Dead By Daylight starts stalking dedicated servers next summer
Hooray for smoother murders
1v4 horrorshow Dead By Daylight will finally switch from player-hosted peer-to-peer matches to proper dedicated servers next year, developers Behaviour have announced. That should mean less lag, fewer connection interruptions, and the end of the laggy host psycho killers (qu'est qu'ils sont?) having an advantage. The devs expect to launch dedicated servers in summer 2019, which is a fair way away but a fair sign of long-term commitment to continuing to improve Dead By Daylight.
"With our current online infrastructure, the Killer hosts ranked matches. The connection to the game and its quality depends on that host and the strength/stability of their internet connection," Behaviour explained in Friday's announcement post.
"With dedicated servers, all players connect to a server at a data center. The server is the host and is more reliable than any player hosting a game. Overall, dedicated servers will offer a better network experience, will be a safer environment and offers more customisation options (punishing people who disconnect from a ranked game for example)."
Which is good.
"While we are enthusiastic about the game’s growth, we know that, to ensure a promising future, we need to solidify the game's health and online performance," they noted, pointing to many recent changes as well as upcoming "matchmaking improvements."
The studio have also been making Deathgarden, a similar 1v5 multiplayer murderfest set in a sci-fi shootsport. That hasn't made nearly the same impact as Dead By Daylight, which still has over 10,000 concurrent players at the quietest time of the day and over 20,000 during peak hours. While Dead By Daylight needed a fair bit of work before it became the success it is today, Deathgarden is essentially deserted. That's nice for a walk in a garden, not so much for a multiplayer game in one.
Behaviour announced dedicated servers during The Game Awards last week, but the news got a little lost in all the announcements of new games, trailers, and Epic Games Store exclusives. They've whacked in a free mask inspired by The Game Awards too.
A new DLC is due tomorrow, with a new killer, survivor, and map, as usual. Though this time, the killer is just a fella, not a supernatural horror.
