Who is Behaviour Interactive? The studio behind Dead by Daylight
Behaviour Interactive spent decades working across games, co-development and licensed projects before one title changed the company.
That title was Dead by Daylight.
Released in 2016, the asymmetrical horror game grew into Behaviour’s defining franchise and eventually surpassed 60 million players across all platforms by 2022. Today, the Montreal-based company describes itself as Canada’s largest independent game developer and publisher, with more than 1,200 employees across studios in Montreal, Toronto, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
However, Behaviour in 2026 is becoming considerably broader.
The company has acquired The Fun Pimps, bringing 7 Days to Die into its portfolio. It continues expanding Dead by Daylight. Its external development business still works with major publishers. Meanwhile, August 2026 brought the reveal of Exterminauts, which Behaviour calls its most ambitious original IP yet.
That makes this an important moment to look at what Behaviour Interactive actually is.
Behaviour Interactive was founded in 1992
Behaviour traces its history back to 1992.
More than three decades later, the company has developed over 250 titles and grown into one of Canada’s largest game-development organisations.
That history is important because Behaviour did not become a major studio overnight.
For much of its existence, the company built experience across different platforms, genres and partnerships.
Some developers become closely associated with one genre from the beginning.
Behaviour took a different route.
It built technical and production expertise across a wide range of work before eventually developing the original property that would transform its position in the industry.
Rémi Racine remains at the centre of the company
Rémi Racine is Behaviour Interactive’s co-founder and CEO.
Behaviour’s current leadership page says Racine helped grow the company from its early years into Canada’s largest independent game developer and publisher.
The current executive team also includes Chief Operating Officer Stéphanie Marchand, Chief Product Officer and CTO Stephen Mulrooney, Deputy CEO Nathan Sellyn and CFO Roland Ribotti.
That leadership structure reflects how much the company has expanded.
Behaviour is no longer simply a development studio with one production team.
It operates original games, external development partnerships, publishing, technology, immersive entertainment and several international studios.
Montreal remains Behaviour’s home
Behaviour is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec.
The city has become one of the world’s most important game-development hubs, and Behaviour has grown alongside that industry.
Its Montreal office also houses executive and corporate teams covering areas such as legal, finance, people and culture, communications, IT and central operations.
From there, Behaviour expanded internationally.
Its current studio network includes Montreal, Toronto, Rotterdam and locations in the United Kingdom. Behaviour’s contact information also lists Seattle among its broader operations.
That international reach allows Behaviour to support multiple projects while working with external partners around the world.
Behaviour operates two major game-development businesses
One of the most important things to understand about Behaviour is that not all of its work is visible under its own name.
The company currently describes its core game business around Original Games and Services.
Original Games develops Behaviour-owned projects including Dead by Daylight.
The Services business provides full-development and co-development work for external partners. Behaviour lists companies including Microsoft, Sony, EA, Warner, Netflix and Take-Two among organisations it has worked with.
This model gives the company two different sources of expertise.
Its own games teach Behaviour how to build and operate long-term communities.
External development exposes its teams to other publishers, technology stacks, production systems and major intellectual properties.
That combination helped shape the company Behaviour has become.
Dead by Daylight changed everything
Behaviour had been making games for more than two decades before Dead by Daylight arrived.
Then the scale of its own intellectual property changed dramatically.
The game launched in 2016 as an asymmetrical multiplayer horror experience built around four Survivors facing a single Killer.
That concept proved durable.
New Killers arrived.
New Survivors followed.
Licensed horror characters joined the roster.
Maps changed.
Systems were rebuilt.
The game spread across platforms.
Behaviour says Dead by Daylight had surpassed 60 million players across all platforms by 2022.
More importantly, the game continued growing after that milestone.
TechnologyBlog recently examined this longevity in our dedicated Dead by Daylight in 2026 feature.
Internal link: Link Dead by Daylight in 2026 above to your newly published Dead by Daylight article.
Dead by Daylight became a live-service laboratory
Running a successful live game for a decade creates a very different skill set from releasing a traditional standalone title.
Behaviour has to monitor player behaviour.
It needs community-management systems.
Balancing never stops.
Backend infrastructure must remain stable.
New content needs to integrate with years of older content.
Anti-cheat systems need continual attention.
Technology eventually needs replacing without breaking the game.
Behaviour’s own company profile specifically highlights its internal Live Operations group, including product managers, data analysts, customer-support specialists and community managers. These teams become involved early in production and use data to guide ongoing decisions.
That expertise now influences projects beyond Dead by Daylight.
The 10th anniversary showed how strong the franchise remains
Dead by Daylight reached its tenth anniversary in 2026.
Instead of winding down, Behaviour continued releasing major content.
Jason Voorhees joined the roster.
The game reached a new Steam concurrency record.
Then August brought Chorus of Sin, its first community-created Chapter.
TechnologyBlog’s recent Dead by Daylight feature looks more closely at that remarkable tenth-anniversary period.
Internal link: Link the phrase Dead by Daylight feature above to the published article.
For Behaviour itself, the important point is what this says about its strongest property.
Dead by Daylight is no longer just a successful release.
It is an ongoing platform supporting years of content, partnerships and community activity.
Licensed characters became part of Behaviour’s identity
Dead by Daylight’s licensing strategy also changed Behaviour’s position in the entertainment industry.
Over time, the game incorporated characters and worlds from major horror properties.
That requires more than negotiating a licence.
Developers need to translate another company’s characters into Dead by Daylight without losing what makes them recognisable.
The result has turned the game into something close to a crossover destination for horror.
Behaviour’s wider business follows a similar pattern.
The company says one of its strengths is transforming established intellectual properties into interactive experiences across platforms.
That experience also supports its external development and immersive-entertainment divisions.
Behaviour remains independent
Behaviour currently describes itself as an independent game developer and publisher.
That distinguishes it from many similarly sized studios that eventually became subsidiaries of major platform holders or global publishers.
Independence gives Behaviour greater control over its corporate strategy and original properties.
It also means the company carries more responsibility for its own expansion.
When Behaviour acquires another studio or intellectual property, that becomes part of its own growth strategy rather than a parent company’s portfolio decision.
The events of 2026 make that increasingly important.
Behaviour acquired The Fun Pimps in 2026
One of the biggest changes came in March.
On 24 March 2026, Behaviour announced that it had acquired The Fun Pimps, creators of 7 Days to Die.
That is a significant acquisition.
7 Days to Die is not a new or unproven game.
It has spent more than a decade building its own survival community.
Behaviour’s current recruitment material says the franchise has attracted more than 20 million players worldwide.
The acquisition therefore gives Behaviour another major long-running game alongside Dead by Daylight.
There is an obvious strategic connection.
Both depend on players returning over extended periods.
Both need ongoing development.
Both have established communities.
Behaviour’s experience with live operations can now support another large franchise.
7 Days to Die gives Behaviour another long-term platform
Behaviour has already begun recruiting for the next stage of 7 Days to Die.
Current roles specifically refer to helping shape the franchise’s next era and combining Behaviour’s live-game expertise with the legacy built by The Fun Pimps.
That wording provides a useful clue about why the acquisition makes sense.
Behaviour is not simply buying another catalogue item.
It sees an opportunity to apply the knowledge accumulated through Dead by Daylight to another established community.
If the company can successfully operate multiple long-running franchises, its position changes considerably.
It stops being primarily “the Dead by Daylight studio”.
It becomes a broader specialist in persistent games.
Exterminauts represents a different kind of ambition
Behaviour is also investing in new intellectual property.
On 27 August 2026, the company revealed Exterminauts.
Behaviour describes it as its most ambitious original IP yet.
That statement is especially important following the success of Dead by Daylight.
Studios with one enormous hit face a difficult problem.
Do they continue concentrating almost entirely on the game that works?
Or do they use that success to build something new?
Behaviour is attempting both.
Dead by Daylight continues receiving substantial support.
7 Days to Die expands the established portfolio.
Exterminauts gives the company an opportunity to create another original franchise from the beginning.
That balance could define Behaviour’s next decade.
Original IP remains strategically important
Licensed work can be valuable.
Co-development can generate stable business.
External partnerships provide experience.
However, owning a successful IP creates different possibilities.
Behaviour controls Dead by Daylight.
That gives it more influence over how the franchise grows.
The company can build new games, licensing agreements, merchandise and entertainment opportunities around its own universe.
Exterminauts represents another attempt to create that kind of long-term asset.
The challenge is obvious.
Dead by Daylight became a rare success.
Creating another franchise with comparable staying power is extremely difficult.
Still, Behaviour now has far more resources and experience than it had in 2016.
Behaviour is still heavily involved in external development
Original games have become more visible, but Behaviour has not abandoned its service business.
Its current jobs and corporate pages continue positioning the company as a major provider of full-development and co-development services.
That work is valuable for several reasons.
It provides another source of revenue.
It allows development teams to work on varied projects.
It builds relationships with major publishers.
It keeps technical teams familiar with multiple engines and production environments.
Behaviour specifically highlights experience with Unreal and Unity alongside proprietary technologies from its partners.
This technical versatility has been built across decades rather than one franchise.
Behaviour has developed more than 250 titles
The company’s current profile says its teams have worked on more than 250 games.
That figure helps put Dead by Daylight into perspective.
It may be the game most people associate with Behaviour, but the company existed long before it.
Years of work-for-hire, licensed games and external development helped build the production infrastructure that made a major original project possible.
Those projects also taught Behaviour how to deliver games under very different requirements.
One partner may need a port.
Another may require an entire production team.
A licensed property may come with strict creative restrictions.
An original game creates a different set of challenges.
Few developers operate comfortably across all of those situations.
Technology is a significant part of Behaviour’s business
Behaviour also develops technology behind the scenes.
Its company profile says it has created proprietary backend technology currently supporting millions of players across multiple games and platforms.
That type of infrastructure becomes essential when operating online games.
Player accounts need to function.
Matchmaking needs to work.
Progression needs to remain synchronised.
Services must survive traffic spikes.
Cross-platform systems introduce additional complexity.
These are not the parts of game development players usually see.
However, they can determine whether a live service survives.
Dead by Daylight’s longevity suggests Behaviour has accumulated considerable practical experience in this area.
Data has become central to live development
Behaviour also describes itself as heavily data-driven.
Its Live Operations teams use player behaviour and performance indicators to support decisions throughout the life of a game.
That does not mean developers can simply follow statistics.
A number can show that players are avoiding a perk.
It does not automatically explain why.
A Killer may have a high success rate for several different reasons.
Player feedback may reveal problems that raw data misses.
The best live-development decisions therefore combine statistics with design judgement and community feedback.
Behaviour’s Dead by Daylight team regularly shares gameplay statistics with its community while explicitly warning that numbers should not be interpreted without context.
That approach demonstrates a mature understanding of live-game data.
Behaviour has expanded beyond conventional video games
Another part of the company is less visible to traditional players.
Behaviour operates an Immersive Entertainment business focused on interactive installations and location-based experiences.
The company works across concept development, media production, CGI, immersive audio and interactive technology.
This division extends Behaviour’s skills beyond games running on a PC or console.
In 2026, the company has already announced immersive projects and partnerships, including work connected to Blade Runner planned for North America in 2027.
Behaviour is therefore becoming a wider interactive-entertainment company rather than remaining exclusively a game studio.
Acquisitions have helped expand the studio network
Behaviour’s growth has also involved acquiring specialised teams.
The company acquired Montreal multimedia studio Fly Studio in 2024.
It expanded into the Netherlands through Behaviour Rotterdam.
Its UK operations have also grown through acquisitions and studio development.
Then the purchase of The Fun Pimps in 2026 added another major franchise and development organisation to the business.
Acquisitions can accelerate growth, but they also create risks.
Different studios have different cultures.
Teams use different development processes.
Leadership needs to integrate organisations without destroying what made them valuable.
Behaviour’s ability to manage that expansion will increasingly matter as the company becomes larger.
More than 1,200 people now work across the company
Behaviour’s official About page currently lists more than 1,200 employees.
Some current recruitment material describes the wider organisation as exceeding 1,300 employees, showing that headcount figures can vary depending on timing and which operations are included.
For TechnologyBlog, the safest current description is therefore more than 1,200 employees worldwide.
That makes Behaviour a large developer by almost any measure.
Yet it continues describing itself as independent.
That combination is unusual.
Independent studios are often imagined as small teams.
Behaviour demonstrates how large an independently controlled development company can become.
The company says it wants to avoid crunch
Behaviour also places unusual emphasis on working culture in its public company material.
Its official values state that it promotes work-life balance and seeks to avoid crunch.
Claims about workplace culture should always be judged over time and through employee experience rather than corporate statements alone.
Still, it is notable that Behaviour treats this as part of its public identity.
Operating long-running games can create intense production pressure.
Updates have deadlines.
Licensed releases may need to coincide with external events.
Technical problems require urgent fixes.
Maintaining that development pace without creating unsustainable working conditions is difficult.
As Behaviour expands, preserving its stated culture may become one of its biggest organisational challenges.
Dead by Daylight remains the centre of the business
All of this expansion does not mean Dead by Daylight has become less important.
It remains Behaviour’s flagship franchise.
Current job listings still include multiple positions specifically attached to the game.
The company continues developing new Chapters, balance updates and technical improvements.
That makes sense.
Dead by Daylight provides an established community and years of accumulated brand recognition.
Abandoning that foundation while chasing new projects would be unnecessary.
Behaviour instead appears to be using Dead by Daylight as the base from which it can diversify.
The next challenge is proving Behaviour can succeed twice
This may be the most important question surrounding the company.
Dead by Daylight worked.
Can Behaviour create another major original success?
7 Days to Die already has an established audience, so that acquisition reduces some risk.
Exterminauts is different.
It needs to establish its own identity.
It needs players.
It needs a reason to survive beyond launch.
The company now has experience with live operations, community building and online infrastructure.
However, experience cannot manufacture audience interest.
That still has to be earned.
If Exterminauts succeeds, Behaviour’s identity could change dramatically.
Behaviour has another advantage: it understands communities
Dead by Daylight’s long life created years of direct interaction between developers and players.
The community debates balancing constantly.
Players provide feedback.
Content creators influence discussion.
Licensed announcements generate intense interest.
Events create recurring activity.
Behaviour even allowed the community to influence the development of the 2026 Chorus of Sin Chapter.
That relationship provides lessons far beyond one game.
Building a community is not simply marketing.
It requires listening.
It requires explaining decisions.
It also requires making unpopular decisions when developers believe they are necessary.
A company that can maintain that relationship for ten years has learned something valuable.
7 Days to Die will test whether that expertise transfers
The Fun Pimps acquisition gives Behaviour an immediate opportunity to prove its live-service knowledge works outside Dead by Daylight.
7 Days to Die has its own culture.
Its own expectations.
Its own development history.
Behaviour cannot simply operate it like another version of Dead by Daylight.
The franchise needs to retain what existing players value.
At the same time, Behaviour clearly believes its live-game infrastructure can support the next phase of development.
Managing that balance may become one of the company’s most interesting projects.
Behaviour is no longer easy to describe with one game
A few years ago, saying “the studio behind Dead by Daylight” was enough to explain Behaviour to most players.
It is still the most useful starting point.
However, it is becoming incomplete.
Behaviour is a developer.
It is a publisher.
It owns a major horror franchise.
It provides development services to global publishers.
It operates immersive-entertainment projects.
It has acquired 7 Days to Die.
It is building new original IP.
And it employs more than 1,200 people across multiple countries.
That is a much broader company.
Why Behaviour Interactive matters
Behaviour Interactive represents an interesting type of modern game company.
It spent decades building technical and production expertise before creating its defining original success.
Dead by Daylight then transformed the business.
Instead of simply relying on that game indefinitely, Behaviour used its growth to expand studios, technology, partnerships and new intellectual property.
Now the company is moving into another stage.
7 Days to Die adds a second major long-running franchise.
Exterminauts could create another original pillar.
External development remains active.
Immersive entertainment pushes Behaviour beyond conventional games.
Meanwhile, Dead by Daylight has just entered its second decade with one of its strongest years yet.
Behaviour began in 1992.
More than 30 years later, the company is still independent, still led by co-founder Rémi Racine and still expanding.
For years, its biggest achievement was turning Dead by Daylight into a global multiplayer success.
The next question is more ambitious.
Can Behaviour turn the studio itself into something equally durable?
