Behaviour Interactive is under fire for supporting VTuber TheBurntPeanut following a Halloween stream. Many community members dislike the controversial streamer due to repeated accusations of offensive behavior, alleged viewbotting, and the use of racial and homophobic slurs. This caused dozens of players to uninstall Dead by Daylight and voice their discontent on social media. Behaviour Interactive is doing damage control and has issued a statement addressing the matter.
TheBurntPeanut is one of the most popular streamers on Twitch right now. To celebrate Halloween, he played Dead by Daylight, an online multiplayer game featuring several horror icons, for the first time. The official Dead by Daylight account tuned into the stream and granted the streamer all paid DLC packs. TheBurntPeanut is a rather divisive streamer in the gaming community, which is why this sparked such a heated discussion online. When the streamer apparently refused the gift, citing the controversy that would follow, the DeadbyDaylight Twitch account answered with “We can take the heat!”
Behaviour Interactive responds to TheBurntPeanut controversy in official statement
According to the statement, Behaviour Interactive gifted free items to TheBurntPeanut after noticing a “very large” audience tuning into a Dead by Daylight stream to watch someone who had never played the game before. The post explains that even though it is not unusual for the dev team to grant content creators in-game content to help promote Dead by Daylight to a new audience, it failed to do its due diligence, analyze the streamer’s past content, and verify whether he represented the team’s values.
The content has now been removed from TheBurntPeanut’s account. Approval methods for granting free content are being reviewed and updated to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. Behaviour Interactive underlines that it values respect and diversity. Its goal is for Dead by Daylight to be a welcoming space where players feel safe being themselves.
According to the official statement, the choice to gift the items was hastily made by an unnamed member of the team rather than being pondered and discussed by the team as a group. Behaviour Interactive promises that action will be taken internally against those involved, but no further details will be shared, as it is a confidential matter. Despite the company’s attempt to make amends with the community, the comments section was filled with angry fans. Many players felt that its justification was lacking, and the consequences felt minimal for the disorderly team.