While most gamers are familiar with Behaviour Interactive for their hit game Dead by Daylight (now featuring Nicholas Cage himself as one of the playable characters), the 30-year-old studio, the largest based in Canada, has a long history in the work-for-hire side of the gaming industry.
The studio has been on an expansion streak that continues today with the announcement of a new opening in the south of the United Kingdom. Based in Truro, Cornwall, the new Behaviour UK – South studio is largely composed of former developers of Antimatter Games. The studio, primarily known for Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, was working on the tactical first-person stealth game IGI Origins and the Cold War military shooter ’83. However, parent company Enad Global 7 abruptly closed Antimatter down in late May.
Luckily, most of the team has already found employment at Behaviour UK – South, where they will work on external development. We spoke about that and a lot more with Wayne Meazza, Executive Vice President of Behaviour’s Services division.
Wayne, can you present yourself to our readers?
I’m the executive vice president of Behaviour. I’m responsible for our service business. We have two lines of business; one is called Behaviour Digital, and mine is called Behaviour Studio. this expansion we’re talking about today is for my studio.
You deal with external development, right?
Yes. Basically, we make games for others, whether that’s investment partners or publishers or other developers. And just to frame that in a little bit more, we make PC/console/mobile games for development and also co-development.
Can you discuss this specific opportunity that came about with Antimatter?
Yeah, absolutely. As soon as we heard the news that Antimatter was closing, we jumped into action to see if there could be a fit with Behaviour. Through the discussions with the leadership of Antimatter and their employees, we found that it was a really good fit in terms of the collaborative nature and an excellent fit in terms of their first-person shooter experience.
We have a lot of it, but it’s always good to have more. And, you know, what a beautiful place in the southwest of England to have a new Behaviour studio. All of the stars kind of lined up perfectly, and we’re happy to announce that we now have not only a UK North studio but a UK South studio as well.
Can you share whether all of the former employees of Antimatter will transition to the new studio?
Great question. I would say most are joining Behaviour UK South. Not everyone, because some may have already found different opportunities, but most of them. We’re talking around, I don’t know, approximately 90%, so they’re gonna be the bulk of the studio on day one. Plus, of course, some other candidates that we’ve also been interviewing and are interested in joining.
Good to hear. Can you discuss your plans for this new studio?
It’s a very similar message to our UK North studio. We do plan to expand. To us, it’s all about the talent and opportunity. Beyond the initial setup, over the medium and long term, of course we’d like to expand and grow, and we really feel that having two offices in the UK allows people to decide where they want to work so that they now have the beautiful southwest coast of the UK and also the northeast of the UK, a nice, vibrant, and busy town that has an excellent tech hub.
If you’re looking to join Behaviour, you’ve got options now beyond our Montreal headquarters, our subsidiary in Toronto. We now have a couple of different places in the UK for the awesome UK talent to come and join us. But also throughout Europe and the rest of the world,
Do you have a ballpark for how large you want the studio to be in the foreseeable future?
Yeah. I don’t want to set a specific target. I think it’s all about the amount of talent that wants to join us. But we can easily foresee in the years ahead to be in excess of 100 people.
Do you already have a project in mind for them?
So, because they’re joining the studio’s family or the studio group – we don’t like to call it family – the studio’s group, they’ll be working on multiple different projects. Of course, due to the confidential nature of video game development, I can’t reveal any of those today, but all of the new members of the team are aware of what they will be working on, and they seem very excited about the opportunities that we’re giving them.
Just to be clear, they will be working alongside the other Behaviour studios. Correct?
One of the most important things to us is the employees’ passion, to check what they want to do. If we can find a fit for them and for their skill set, we do that. We don’t want to pigeonhole each kind of studio into buckets of expertise. We prefer to allow our employees to work on what we call internal mobility, so they can work on whatever project that they are passionate about and they have the right skillset for.
I don’t know if you can say anything about the work policy for Behaviour UK South and for your other studios as well.
Behaviour established very early on during the pandemic crisis a flexible working policy. This applies to all of our studios, no matter what their location is.
I guess that means they can work either remotely or full time in the office, right?
Absolutely. Remote, hybrid, full time in the office. It’s our employees’ choice. We really feel like it’s the best situation for everyone. Obviously, we’re in a creative industry, and we employ a creative group of people, but we know how to manage the whole part of working remotely and collaborating with each other. It’s a really good opportunity for people to join no matter where they are.
Are there some career openings already available for Behaviour UK South?
Absolutely! I do encourage everyone that’s interested in the job opportunities to head to this URL where you’ll see all the postings, whether they are global or local or whatever.
Behaviour has grown a lot in the past year, acquiring studios in Toronto, Seattle, and now two UK offices as well. Do you plan to expand even further in other places across the world?
A great question. I think at the end of the day, it’s all about cultural affinity, so we’re always open to seeing where and when it makes sense. We’ll keep you posted If there’s a further announcement to make, but certainly, one thing that’s really clear is that Behaviour is on strategic growth.
It would be foolish for us to say that there are no further expansion plans because we’re always on the lookout for other areas to expand.
Alright. Do you have anything else that you’d like to share today?
It’s just a really exciting time to be part of Behaviour. We continue to expand, we continue to grow, and we really look forward to meeting new UK talents. We’re kind of like the new kids on the block in the UK. Check us out, take a look.
Thank you for your time.
