http://dbd.game/killswitch
The reasonably why Myers is never changed is (probably) legal/contractual
We all ask the question - why is Myers never, ever changed despite: (i) being rendered (outside the tombstone piece context) as extremely weak by power creep, and (ii) having an addon that - on any other killer - would have been nerfed in year 1 or 2 at the latest?
The DBD wiki states that Myers has not received an actual balance change since 2020 - and that was relatively minor (removing ability to stalk within Evil Within III). There were minor changes in October 2019 and July 2018, and for MAJOR changes you have to go all the way back to October 2016 (hotfixes days after he launched).
As a corporate/contract lawyer, here is my theory on the nearly unprecedented inaction (and this is pure guessing, although I think it is a reasonable hypothesis):
(1) Holders of lucrative third party IP - like the Halloween franchise - take their IP very very seriously. Any contract will be time limited (you can't risk a perpetual license), and have limitations on what the developer can do so that the value of that IP is not degraded. For example, even if Behaviour wanted Michael Myers to appear in the game completely nude, the creators wouldn't like that.
(2) Myers was the very earliest third party IP. Behaviour - before knowing that had a hit on their hands - probably used some general corporate lawyer (who helps them file incorporation paperwork, etc.) to negotiate the IP license agreement. The agreement was loosely worded in a way that allows the Myers rights holders to veto balance changes. Behaviour had less leverage than the rightsholder during negotiations - since the game was nearly unknown and not yet very popular.
(3) As the franchise grew, Behaviour found a better (IP-dedicated) contract lawyer who made sure that they don't need to run back to the rightsholders for every balance change.
Additionally, leverage in the contract negotiation process shifted - now rightsholders WANT their killers in DBD, instead of being semi-reluctantly dragged into it. This is why later third party killers (Sadako, etc.) can be reworked every other patch.
TLDR: The IP license agreements got better after Myers, but Behaviour is still locked into a Myers contract it would never sign today.
Comments
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They just said Myers will get changes, so i doubt that's the reason.
Is Twins have legal reasons too? Or Blight? Twins changes took ages to finish and they are still working on it. Blight got changes after 3 years.
So again, i doubt that's the reason. Probably Myers issues was not that important for them, they are working more important stuffs first.
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It's not a contract issue. We already know that they reserve game balance changes as their right in the license agreement because of the stranger things license.
They literally lost the right to continue selling the stranger things content for a couple years, but retained the ability to change the game mechanics and balance of the perks and Demo.
For another example, all of the reworks for Onryo are up to BHVR. They don't have to get approval for balance changes with the license holder. Only if they changed the visual look of the character or the animations.
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They… announced he was on ✨the list✨ like half a year ago now.
That’s just not true.
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As others have said, BHVR has "full" control overe the gameplay-part of a character. I write "full" because even if they can change anything related to gameplay, they can obviously not change Myers in a way that he is not true to his character anymore. E.g. you cannot suddenely make Myers pull people into a Dreamworld or let him do things which are too out of character, because in the end, it should still resemble Michael Myers.
They are just slow with changes. Myers and his Add Ons are an outdated design since forever and there should have been some changes ages ago IMO.
But it would be really bad if BHVR would not have the rights to change the balance of a character. Imagine if they by accident create a licensed Killer who is either completely OP or way too weak or just unbearable (like Skull Merchant or old Legion), and they would not be allowed to change it. Extreme example, but this shows that they cannot really afford to lose control over the gameplay-part of a character.
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This is not how it works. Even when Netflix pulled out and Demogorgon was technically no longer available, they were still allowed to make changes to him. I doubt they would even consider getting a license otherwise. Imagine, if every change first had to be approved by the license holders. With the amount of licensed characters in DBD, this would become quite an issue. They'd have to constantly ask for approval, which is a hassle for both parties and would take forever.
Also, Myers has been announced to receive some changes in the future.
To be fair, we have no idea, how long they have actually been working on the Twins rework. My guess is that it was paused somewhere along the road. I mean, Skull Merchant got 2 reworks in 8 months.
The Twins rework was announced almost 2 years ago. There is no way, they'd take that long on a single rework. In that time they could design a completely new chapter from the ground up. Twice.
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The problem with Myers, is how to balance him properly.
They want him to keep the instakill, which fits his design amazingly (they could still nerf tombstone piece).
They think his basekit is fine (they could revert the bloodlust in T1, and if a survivor with stalk remaining dies, that stalk should be spread over the remaining survivors, and on top of that make Jewelry and Boyfriends Memo basekit)
Then, what I think they need to do besides that, is give him an addon pass. His pink addons are fine, all his purple addons need a revisit (t1 myers needs to buff what t1 can do, t2 myers should reduce the red light, tombstone piece needs the requirement of old Mori's to hook survivors at least once before being able to murder them, and the duration addon can be swapped for one that increases vault speed and lunge range in t3, making that the "t4" addon). His green addons are mostly fine, assuming Jewelry is made basekit. Yellow addons, same thing, except for Glass Fragment, that one should be merged with Scratched Mirror or be entirely replaced, his brown addons tho, all of them can be replaced/buffed.
Then lets talk about his t3 duration addons. Even if you disperse stalk from dead survivors to the ones still in the game, they are extremely scewed. The green one is really good, the yellow one is mediocre, the grey one is only better than the purple one because the purple one costs a ton extra. Its never a good idea to run more than 1, and if you do, its never worth to use Purple or Brown. Myers just needs the green and the yellow one, with the Yellow one adding 25% and the green one adding 50%.
Then, his basekit vaultspeed increases, I genuinely feel like it can recieve a tiny buff. With Wesker being able to dash towards people, basically capable of instadowning AND vaulting windows at similar speeds, Myers deserves his window-vaulting niche to be the best of the best. Survivors should fear windows around a Myers the way they should fear pallets around a Nurse.
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I don't think so. Behavior was able to do a completely redone Haddonfield map so I can't imagine balance changes would be an issue.
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