Dream Star Announces Dead by Daylight Collab — Identity V Players Launch Full-Scale Raid Across All Platforms, and the Oldest Scandal in Asymmetric Horror Resurfaces

A three-way war is raging in the asymmetric horror game space — and the spark that lit the fuse came from Tencent.

Here's the backstory: In February, Tencent's Dream Star (元梦之星) launched a new game mode called "Don't Catch Me, Boss" (大王别抓我) — a 1v4 asymmetric gameplay where one player hunts and four escape. Sound familiar? That's because it's the exact same formula as Identity V and Dead by Daylight (DBD). The moment this dropped, Identity V players went nuclear, storming Dream Star's official Weibo, Super Topics, Douyin, and Bilibili comment sections in a coordinated flooding campaign.

But what truly sent the situation into complete meltdown was what came next — Dead by Daylight officially announced a collaboration with Dream Star, declaring they would provide design consultation for the asymmetric mode.

This was essentially DBD giving Dream Star their official stamp of approval, and Identity V fans' rage went supernova. The thing is, Identity V and DBD already have an extremely sensitive history when it comes to licensing and IP rights.

According to the original post's screenshots, Identity V's official account had previously posted content related to their DBD collaboration.

But this so-called "collaboration" has always been deeply controversial in the community. Identity V initially claimed to have DBD's authorization, but the DBD team later directly denied it on Weibo, stating they never granted any brand license. Some commenters pointed out that "there's no IP license, but gameplay mechanics were allowed" — meaning you can use the gameplay concept, but DBD never gave Identity V permission to keep using their design post-launch. As one commenter bluntly put it: "The 'we bought the license' claim from D5 simps is nothing but a joke."

One user floated a theory that Identity V did actually purchase authorization upfront, but because the beta version was too bloody to pass China's content review, they couldn't publicly announce the license until after the censorship-compliant version was ready. Another user shot this down immediately: "Given NetEase's track record of being absolute scum with their marketing, if they actually had a license, they would've plastered 'OFFICIALLY AUTHORIZED' all over their ads." A third commenter offered a middle-ground take: "No brand license but gameplay authorization exists — and they apparently still pay tens of millions in royalties annually."

Here's an extra spicy detail from the thread: Identity V's original hospital map was reportedly a near-complete copy of DBD's asylum map. But because "MOBA games do this all the time, nobody really cared" — until this Dream Star controversy dug up the old grave.

The original post's title promised a "three-in-one drama" and it delivered. From Dream Star's gameplay "homage," to Identity V's licensing scandal, to DBD playing both sides — it's a full-blown love triangle in the asymmetric horror space.

The comment section was equally entertaining. One user gleefully egged things on: "The war spread from Honor of Kings to Dream Star — fight harder, I want to see brain matter splatter." Another dropped a sly prediction: "Don't worry, Genshin Impact's next version will have its own DBD mode too." And one particularly savage commenter summed up the whole mess: "Dream Star may be a steaming pile of garbage, but Identity V's community — from players to the devs — are completely unhinged, going around policing everyone."

As it stands, this three-way clusterfuck shows no signs of cooling down. Dream Star has DBD's official endorsement, Identity V players are furious but on shaky ground (since their own licensing history doesn't hold up under scrutiny), and DBD is quietly collecting checks from both sides. As one thread commenter perfectly put it: "Identity V's community is just as unhinged as the others — they were just too niche for anyone to notice before." Turns out, the asymmetric horror genre is way more dramatic outside the game than in it.