The company was founded in 1992 in
Quebec City as Megatoon. Two years later, the company's current CEO and executive producer, Rémi Racine, co-founded the Montreal-based Multimedia Interactive (MMI) to develop interactive entertainment software for
CD-ROM. Both companies were sold to
Malofilm Communications in 1996, and a year later, they were merged into Behaviour Interactive with Racine as general manager. Distributed by Sony,
Jersey Devil caught the eye of
Infogrames Entertainment, which approached Behaviour to produce what would become
Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time, released in 1999. In 1999, Racine and some investors bought the studio back, but they had to rename it, changing the name in 2000 to Artificial Mind and Movement Inc. (A2M). which was the first and largest South American game studio. On November 8, 2010, Artificial Mind & Movement announced its name was returning to Behaviour Interactive. The change was partly due to increased production of original titles and thus stronger presence in the gaming community, partly due to the availability of the original name, and partly due to
one particular obscene interpretation of the initialism "A2M". The studio has maintained its work-for-hire services with major clients while continuing to invest in original games. In 2016, Behaviour released
Dead by Daylight, a multiplayer survival action horror game published by Sweden's
Starbreeze.
Dead by Daylight sold more than 1 million copies in its first two months and by 2022 had more than 50 million players worldwide. In 2018, Behaviour purchased the game's publishing rights from Starbreeze for US$16 million. Thanks in large part to the game's success, Behaviour has seen its revenues grow from CAD $25 million in 2015 to CAD $225 million in 2021. On June 21, 2018,
Bethesda Softworks sued
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Behaviour Interactive over
Westworld, a mobile game based on the science fiction television series
Westworld, alleging that the game is a "blatant rip-off" of
Fallout Shelter, another mobile game, co-developed by Behaviour. In a suit filed in a
United States District Court for the District of Maryland, Bethesda alleges that
Westworld "has the same or highly similar game design, art style, animations, features and other gameplay elements" as
Fallout Shelter. Bethesda sued for copyright infringement, breach of contract and misappropriating trade secrets, seeking a jury trial and damages. The lawsuit also alleged that
Westworld identically reproduced some
software bugs that were originally present in
Fallout Shelter. The lawsuit was settled out of court in January 2019. In April 2022, Behaviour announced the opening of a new office in
Toronto. In May 2022, it was announced Behaviour Interactive had acquired the
Seattle-based game development studio Midwinter Entertainment. In the summer of 2022, Behaviour released
Hooked on You, a dating sim spinoff from the
Dead by Daylight franchise, and the melee brawler
Flippin Misfits. Both games were revealed alongside
Meet Your Maker at the first Behaviour Beyond showcase of new and upcoming releases broadcast in August 2022. In February 2023, it was announced that Behaviour had acquired UK-based video game developer
SockMonkey Studios, which is now renamed Behaviour UK – North. In March 2023, it was announced that a film based on
Dead by Daylight is in development, with
Blumhouse Productions,
Atomic Monster and Striker Entertainment co-producing. Behaviour's next major original release,
Meet Your Maker, was released in April 2023 on PC, PlayStation 4/5, and Xbox One, Series X/S. The game was billed as a "post-apocalyptic first-person building-and-raiding game where every level is designed by players for players". In May 2023, Concordia University in Montreal announced the creation of a new Behaviour-funded research chair in video game design in its Department of Design and Computation Arts. It was announced that Behaviour would provide $2 million in funding for the research chair over the next 10 years. In July 2023, Behaviour announced the opening of a new studio in
Truro, Cornwall, called Behaviour UK – South. In August 2023, Behaviour acquired Netherlands-based video game developer Codeglue, renaming it Behaviour Rotterdam. In November 2023, it was announced that
Dead by Daylight had surpassed the 60-million player milestone. In January 2024, Behaviour laid off 45 employees from its Montreal location, which accounted for less than 3% of its total workforce. In March 2024, Behaviour announced its acquisition of Fly Studio, an award-winning multimedia experience designer and producer from Montreal. Behaviour said the acquisition was made to consolidate its position in the location-based entertainment (LBE) market. Immersive Entertainment replaced the studio's Business Solutions unit, according to its website. In April 2024, Behaviour announced it would be partnering with Scandinavian independent game developer Haenir Studio to bring their action-horror co-op survival game
Blight: Survival to life. The company announced it would lay off an additional 95 employees, 70 of whom are based in Montreal. Behaviour announced the closure of Midwinter on September 18, 2024, and the cancellation of their Dead by Daylight spinoff codenamed "Project T". Behaviour acquired Red Hook Studios, the developers of
Darkest Dungeon and its sequel, in September 2024; Red Hook would continue as an independent studio under Behaviour. In March 2026, Behaviour bought The Fun Pimps, the developer of
7 Days to Die. Behaviour Interactive made headlines as one of the first video game studios to abolish
crunch time, a controversial yet widespread practice in the video game industry that requires employees to work longer hours, often unpaid, to meet project milestones. The policy helped Behaviour earn its designation as one of Canada's Best Workplaces by
gamesindustry.biz in 2018 and again in 2021 and 2022.
Business units Behaviour's operations are divided into two business units: Services and Original Games. Its Services unit provides work-for-hire development services to major video game and entertainment industry brands such as Disney, Sony, Activision, Warner Bros. Discovery, Ubisoft, HBO and Nintendo and also includes an Immersive Entertainment vertical that has a primary focus on location-based entertainment (LBE). Behaviour's Original Games unit produces the studio's original IP including
Dead by Daylight. ==Titles==