Dead by Daylight Outlines Plans For In-Game Store
Dead by Daylight's anniversary is coming up fast! In our previous blogpost “This is just the beginning”, we shared our commitment to the long-term vision of Dead by Daylight for the next year.
This roadmap starts with the introduction of an in-game store. Today, we’ll share with you how the unlocking of characters and skins is going to work.
As gamers ourselves, we wanted to come up with a model that would respect players. We put a lot of thought into this and we’re excited to talk about how we decided to go about it:
1 – One community
We made the commitment not to sell maps to make sure that we wouldn’t split our community and we intend to keep it that way. Maps are free and will continue being free.
2 – Non-licensed characters become accessible with playtime
Starting in June 2018, all our non-licensed killers and survivors will be unlockable with Iridescent Shards (more on this below). Our characters determine the meta of the game and allow you to embrace the fantasy, to jump into the lore. That’s why we are removing the barriers preventing our players from being able to access this content (more on this below). This means you will have the choice between playing your way into the new content or, as before, buying them outright.
3 – We’re all in with cosmetic items
At the same time as characters being unlocked for free, we’ll start selling cosmetics for them, something that a lot of you have been requesting for a long time. We’re very excited about this type of content because they can enhance the game experience by allowing players to bring forth a bit of their personality, hence making the game unique to everyone without giving an advantage to players spending money. Also, note that unlocking this content with playtime or money will be “À la carte”, you’ll be able to purchase the specific items you want.
4 – Transparency
Since Dead by Daylight will include microtransactions, we want to be very open with our community about the why. Microtransactions will help support all our content development (new maps, new characters, new features, updates, etc.). We believe it’s important to communicate our reasons for this choice before they are available. We want to openly share information with you to keep improving on that solid and trustworthy relationship we have.
IRIDESCENT SHARDS AND AURIC CELLS
Iridescent Shards Update
Starting in June, we are changing how you get Iridescent Shards and expanding what you can unlock with them. We are adding a new “Player account level” which will reward you with Iridescent Shards every time you level up. This will replace the current mechanic. Bloodpoints will still allow you to level up your characters, you’ll need to gain experience points (XP) through normal play to increase your Player account level. Therefore, the cap on Iridescent Shards will be removed.
To balance the Shrine of Secrets in this new economy, the price of teachables will be adjusted to 2000/2700 shards. Keep in mind that even though the price is higher than before, you will be racking up Iridescent Shards faster too. Overall, it should take significantly less time to unlock new and old perks since we want more players to be able to access them.
Of course, if you want to spend your Iridescent Shards on perks before Chapter 8 releases, feel free to do it. If you prefer to keep them, they will not be reset.
Note that from June the 12th to June the 29th, on all platforms, we will close the Shrine of Secrets to prepare for this new economy.
Auric Cells
Auric Cells are the new currency you will be able to purchase from the first party platforms. They will be used to unlock all characters (licensed and non-licensed) as well as used to unlock skins. There are 5 packages of Auric Cells, available in June (500 for 5 USD, 1100 for 10 USD, 2250 for 20 USD, 4025 for 35 USD and 6000 for 50 USD) with the higher value bundles offering a better deal.
Unlockable Characters
Of course, the big question is: What it will take to unlock characters? Each non-licensed character can be unlocked by playing approximately 25-30 hours’ worth of Iridescent Shards. With about 3 months between each chapter, we think that players with average playtime will gather enough Iridescent Shards to unlock both new characters upon their release.
For players who don’t want to wait or prefer to unlock skins with their Iridescent Shards, each character can also be automatically accessed by spending 500 Auric Cells (~5 dollars USD).
DLCs will still be an option. In this case, you’ll get both the killer and the survivor and an extra exclusive skin for a discounted price.
As for licensed characters (David Tapp, Quentin Smith, Laurie Strode, The Pig, The Nightmare, The Cannibal and The Shape), we’d like to offer the same deal, but this is a major change and is being discussed with the license owners. We want to be fully transparent with you: the answer might be negative for some of them. These things take time, a lot of time. It won’t happen before we launch the store.
Cosmetics
With the store, new and awesome cosmetic items for every non-licensed character will be released.
When Chapter 8 releases, we are creating 4 different “tiers” of outfits (common, uncommon, rare, very rare). All the outfits are accessible with Auric Cells and about 80% of them are unlockable with Iridescent Shards. And you always get to buy exactly what you want.
We have so many amazing ideas in the works for Cosmetic options. Stay tuned!
We’re very excited to start Dead by Daylight Year 3 with you and want you to know that the launch of Chapter 8 in June is just the beginning of what we want to do. We believe that this game will have more anniversaries to celebrate, and we’re eager to continue to support the game as the Dead by Daylight community grows.
We’d like to give an early thank you to all the players who will be buying cosmetic items, as this is what will allow us to support our ambitions for the future. Since it’s totally optional, it means a lot to us. We hope that the skins we’ve prepared for your beloved characters will spark joy in your heart the same way it did for us when we first started conceptualizing them.
Thank you also to all the players who continue to engage with our game every day. You give us the strength to push through challenges to keep creating fresh content and improve the players’ experience.
See you in The Fog,
The Dead by Daylight team
