The Day Before gets delayed to November over alleged trademark issues

Upon its announcement in 2021, The Day Before hyped many players up for what appeared to be a rather ambitious MMO zombie survival game. For a time, The Day Before had become the most wishlisted game on Steam. However, The Day Before has since seen a hefty delay from 2022 to 2023, and just yesterday, the game received another one. This time, developer Fntastic stated that it has delayed The Day Before from its previous March 1 release date to November 10.

Of course, plenty of games receive multiple delays like this, but Fntastic cited a rather strange reason for this latest one. Apparently, Fntastic had somehow neglected to file The Day Before’s trademark. Another individual by the name of Sun Jae Lee opted to do so instead. This same individual sent a trademark complaint to Fntastic on January 19, and the developer apparently did not know about “the existence of claims” before this. According to Fntastic, it initially aimed to upload a sizable gameplay video later in January, but this situation now means that the developer has to consult its lawyers before doing so.

As if that wasn’t bizarre enough, The Day Before‘s Steam page was taken down yesterday. At first, Fntastic blamed this on a small bug that “has affected multiple titles in the past.” But its Twitter statement released a few hours later claimed that a request sent by Lee prompted Steam to delist the game.

pic.twitter.com/tlvk0ryNKo

— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) January 25, 2023

The Day Before gets delayed, but what is going on?

Even well before this statement, many players grew suspicious of the game’s existence, and now their doubts have only amplified. Some of the replies to the statement pointed out the inherent absurdity of announcing a game before securing the trademark for it. Others questioned the statement’s wording, which ensured fans that the developers will focus on releasing “the best game possible.” The developers did not mention anything about the game’s current quality when explaining the reason for the delay, and considering they supposedly would have released the game only five weeks from now if not for the trademarking issue, it seemed strange to say this.

But it gets weirder. Popular YouTuber Skill Up noted that even the lead Discord mod for The Day Before had expressed doubt about the game’s existence. Despite having announced the gameplay video that Fntastic had teased so heavily, the mod admitted that neither they nor the rest of the mod team had actually seen it.

None of this is to mention the controversy that arose last year when Fntastic revealed that it largely relied on unpaid volunteers for the game’s development. Needless to say, the history surrounding this game has been a confusing one. There are clear concerns from the community that The Day Before is a scam, and judging by the bizarre occurrences surrounding this game, some may find their worries justified. If the November 10 release date arrives and The Day Before gets delayed yet again, it’ll only throw more fuel on the blaze.