The Day Before – Developer: Delay was planned anyway

The curious news about the upcoming survival title The Day Before don’t stop.

After the imminent release was postponed by months due to sudden copyright problems, the developers published new statements in an interview less than 48 hours later.

Was the new postponement planned anyway?

In the aforementioned interview with the colleagues from IGN, the founders of Fntastic – brothers Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev – commented on the current situation.
There they also stated that the renewed postponement of the release was allegedly planned one way or another – even before the recent problems.

The interview states:

We were planning to move the release of the game back and were going to announce it together with Mytona in a 10-minute gameplay video.
And then you all know what happened. To be on the safe side and to make sure there are no more postponements, we chose November 10 together with the publisher.
Considering the trademark dispute, that’s a safe date.

Even considering the double postponement, the developers still express confidence in their ability to meet both the trademark dispute and the expectations for the game:

We are very confident that this issue can be resolved as we have strong legal partners. The extra time will allow us to better prepare for the release and improve the game overall. It will become even more polished, optimized and substantial.

Does The Day Before exist at all?

In the interview, the many critical questions and allegations surrounding The Day Before were also a topic.
The Gotovtsev brothers commented on accusations like “The game is a scam”, “The game doesn’t exist” and “This game will never be released” as follows:

For many members of our team it is unpleasant to hear such accusations.

We haven’t taken a single cent 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, which has reviewed the game’s development at every milestone as per our contract.

But that’s also where the sticking point lies, which raises so many questions.

• Why was it only a bug that was blamed for Steam being removed?
• Why do neither developers nor publishers make sure that trademark rights are secured?
• Why do they rely on volunteers who are unpaid?
• Why are there no clear statements about the content in the game and no gameplay yet?
• Why is there apparently no coherent PR strategy?

Especially the point regarding the promised gameplay could answer many questions and clarify that the game really exists and rudimentarily show how the development status is shortly before the (former) targeted release date.

By the way, the latest status on the gameplay video is that they will check the legal situation with the lawyers and then publish it.

With further waiting time, stalling and further promises as well as curious statements, as they were made in this interview, Fntastic is unlikely to have done itself any favors.