Why did this game succeed where Evolve failed?

[Dark Sun Gwyndolin]

First off, this isn't an insult or attempt to start a flamewar; I'm genuinely curious. I loved playing as the Monster in Evolve, because it was an experience unlike any other video game. I was heartbroken when it the shift to F2P didn't save it (despite the update fixing many of the game's flaws). I recently started playing DBD after giving up on Evolve ever returning, especially since Back 4 Blood also petered out.

So I'm curious, what did DBD do different? The business model is the same, the core gameplay is similar, the theme is similar (except Evolve was Aliens-style action horror rather than slasher horror).

[Cam]

I don't remember which game came first, but DbD's popularity I really attribute to the combination of emergent gameplay like looping (what we consider basic gameplay now), and the fact that this game has a ton of really famous horror icons.

If DbD was only ever played as designed I doubt it would've survived more than two years

[River]

Licensed killers. That's it. Nearly every other game in the genre since this has come out has done something better, but they got the licenses first.

As for what killed Evolve specifically, it was lack of updates and QoL changes. The publisher didn't want to pay the cert fees for updates on consoles, and they didn't want versions to be out of sync, so it got very few updates, very far apart. It's a real shame, since it was super fun the few times I got to play it, with the biggest problem just being how easy it was to shut down the monster.

[Juri]

Skins, the game is unbalanced, they keep selling skins and people buy

[BowlerHatGuy]

Originally posted by Busy Beaver:

First off, this isn't an insult or attempt to start a flamewar; I'm genuinely curious. I loved playing as the Monster in Evolve, because it was an experience unlike any other video game. I was heartbroken when it the shift to F2P didn't save it (despite the update fixing many of the game's flaws). I recently started playing DBD after giving up on Evolve ever returning, especially since Back 4 Blood also petered out.

So I'm curious, what did DBD do different? The business model is the same, the core gameplay is similar, the theme is similar (except Evolve was Aliens-style action horror rather than slasher horror).

I believe Evolve failed due to highly disproportionate balance issues, like the Wraith being the most overpowered monster for like 75% of the games lifespan. There was plenty of marketing and updates, but they were too late to their community and it eventually caught up to them. Wraith was "overnerfed", according to some of the discussion posts, but the game was already dying and there just wasn't enough to keep players into the game.

So regarding the question, I believe that Dead By Daylight was popularized by some of the licensed killers, with some help from the bigger youtubers (I believe Markiplier and Jack made a few videos). Along with that, they just have enough communication with their playerbase to keep people into the game.

[Truth seeker]

When you can kill the killer or monster the side with the most player will always win making the other not attractive.

Bhvr got license character too im sure the introduction of myers help boost the popularity a lot and i got the game for free on play station around the legion chapter too and im sure that help with the popularity.

[Medican]

I feel like the reason is simple. DbD has a unique yet simple core gameplay that doesn't require much skill to learn.

You see, tons of other 1v4 games rely too much on the two sides skillfully fighting each other. Mostly with ranged weapons. Evolve, VHS, Predator: Hunting Grounds, Deathgarden, etc. which means that if the survivor side has someone who's good at shooters, the other side will feel hopeless but if they don't, it's easy picking for the killer role. You don't have that problem in DbD.

The killer is invincible and doesn't have to worry about survivors teaming up on them and hunting them down, and survivors are never forced to confront the killer head-on to complete their objective. Instead, they can just sit on gens and stealth around.

Also, since DbD has such unique gameplay, it means that you can't use what you learned in any other game that's out there right now, so someone who put tons of hours into DbD will most likely just keep playing since there's nowhere else to apply what they learned in this game.

[Infrasound]

The evolve devs burnt goodwill from their customers at everystage before game release and have done it again after

[Shiny cursed Potato]

You can argue about dbds balance, however Evolve was miserable. If the Hunters knew what they were doing then the monster didnt stand a chance unless it was a kraken no lifer

[LunarisRuin]

Originally posted by Yuri:

Skins, the game is unbalanced, they keep selling skins and people buy

asym games are inherently unbalanced by nature. not sure what you want to be done here.

[Leah]

It was licenses, and the fact that Evolve burst through the door showing all of its bad sides immediately, it got eviscerated by negative press and sales dried up fast, it destroyed Turtle Rock's reputation, which before was set at a pretty high bar.

[Silamon]

They charged 5 dollars for the color blue.