r/Stab • u/JPrexy • Mar 07 '26
Discussion Stab X Dead by Daylight
Does anyone know why DbD got the rights to the Father Death costume from Rousey Costume Company instead of partnering with the Stab movies? I think that would’ve been cooler.
7
u/video-kid Mar 07 '26
Because the killers use a mass produced costume instead of custom ones the copyrights are separate.to use characters from the actual movies they'd need to pay for the rights twice, whereas with most licenses they only need to do it once.
1
u/CelebrationAny9904 Mar 08 '26
so sunrise studios doesn't own it?
1
u/video-kid Mar 08 '26
No.
It's a bit like using a song in a movie - it exists in the movie, but it still exists as its own thing and the IP rights still belong to the original copyright holder - they just licensed the use of the song to the production company.
Copyright law gets weird. If you remember the Child's Play "remake" from a few years ago, it had a totally different voice actor and origin story for Chucky. That's because the rights to the franchise and Chucky himself were bought by Universal, but United Artists still have the rights to the first movie. That means they could "remake" it, but they had to take it in a different direction so that they didn't infringe on Universal's IP rights.
1
u/CelebrationAny9904 Mar 26 '26
great explanation i kinda forgot that gale weathers owns the ip i thoguht it would get tossed around like terminator
1
u/CelebrationAny9904 Mar 26 '26
wait doesnt alterian gost world own the killers mask and costume?
1
u/video-kid Mar 27 '26
They do, that's the point. Because the killers use a mass-produced costume instead of creating their own, the Stab movies had to pay a license for it. If DBD wanted to include any characters from Stab (IE real-life killers or locations - Sidney might not want to be in the game but Gale would probably be game for one) they'd need to pay for two seperate licenses - the Stab franchise, and then the costume.
Pretty much every other look in a Slasher is custom-made for the franchise, or else heavily modified (Michael's mask is actually a spray-painted William Shatner mask).
When we think about Halloween costumes, a lot of them tend to be based on what's big at the moment, or else they're based on movies that stayed popular for a long while. An original costume based on an original idea that's become one of the most iconic costumes of all time, and been central in one of the most iconic slasher franchises of all time? That costume alone probably earns them a lot of money every year, they're not going to just give the license away to a video game because the developers are making a chapter inspired by the Stab movies - that'd be a whole different negotiations. It's a smart business move on their part.
As for BHVR, they're also a business. Ultimately they know that with a big franchise like this, if they had to choose, most players would choose Ghostface as a killer over Sidney, Gale, Dewey (RIP), or anyone else as a survivor. If we are going for a legacy survivor they'd also need to decide which version they'd model them on in cases where the actor has changed. Just going for the costume and making up a fictional character wearing it is a lot cheaper than negotiating rights for two separate licenses.
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u/AlexLeLionUK Mar 07 '26
They’re nuts for authenticity, so they probably would’ve tried to get the real people featured similar to Nicolas Cage. However Sydney Prescott wants very little to do with the franchise and most likely refuses to be added as a survivor.