Behaviour Interactive Inc. is a Canadian video game development studio specializing in the production of 2D and 3D
action/adventure games for
home video game console
A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. Home consoles are generally less powerful and customizable than ...
s,
handheld game console
A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the cons ...
s,
PCs and
mobile
Mobile may refer to:
Places
* Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city
* Mobile County, Alabama
* Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S.
* Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Mobile ( ...
. Based in
Montreal, Canada
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...
, the company is the producer and publisher of the action-horror game, ''
Dead by Daylight
''Dead by Daylight'' is an asymmetric multiplayer survival horror online game developed by Canadian studio Behaviour Interactive. It is a one-versus-four game in which one player takes on the role of a savage Killer and the other four play as Su ...
''.
History
The company was founded in 1992 in
Quebec City
Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...
as Megatoon. Two years later, the company’s current CEO and Executive Producer, Rémi Racine, co-founded the Montreal-based Multimedia Interactive (MMI) to develop interactive entertainment software for
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
.
Both companies were sold to
Malofilm Communications in 1996, and a year later, they were merged into Behaviour Interactive with Racine as General Manager.
In 1997, the studio released
Jersey Devil
In South Jersey and Philadelphia folklore in the United States, the Jersey Devil (also known as the Leeds Devil) is a legendary creature said to inhabit the forest of Pine Barrens in South Jersey. The creature is often described as a flying bipe ...
on Playstation and later Windows. The 3D platformer was the first console game made entirely in Quebec. Distributed by Sony, Jersey Devil caught the eye of
Infogrames Entertainment
Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive. Be ...
, which approached Behaviour to produce what would become
Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time, released in 1999.
Artificial Mind & Movement era
In 1999, Racine and some investors bought the studio back, but they had to rename it, changing the name in 2000 to Artificial Mind & Movement Inc. (A2M).
As A2M, the studio continued its work-for-hire projects, producing
titles
A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...
for clients including Konami, Sony Computer Entertainment, Ubisoft, Disney Interactive Studios, Nintendo, EA and Activision. In November 2008, the company acquired
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
-based
Wanako Games
Behaviour Interactive Chile Ltda. (Behaviour Santiago; formerly Wanako Games Chile Ltda.) was a Chilean video game developer based in Santiago. The company was founded as Wanako Games in 2002, by Esteban Sosnik, Tiburcio de la Cárcova, Santia ...
from
Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. It was founded in July 2008 through the merger of Activision, Inc. (the publicly traded parent company of Activision Publishing) and Vivendi ...
, which was the first and largest South American game studio.
As A2M, the studio maintained its focus on producing original titles, releasing
Scaler (2004),
WET (2009) and
Naughty Bear
''Naughty Bear'' is an action-adventure video game released in 2010 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and iOS. Players control the eponymous bear as they use various things to earn "Naughty Points", with extra points being given for random missions ...
(2010). This last title had more than 800,000 console-unit sales and laid the groundwork for the studio’s 2016 breakthrough original game,
Dead by Daylight
''Dead by Daylight'' is an asymmetric multiplayer survival horror online game developed by Canadian studio Behaviour Interactive. It is a one-versus-four game in which one player takes on the role of a savage Killer and the other four play as Su ...
.
2nd Behaviour Interactive era
On November 8, 2010, Artificial Mind & Movement announced its name was returning to Behaviour Interactive. The change was partly due to increased production of original titles and thus stronger presence in the gaming community, partly due to the availability of the original name, and partly due to
one particular obscene interpretation of the initialism "A2M".
The studio has maintained its work-for-hire services with major clients while continuing to invest in original games. In 2016, Behaviour released
Dead by Daylight
''Dead by Daylight'' is an asymmetric multiplayer survival horror online game developed by Canadian studio Behaviour Interactive. It is a one-versus-four game in which one player takes on the role of a savage Killer and the other four play as Su ...
, a multiplayer survival action horror game published by Sweden’s
Starbreeze. Dead by Daylight sold more than 1 million copies in its first two months and now has more than 50 million players worldwide. In 2018, Behaviour purchased the game’s publishing rights from Starbreeze for USD $16 million. Thanks in large part to the game’s success, Behaviour has seen its revenues grow from CAD $25 million in 2015 to CAD $225 million in 2021.
In April 2022, Behaviour announced the opening of a new office in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. The studio said the office will accommodate at least 50 employees working on projects across Behaviour’s three business units.
In May 2022, it was announced Behaviour Interactive had acquired the
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
-based game development studio, Midwinter Entertainment.
Behaviour’s next major original release, ''Meet Your Maker'', is due for release in April 2023 on PC, PlayStation 4/5, and Xbox One, Series X/S. The game is billed as a "post-apocalyptic first-person building-and-raiding game where every level is designed by players for players."
In the summer of 2022, Behaviour released ''Hooked on You'', a dating sim spinoff from the ''Dead by Daylight'' franchise, and the melee brawler ''Flippin Misfits''. Both games were revealed alongside ''Meet Your Maker'' at the first-ever Behaviour Beyond showcase of new and upcoming releases broadcast in August 2022.
Business Units
Behaviour’s operations are divided into three business units – Studios, Digital and Business Solutions. Its Studios unit provides work-for-hire development services to major video game and entertainment industry brands such as Disney, Sony, Activision, Warner Bros., Ubisoft, HBO and Nintendo. Its Digital unit produces Behaviour’s original content including Dead by Daylight. Behaviour’s Business Solutions unit applies game technology to business ends for corporate clients such as
Bombardier,
CAE and
CN Rail
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...
.
Abolition of Crunch Time
Behaviour Interactive made headlines as one of the first video game studios to abolish
crunch time, a controversial yet widespread practice in the video game industry that requires employees to work longer hours, often unpaid, to meet project milestones. The policy helped Behaviour earn its designation as one of Canada’s Best Workplaces by
gamesindustry.biz
Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and other ...
in 2018 and again in 2021.
Titles
as Artificial Mind & Movement
as Behaviour Interactive
Bethesda infringement lawsuit
On June 21, 2018,
Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a division of Media Technology Limited, and in 1999 became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media. In its ...
sued
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE; also known as Warner Bros. Games or WB Games) is an American video game publisher based in Burbank, California, and part of the newly-formed Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment unit of ...
and Behaviour Interactive over ''Westworld'', a mobile game based on the science fiction television series ''
Westworld
''Westworld'' is an American science fiction-thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populate ...
'', alleging that the game is a "blatant rip-off" of ''
Fallout Shelter
A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designated to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War.
During ...
'', another mobile game, co-developed by Behaviour.
In a suit filed in a
United States District Court for the District of Maryland
The United States District Court for the District of Maryland (in case citations, D. Md.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Maryland. Appeals from the District of Maryland are taken to the United States Court of ...
, Bethesda alleges that ''Westworld'' "has the same or highly similar game design, art style, animations, features and other gameplay elements" as ''Fallout Shelter''. Bethesda sued for copyright infringement, breach of contract and misappropriating trade secrets, seeking a jury trial and damages. The lawsuit also alleged that ''Westworld'' identically reproduced some
software bug
A software bug is an error, flaw or fault in the design, development, or operation of computer software that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways. The process of finding and correcting bugs i ...
s that were originally present in ''Fallout Shelter''. The lawsuit was settled in January 2019 on friendly terms.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Companies based in Montreal
Canadian companies established in 1992
Video game companies established in 1992
1992 establishments in Quebec
Video game companies of Canada
Video game development companies
Privately held companies of Canada