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The Day Before is (allegedly) an upcoming Unreal Engine 5 powered open-world zombie survival MMO. It's (allegedly) in development by Fntastic, a studio with a less than stellar reputation. Still, The Day Before ended up becoming one of Steam's most wanted titles for a while after its initial reveal and the small handful of subsequent media releases.
The Day Before has already been delayed at least once, with the reason being that Fntastic decided to move from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. That delay announcement came roughly a month before the game was initially set to be released.
The latest drama surrounding the game began yesterday when The Day Before was delisted from Steam. Speculation ran rampant, with people believing that the game was cancelled or at least in some serious trouble.
The developer, Fntastic, took to the Steam forums (cached as they have since deleted this excuse) to say that their game was delisted from Steam due to "a minor technical difficulty." The Day Before disappeared from Steam right around the same time that Valve took Steam servers offline for their routine Tuesday evening maintenance. Fntastic claims that their Steam delisting was the result of "a known bug that has affected multiple titles in the past."
We are unaware of this ever being a bug with any other Steam game getting delisted as a result of routine maintenance. As it turns out, that initial excuse was indeed a fat load of crap.
A follow-up from Fntastic was then posted to Twitter. This time, the developer says that because they failed to trademark the game's title after its initial reveal, someone else came along and trademarked it instead. The Day Before was delisted from Steam after a claim from said copyright holder. Without much further explanation, Fntastic say that the game has been delayed until November 10.
Dear fans!
Right before the release, Steam blocked our game page at the request of a private individual, because of the name The Day Before.
As you know, our game was announced in January 2021. At the time of the announcement, The Day Before game trademark was available.
After the announcement of the game, the above mentioned individual filled out an application before us to register the game trademark The Day Before in the United States: https://uspto.report/TM/79314174
What's next?
Previously, we were not aware of the existence of claims. We found out about this only on January 19, 2023, when we received a complaint from him and a request to contact him.
Now we find out all the circumstances of the incident and we will definitely solve everything.
We previously planned to post a lengthy gameplay video later this month, but we'll have to sort this issue out first. We will post a video asap.
As a result, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the launch to November 10, 2023. We understand this may disappoint many of our fans, however we want to ensure we release the best possible game.
Our 100% focus remains on the game itself and how to deliver you the best game possible.
Thank you and we hope for your support.
Sincerely,
MYTONA and FNTASTIC​
Right before the release, Steam blocked our game page at the request of a private individual, because of the name The Day Before.
As you know, our game was announced in January 2021. At the time of the announcement, The Day Before game trademark was available.
After the announcement of the game, the above mentioned individual filled out an application before us to register the game trademark The Day Before in the United States: https://uspto.report/TM/79314174
What's next?
Previously, we were not aware of the existence of claims. We found out about this only on January 19, 2023, when we received a complaint from him and a request to contact him.
Now we find out all the circumstances of the incident and we will definitely solve everything.
We previously planned to post a lengthy gameplay video later this month, but we'll have to sort this issue out first. We will post a video asap.
As a result, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the launch to November 10, 2023. We understand this may disappoint many of our fans, however we want to ensure we release the best possible game.
Our 100% focus remains on the game itself and how to deliver you the best game possible.
Thank you and we hope for your support.
Sincerely,
MYTONA and FNTASTIC​
There have been so many red flags that have been shared over the past couple of years. These red flags are for both The Day Before itself and for the developer Fntastic. The studio has a very spotty track record when it comes to their previously developed titles. The footage that has seen thus far for The Day Before also seems to be faked to varying degrees. Several industry veterans weighed in on the initial reveals noting how the supposed "gameplay" footage looked rendered and that other "players" looked a lot like A.I. bots.
These red flags surrounding the game can be seen in the two videos below from Force Gaming on YouTube. It will be nothing short of a miracle if The Day Before actually delivers on any of the promises made thus far.
