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Enigmatic survival MMO The Day Before was set for release on March 1st, but devs Fntastic have announced that it’s slipping to November 10th due to trademark concerns. In the latest unusual twist in The Day Before’s development, Fntastic shared a statement explaining the delay that credits it to a US trademark filing that the company overlooked. Oddly, The Day Before’s store page also seems to have disappeared from Steam within the past day.
Fntastic’s explanation for the delay is that the name wasn’t actually trademarked back when The Day Before was announced in January 2021. An application to trademark The Day Before was made by one Sun Jae Lee of Seoul, South Korea in May 2021. That application was subsequently approved and registered in November 2022. Fntastic explained that they weren’t aware of the trademark registration until they were contacted last week by the holder, and said they “will definitely solve everything”. The company had filed their own trademark claim for The Day Before in January last year.
That does mean there’ll be a delay before The Day Before, a game we’ve seen essentially nothing of that’s worked on by paid and unpaid volunteers, sees the light of day. Fntastic said they wanted to ensure they “release the best game possible”, which I reckon means they still want to call The Day Before, though replies to their tweet are more… incredulous. The trademark concerns mean that a reveal of unedited footage of the game in action, announced for later this month, won’t go ahead in the short term. “For the gameplay video, we will consult with lawyers first, and then we can publish it,” Fntastic said in a follow-up tweet.
Even more oddly, the game’s Steam store page was removed ahead of Fntastic sharing news of The Day Before’s delay. Responding to a question on The Day Before Steam community about the disappearance, a Fntastic representative claimed the page was “experiencing a minor technical difficulty” that should be resolved during Steam maintenance. “This is a known bug that has affected multiple titles in the past,” they continued. Hmm. “We kindly ask that you refrain from sending negative messages or joining in with the complaints of others. Rest assured that our game will be visible on the Steam store again once the maintenance is complete.” Still can’t spot it anywhere, lads.
The Day Before is now due out on Steam on November 10th. I’d link to the page, but it’s still not back up.