Behaviour Interactive is Yet Another Game Development Company Hit With Mass Layoffs in 2026 Highlighting the Growing Problems Within the Gaming Industry
Since last year, the gaming industry has seen some rough times, from spikes in prices of gaming hardware to mass layoffs at dozens of game development companies, and it seems the bad luck isn’t stopping any time soon. Recently, it’s been reported by Dead by Daylight development studio Behaviour Interactive that the company had issued an unknown number of layoffs on Wednesday, April 22. Here’s all we know about the developing story and what Behaviour Interactive has said about the situation.
Behaviour Interactive Layoffs
As of yesterday, Behaviour Interactive, the developers behind the hit game Dead by Daylight, announced and confirmed that they had laid off an unknown number of employees. The game developer studio has yet to confirm the exact number of employees affected by the layoffs; however, they have confirmed that most, if not all, of the affected employees were reportedly targeted towards the Dead by Daylight studio’s mobile and casual external development departments.
Behaviour Interactive becomes yet another game development studio affected by the incredible downturn in the gaming industry, with many external factors influencing these outcomes. The past few years have proven difficult for the gaming industry, with major companies like Sony, Epic Games, Microsoft, and Ubisoft reporting mass layoffs, with thousands of job losses from all these companies combined, reported just this year. Epic Games reported the largest round of mass layoffs a couple of months ago, letting go of more than 1,000 employees in March.
Not only that, prices for hardware have skyrocketed in the last year, with prices for RAM or memory chips doubling or tripling in 2025 due to the massive demand in AI. More recently, Intel announced another price increase in CPU hardware, expected to happen next month, which will be the third price increase just this year. Moreover, Sony has announced a massive price increase in all PS5 consoles. If you’re looking to invest in the gaming industry at all, whether it be purchasing hardware or looking for a career in the industry, you might want to wait until things have calmed down.
Company Statement
As I’ve stated before, Behaviour Interactive has yet to announce the exact number of employees that have been affected by the layoffs, and the layoffs are particularly focused on the company’s mobile and casual external development projects, suggesting that this personnel change won’t impact work on Dead by Daylight or any of Behaviour Interactive’s other major titles. However, once news broke out over the incident, a spokesperson for Behaviour Interactive issued an official statement:
“A portion of Behaviour Interactive’s business has traditionally focused on external development partnerships. In recent months, demand for mobile and casual external development projects has declined.
As we conclude our remaining engagements and do not foresee comparable opportunities in the near term, we have made the decision to part ways with some colleagues. Those decisions are never easy, and we are grateful for the contributions of the affected employees, who have helped shape Behaviour and support our partners over the years.”
According to their website, Behaviour Interactive employs over 1,200 employees all over the world, with its main headquarters located in Montreal. We should expect more clarification on the exact number of employees who have been laid off; however, Behaviour Interactive is the latest game development company to join the long and ever-growing list of companies issuing mass layoffs in recent months. In 2026 alone, there have been at least 12 major instances of video game industry layoffs, and we’ve only just entered Q2 of 2026. This doesn’t bode well for the gaming industry; however, we can only hope the storm will pass soon.
