained us greatly! As for future endeavors, exploring user-generated content games remains a possibility we are open to, as it adds a unique layer of engagement and interaction that enriches the gaming experience.

GR: Can we expect Meet Your Maker to eventually get some crazy collaborations in the same vein as Dead by Daylight?

Our immediate goal is to continue to establish our universe as it is. For now this remains our main priority, but as always we are very open to what the future might bring.

Thanks to Remy, Wayne and Behaviour for speaking with us. You can play Dead by Daylight and Meet Your Maker on PC and consoles today.