Survivor David King Becomes The First Queer Character In “Dead by Daylight” Game

It took them long enough, but the Dead by Daylight game now includes a canon LGBTQ+ character named David King. More of his backstory will be revealed in the upcoming 11th Tome update.

With north of 50 million global players, Dead by Daylight is an undisputed success. And now the player community has an official queer character to root for (if they wish to do so) via David King. The team behind the game was aware of certain parts of the fanbase wanting queer representation in a game they’re so passionate about. And while some players understandably feel that the team took a bit too long for introducing such kind of inclusion, at least queer rep has officially entered Dead by Daylight.

Available come April 28, 2022, the 11th Tome, titled ‘The Archives: Devotion’, will uncover memories of The Twins as well as David King. The queer character’s backstory will involve his struggle to come to terms with his homosexuality.

Since his debut back in 2017, via ‘Chapter V: A Lullaby for the Dark’, David King has gone on to become a fan-favorite Survivor. According to the press release, he’s present in the Top 10 position as the most-played Survivor. His gameplay mechanic encourages high-risk play for those who wish to be more aggressive in-game.

In ‘Devotion’, David’s memories will take players to a pub where a conversation about romantic relationships will allow David to talk about his personal life, including a past boyfriend.

To ensure they got the queer representation right, the team collaborated with GaymerX, a consulting organization dedicated to providing best practices for the integration of LGBTQIA2+ themes into established games.

“Representation of diversity in entertainment matters, so it was important for us to take time and to surround ourselves with experts in order to do things properly,” shared Dave Richard, Creative Director, Dead by Daylight. “We’re very humbled that Dead by Daylight has developed into a space where players from various communities around the world feel free to be themselves. We’re committed to providing fun and diverse content to our fans, and we thank them for continuously sharing their insight on the themes that resonate with them.” ​

“After working with the Dead by Daylight team over the past year on learning best practices and helping them identify spaces in their existing narratives to integrate LGBTQIA2+ stories, we’re excited to see the first piece of content become available for players,” shared Brian Kunde, GaymerX’s consulting lead and Operations Director.

The upcoming update also brings a new narrative direction for The Archives. While The Observer remains at the center of the storytelling, players will discover that he has abandoned his tower and is nowhere to be found. As players try to figure out what happened to The Observer, they will uncover left-behind recordings providing them access to his memories and stories.

New outfits are also being made available within the Rift. You can unlock The New World Stowaway outfit for the Twins as well as the Night on the Town outfit for David King. The upcoming Tome also has a new and a returning collection.

The Spring Ensembles Collection features the Blooming Delusion Very Rare mix-and-match outfit for The Artist, the Baseball Series Very Rare mix-and-match outfit for Jonah Vasquez as well as the Organic Monstrosity Very Rare mix-and-match outfit for The Blight.

The Urban Art Collection will present players with a new Very Rare outfit for Nea: The Stockholm Art Fest.

From Behaviour Interactive, Dead by Daylight ‘Tome 11: Devotion’ will be available on April 28, 2022, on Steam, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Epic Games Store, Windows Store, Nintendo Switch, and Stadia.

You can read more of our Dead by Daylight coverage here.

What are your thoughts about an already existing character being revealed to be queer? Do you play with David King?

Let us know.

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(via press release)

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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