August Updates and Revised Timelines

August Updates and Revised Timelines

August Updates and Revised Timelines

Greetings friends, and welcome to another monthly update!

 

This month, we have some updates on the production status and delivery estimates for the game. 

 

Long story short: the complex miniatures in the game took a bit longer than expected (and multiple review passes) to get perfect. So we're now projecting delivery closer to March 2023. In the meantime, we'll continue to keep you updated here each month while production is ongoing.

 

What happened?

If you've been following the updates month-by-month, you will have seen that things haven't quite kept to the timetable we laid out in April. Most notably, sculpting for the complex Killers in the Collector's Edition took a fair bit longer than expected (as seen in our May update). Our sculptor was also affected by the war in Ukraine while working to finish up those pieces.

 

After the sculpts were complete, they had to go through our approval process, where we review both digital and physical samples, which are produced and mailed to us. Behaviour also carefully reviewed and approved the miniatures. These reviews involved a couple revisions, but it's really critical to take things slow and get it all perfect at this stage.

 

A high-end 3D-printed prototype from the factory. This is the closest we'll see to the final miniatures before the tooling begins. Not everyone is in this shot, but fear not, we did receive and approve samples of everyone.

 

We knew that getting every detail right would cost us in terms of the delivery date, but until we got through miniature approvals, it was unclear what the new timeline would look like. The factory has finally calculated a new timeline and given us a completion date of December 21st for the Collector's Edition. The Retail Edition has been in production (as previously reported), and will be completed closer to schedule, on October 10th*.

 

* Although the retail editions will be finished a few months before Collector's Edition, all games will ship together next year.

 

After this, we will still have to approve the factory first (the first copy off of the line) for both editions of the game. It's rare for something to still require changes at that step, but it does take us two weeks to get the proof, thoroughly check it, and then start initiating ocean freight.

 

In light of all this, we expect delivery around the world to start in earnest around February 2023, with most games arriving on doorsteps in March and April, depending on courier times and any potential ocean freight delays.

 

We know it's not fun to read about timeline adjustments. However it is critical that we do all the necessary checks in order to get everything right and ensure that your games will be worthy of the Dead by Daylight™ brand and of a place on your shelf. A delay lasts a few months, but a great game is something you can treasure for decades to come, and that's what we're here to make. 

 

I'm extremely proud of the game that the team has put together, and I can't wait to share it with you as soon as we can.

 

So TL;DR as for where we are right now:

  • Retail editions are in-production, and we expect to review a factory first in October.
  • Tooling is beginning for the Collector's Edition Killer Miniatures (this is the process where the molds are made so that minis can be mass produced).
  • All paper components for the Collector's Edition are approved and ready to print, as soon as the miniature tooling is done. We should have the factory first of the Collector's Edition in late December.

 

Thanks for your patience on the project, and we look forward to sharing more updates with you next month.