Let's face it guys. Stranger things is currently a lot more relevant than some horror movie franchises that only release a new usually paying the sequel every few years. Those licenses certainly want the passive income of being in dead by daylight. Same with silent hill. Konami hasn't touched it in over a decade and canceled it's only potential future option. Along with their financial struggles, the dead by daylight deal was a must for them and is literally passive money

Stranger things is incredibly relevant and trendy and as a result Netflix probably wanted more money but BHB are refused. It could be wrong but all of these crazy licensing theories went out the window when I saw the amount of shit stranger things has licensed to including other games.

Plus pulling these characters out of dead by daylight certainly worked in terms of getting some last minute money. I bought all the cosmetics for all of the ST characters as soon as I heard they were leaving the game and there would be a sale. I don't even play Steve but Nancy has become my main survivor and demo was always one of my main killers. He's just so wholesome