January 9, 2024 Behaviour Interactive has confirmed Alan Wake will be coming to DBD as a playable Survivor. This article has been updated to reflect that.
It’s almost time for Dead By Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive to reveal the hit survival horror game’s first major DLC chapter of 2024, but before that, we’re in for a half-chapter treat. From January 30, a character from one of 2023’s best PS5 and Xbox games will become available as a Survivor to those traversing The Fog – Alan Wake.
According to an accompanying press release, Wake will retain the vocal and visual likeness afforded to him by actors Matthew Porretta and Ilkka Villi respectively, making for a direct translation from Remedy Entertainment’s horror masterpiece.
Speaking on the collaboration, Behaviour partnerships head Mathieu Coté notes the “huge influence” the original Alan Wake has had on the DBD team – real recognizes real. “To finally see Alan come to the Fog as a Survivor feels like a full-circle moment, especially as the recently released second entry in the franchise is still fresh in player’s minds.”
Meanwhile, Remedy creative director Sam Lake says the team is “thrilled and honored to have Alan Wake enter the Fog of Dead by Daylight.” Lake further notes the “surprising” compatibility between the lore in both games, “drawing from many similar inspirations.” As you can tell from the above trailer, it’s a match made in… hell.
The announcement certainly won’t come as a surprise to many. In the initial teaser uploaded to Twitter on January 8, we were given a glimpse of a flashlight sitting on a table that’s illuminating bloodied papers. While it wasn’t a lot to go off of, we were immediately drawn to the possibility of it pertaining to The Loadout’s 2023 Game of the Year winner Alan Wake 2 – one of the best horror games to date.
Thematically, this makes perfect sense. For the uninitiated, the flashlight is an iconic piece of equipment that, in the Alan Wake series, is used for much more than lighting up dark areas. For Alan in the first game and FBI agent Saga Anderson in the second it holds the power to make invulnerable enemies killable when focused on them – a crucial tool when navigating the Dark Place and beyond.
Furthermore, the bloodstained papers seen on the table and Courier typeface used in the teaser are clear allusions to Wake’s profession as a writer – something noted repeatedly throughout the series to the point that it’s become a meme within the community. Suffice to say, we’d be unsurprised if Alan was to be given ‘The Writer’ role in-game.
As for what we have in store when DBD Chapter 31 itself releases, community leaker ‘LeaksByDaylight’ reports that we’re in for something entirely original that features a new Survivor and Killer, quality-of-life and microtransaction tweaks, and the Spring 2024 event. We’re barely a week into the new year and it’s already shaping up to be a spooky one, should everything materialize.
It’s been a hot minute since we’ve had a videogame crossover in DBD – Resident Evil’s Ada Wong, Albert Wesker, and Rebecca Chambers being the last trio to grace The Fog back in 2022’s Chapter 25. Though we’d also love to see Saga Anderson and Sam Lake’s self-insert, Alex Casey, come to the game, the fact that Alan Wake is getting the same treatment as a series that has produced some of the best games in the genre over the years is excellent news. If you haven’t already guessed, we’re hyped.