Dead by Daylight players slam devs over NFT Hellraiser collection

Alan Bernal
Behaviour Interactive pinhead hellraiser dead by daylight

The Dead by Daylight community is slamming developer Behaviour Interactive for an NFT Hellraiser collection using the in-game Pinhead model as its template.

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are digital claims of ownership to special media that can range from jpg files to more intricate pieces of online art. Concerns around them usually boil down to questions around their environmental impact and use in scams with blockchain currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Pinhead is the debut piece for Boss Protocol’s upcoming Masters of Horror collection.

The game developer’s involvement in the upcoming launch has invited criticisms from a host of players who do not want to support the industry.

Dead by Daylight Pinhead NFT drama

hellraiser pinhead nft
The roadmap for Boss Protocol’s Hellraiser NFT.

On October 18, Behaviour Interactive said they were working with Boss Protocol “over several months to adapt in-game models for use as NFTs and approved them prior to the release of Pinhead in DbD.”

That renewed people’s furor by thinking they were inadvertently supporting NFTs by playing the game.

Concerns over the Dead by Daylight Pinhead model being used for the digital pieces are rooted in players feeling blindsided by the collaboration and Behaviour’s continued involvement.

“So will you be offering refunds for the chapter?” one Twitter user asked. “You should have disclosed this before it went on sale as many people would never want their money to go towards anything to do with NFTs.”

A lot of the outcry matched that feeling especially since some of the 10,000 pieces of the generated collection would grant access to the in-game Hellraiser content for DbD on PC, which was initially released on September 7.

Dead by Daylight devs address Pinhead NFT

The current situation has been developing since Boss Protocol announced Pinhead as the debut release for its Masters of Horror collection on September 23.

Reactions to DbD’s apparent involvement forced a response from the game developers to concerned fans on October 14.

“When we work with our licensing partners,” Behaviour began. “We provide them with in-game models as well as Chapter keys. They are free to use these however they see fit as the rightful owners of these characters.

“To be very clear: There is no exclusive in-game content linked to these models when they are distributed outside of the game in any way.”

After Behaviour created the model for DbD’s Pinhead, the devs worked with partners for the Hellraiser license that would eventually be the base for the NFTs.

Dead by Daylight has more horror icons in its library of killers and it’s unclear if any of those will also be used for any future NFTs under the dev’s licensing agreements.

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About The Author

Alan is a former staff writer for Dexerto based in Southern California who covered esports, internet culture, and the broader games/streaming industry. He is a CSUF Alum with a B.A. in Journalism. He's reported on sports medicine, emerging technology, and local community issues. Got a tip or want to talk?