Mathieu Côté confirms that Jason is not coming to Dead by Daylight
For those who don't know, The King and Paulie Esther hosted an interview with Mathieu Côté recently. The King does this annually to celebrate his birthday -- so a big happy birthday to him and a big thank you to Paulie Esther and Mathieu Côté as well.
I'm a big fan of these style of interviews as they're a great opportunity to get some information from behind the scenes, and they're probably the closest thing we've got to the old developer streams BHVR used to host every week (those of you who've been around for a while will remember them!).
As part of the interview, the topic of getting Jason Vorhees in Dead by Daylight was brought up, and Mathieu Côté had this to say:
"I mean the game [Friday the 13th: The Game] lost the license. This one is a legal quagmire. It's literally a tarpit that you don't want to put your finger in it 'cause you're gonna get sucked in. [...] If we had a good way in, we'd probably take a shot, because it's Jason, right. But so far there's been no opportunities. It's just too complicated and every other week someone comes out of the woodwork and says 'No, no no, it's actually MY license!' and everything goes to hell again."
You can watch The King's video on the topic here.
Personally, I don't find this surprising. As a fan of the F13 franchise, I followed the legal troubles quite closely and even now that it's resolved (sort of), the situation has always been (at least in my opinion) far too delicate for any possible collaboration with DbD.
I've seen a lot of people speculating about what the next Chapter is going to be -- Jason being a popular theory. But this essentially confirms that isn't the case, and we won't be getting a F13 chapter for the forseeable future.
Comments
-
Disappointing, but understandable. Thanks for sharing
16 -
A shame, but not at all unexpected, I suppose.
Damn they had a real good opportunity to tease it on friday the 13th too. Ah well
3 -
Well. Maybe it’s Jason’s mother then and they have the license only for the first movie? 🤪 (which would include Camp Crystal Lake and I have never seen the movie but I assume it would make sense to not have a survivor in this case?)
the stream is scheduled for a Friday 13th after all..
but yeah the stream might actually just be about the Halloween event and maybe other stuff outside of next chapter anyways.
0 -
a real good opportunity to tease it on friday the 13th too
It would've been awesome. Alas it's not to be.
2 -
Maybe it’s Jason’s mother then
I would actually much prefer to get Pamela over Jason. The first movie was by far the best and I think Pamela was a much more compelling villain than Jason was. As the series went on, it felt like he just became more and more of a caricature of himself, and the plot kind of went off the rails.
I assume it would make sense to not have a survivor in this case
Alice could be a candidate, given her role in the movie. But honestly, yeah, none of the counsellors are particularly fleshed out in the first entry. If they ever did a F13 chapter, I could see them skipping a survivor.
1 -
Even a fringe knowledge of the legal troubles of Friday The 13th indicates this would be impossible.
Very sad to see adult Jason die completely as a character.
It's hard to be excited for a F13 series when its a prequel series about curses surrounding Camp Crystal Lake. Has Halloween 3 vibes, totally unrelated to anything we've grown attached to the franchsie for. The fact Pamela ends up totally dead, and any attempt at bringing in a Jason is a poisoned chalice from the get go makes it a "why should I care?" kind of deal for me... 😮💨
4 -
I thought the legal quagmire of ownership for Jason was settled? The two guys share rights now and basically have to agree on anything that would include Jason. But they’re making a new film together or something, and have stated jointly and separately they’re ok with Jason appearing in some other forms of media (games) b/c it’s more money for them.
1 -
Thank you for sharing this info! Imo it's always best to get a straight up "Yes/No" answer like this to these types of questions compared to being hopeful for a possibility for years just to be heartbroken in the end.
Rest in Peace Jason lovers.🙏
3 -
Bubba and Hillbilly can coexist and are way more similar than Trapper and Jason. Jason has plenty of source material to create an interesting and unique power upon and he is just the most recognizable Slasher.
The ownership may be split but Jason -as in the grown up ice hockey mask machete wielding one- is pretty much owned by one party along with any newer movies I think while the original movie with Pamela as killer, Camp Crystal Lake, Jason’s backstory are owned by the other one.
afaik those two will never work together and thus you can only have one of these.
at least that’s how I understood it. May be wrong on some details..
1 -
Really disappointing to hear as Jason is probably the biggest character missing.
But I do appreciate them telling us that he’s not happening rather than never acknowledge it so that people don’t keep getting their hopes up.
1 -
They're not doing anything together. One owns the adult Jason with a mask, the other owns the story of the first film.
Cunningham is making a movie on his own and I believe Miller is doing the Crystal Lake TV Show coming soon.
0 -
meh who cares, we got trapper already
0 -
I agree. I really appreciate Côté's transparency about this. It's very refreshing given that a lot of recent developer communications have just been vague non-answers.
2 -
at least that’s how I understood it. May be wrong on some details.
Yeah, you're correct. Just did a bunch of reading about it and from what I gather:
- Party 1 owns the rights to the original script (including child Jason, Pamela, Camp Crystal Lake etc.) but only in the USA. They do not hold international rights, and so if they wanted to use any of those assets, they could only distribute them in the USA.
- Party 2 owns the rights to the sequels, including adult hockey mask Jason, but they cannot use him without permission from Party 1.
So any new Friday the 13th content (at least in the form we know and love) is stuck at a standstill unless both parties decide to cooperate. Given that they just spent years battling it out in court and are known to have different creative ideas about the franchise, I find the chances of them coming together to do anything unlikely.
Post edited by OnryosTapeRentals on1 -
I'm just passing on the news since not everyone watches DbD content creators 🤷
1 -
I don't care I have michael myers who I always liked better.
1 -
Its what this game needs to boost players tho. Imagine finally getting Jason. All the old f13 players would flood in.
0 -
I don't think DbD needs Jason. Sure, it would great to have him, but I think we'll manage without.
Either way, it's out of BHVR's hands unfortunately.
1 -
We'll get Jason eventually. By that time, everyone may have forgotten who he is, but it'll happen.
1 -
Perhaps. But I'm not going to hold my breath.
/lh
1 -
MC didn’t “confirm” anything.
He reiterated, yet again, what we’ve all known for years, now, and good ol’ King decided to put a thumbnail of JV with a big X thru his pic and say he isn’t coming to the game... the only truth to which, being that indeed, STILL, not anytime soon. King didn’t mean never, and he knows. He and Paulie have been speculating for years, every chapter, and it’s a running game (literally, making bets w silly wagers) between the two who would rightly guess JV first. They know it’s still a possibility.
Nothing of what MC said even leaned toward him “never” coming to DBD.
“”I mean, the game (F13th) lost the license to the game, right; this one is a legal quagmire, it’s literally a tarpit, you don’t wanna put your finger in it ‘cause you’re gonna get sucked in. Even that we had a good way ‘in’ we’d probably take a shot, because it’s Jason, right!? It’s Jason!
But so far, there’s been no opportunities.
There are others on the list who have similar answers as to why they’re not in the game yet.””
~Mathieu Côté
They’ve said the same thing for years.
No one said “never.”
JV to DBD is always a possibility until they say it absolutely isn’t.
1 -
I was being sarcastic
0 -
But I didn’t say “never”.
I specifically said that next chapter won’t be F13 (since there’s been a lot of speculation for it recently) and we won’t see F13 in DbD for the “forseeable future.” Which is true.
DbD chapters take ~12 months to make. Côté confirmed that they haven’t been able to acquire the license. Which means that the very earliest we could see a F13 Chapter is a ~year away. (Assuming they manage to get the license tomorrow, which will most assuredly not be the case).
No one said “never.”
Um. Yeah. Correct. Which is why I don’t understand the point you’re making.
3 -
I called years ago, and im calling it again.
0 -
Only a few of the movies are actually enjoyable, idk i didnt care for jason anyways
0 -
Depressing, unsurprising, but also possibly a total misdirect.
1 -
"A few" is already a lot. Pinhead only has one good movie and one okayish one.
0 -
No you’re right, they share different things. But I remember one or both of them saying while they don’t like that they have to work together, they’re going to do it because they want to profit (paraphrasing). Then they mentioned a film in the works and how they were wanting to get Jason in some other stuff.
0
