Behaviour Interactive will remove specific cosmetics following widespread reports of racist harassment in Dead By Daylight.
The Cannibal, better known as Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is one of Dead By Daylight’s many playable killers. Like in the 1974 film, Leatherface can wear the faces of his victims as a cosmetic, or at least he can with the original four survivor characters after completing specific challenges. One of these survivors is an African American woman named Claudette Morel.
Many Dead by Daylight community members have been outspoken about this particular cosmetic as it closely resembles blackface, and many African American players allegedly experience racist harassment from Leatherface players wearing this cosmetic.
Now, developer Behaviour Interactive is addressing the problem in an update.
“Members of the community have shared their experiences with people targeting and harassing them while using some of these masks, Behaviour Interactive said in a statement. “These reports were disheartening to hear, and we absolutely condemn this behaviour. We are not comfortable having these masks in the game when they are used as a tool to spread hate. To that end, we will be removing The Cannibal’s unlockable faces in this upcoming Mid-Chapter.”
REALLY glad we're finally addressing this. https://t.co/Xt0nUCet2i pic.twitter.com/Y2EFU6KCwf
— StefanieGD💀 (@Spac3Gh0s7_) January 4, 2022
Most Dead by Daylight fans are pretty happy about the removal of these cosmetics.
THANK YOU for removing the blackface leatherface mask. 🙏🏼💓💓💓 pic.twitter.com/pJdtbrwzET
— 👹✨demi✨👹 (@demimenace) January 4, 2022
Holy shit. @DeadByBHVR is removing the Leatherface unlockable faces. Aka no more blackface Bubba.
Great news. https://t.co/qYwTewhpH6 pic.twitter.com/jxW9EI5CHJ
— Kay 🌙 (@kayluckydog) January 4, 2022
Wow, they're finally removing blackface Leatherface! I didn't think they were actually gonna do it. I'm glad https://t.co/GIK7652psp
— Jo-Jo 💔 (@KingOfMonsters) January 4, 2022
There’s no date on when this update will go live, but it should be within the next few weeks or so.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.
