The studio behind The Day Before insists that the trademark dispute will be neatly resolved, but has not explained how it happened.
Have you ever heard of The Day Before? We wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t, but the open world survival MMO made headlines this week when developer Fntastic (not to be confused with the esports organization Fnatic) announced that it would release the game by eight months. would postpone.
By itself, this probably wouldn’t be a problem. Games are delayed all the time; just look at microsoft and Ubisoft. However, this delay announcement not only came just a few months before its March 1 release, but also delayed the game’s first gameplay trailer in over a year.
What’s even more suspicious is that the delay was caused by a trademark dispute, which resulted in The Day Before being removed from Steam. However, Fntastic now says it was planning to delay the game anyway.
For context, Fntastic announced the delay on January 25, explaining that a private individual had requested that Steam block The Day Before page because of the title.
Apparently, this person owns the trademark for The Day Before name and had filed a complaint with Fntastic on January 19 for using the name.
What makes this stranger strange is that Fntastic says the trademark was available when it announced The Day Before in January 2021. Someone else then claimed it after the announcement.
This immediately raises the question of why Fntastic did not apply for the trademark before the game was announced. If Fntastic only recently found out about the trademark issue, does that mean it has never tried to register the trademark in the past two years?
Fntastic doesn’t seem to have answered either question, but it did tell recently IGN that even if it weren’t for the trademark issue, it would announce a delay as part of the gameplay trailer. This trailer has been held back while the studio consults with its lawyers.
“We planned to move the release of the game earlier and are planning to announce it [publisher] Mytona in a 10 minute gameplay video,” it read. “And then you all know what happened. So just to be on the safe side, to make sure there are no more transfers, we chose November 10 together with the publisher. That’s a safe date given the trademark dispute.”
Fntastic is also confident that the situation will be resolved quite easily, perhaps suggesting that it plans to get the trademark for itself. If not, it should change the name of the game.
“We are confident that this issue will be resolved as we have strong legal partners. The extra time will allow us to better prepare for the release and make general improvements to the game. It will be even more polished, optimized and filled with content,” it explained.
The public response, however, was less than sympathetic. Combined with the game being delayed once before due to its move to Unreal Engine 5 and the studio’s controversial defense of hiring unpaid volunteers, many say they’ve lost interest in The Day Before.
There are even accusations on Twitter and Reddit that the game is one big scam, to which Fntastic immediately responded and denied.
Of all the lies you could think of, you thought this was the best option 💀💀
— Miccoy 🐢 (@GhostMiccoy) January 25, 2023
Yes, this is definitely a scam!
— KingRichard (@KingRichard) January 25, 2023
“We’ve been making the game for four years,” it says. All those years have been full of sweat and blood to make this game, and for many members of our team it is unpleasant to hear such accusations.
“We didn’t take a penny from people: no crowdfunding, no pre-orders, no donations. The game is fully funded by Mytona, one of the largest mobile publishers in the world, who under our contract has checked the build of the game at every milestone.”
And while we don’t think anyone’s going to gain anything from it, they’ve also likened themselves to a 90s action hero: “We feel like that simple guy from 90s action movies.
“You probably remember him as the hero who breaks through the veil of disbelief when no one believes in him, but he finds the inner strength to win and ultimately prove his worth to everyone.”
The Day Before launches for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.
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