The Day Before just delayed to December with its post-trademark-dispute early access

i.e., The Month After the November window

November 1, 2023 3:00 PM

I know you’re shocked, but The Day Before has delayed its launch once again – although it’s not as bad as you’re thinking.

Readers will recall that we’ve been watching the bizarre progress of the open-world survival MMO since early 2021, but the drama didn’t get underway until January 2023, when the teams at FNTASTIC and MYTONA promised raw gameplay footage and then abruptly pulled the game from Steam, admitted they’d never trademarked the game, and became embroiled in a trademark dispute with the South Korean individual who decided to trademark it. That led to a launch delay from March to November – and of course no public video thanks to copyright takedowns – as it became clear that the game wasn’t ready anyway and would’ve been delayed regardless.

Fast-forward to this week, when FNTASTIC announced that it would launch its Steam page, launch timing, and trailer. Well, it’s done all that now, we’re surprised to say: It’s delayed from November to December, heralding a December 7th Steam early access. The announcement crows that the IP tribunal awarded the studios the trademark for the game, the Steam page is functional again (though without preorders), and there’s no date for the real launch.

“Full version release will happen when we are certain this is the best version of the game possible, and we believe that player feedback and involvement will greatly contribute to achieving this goal,” FNTASTIC writes. “The next-gen console version will also come with the full release.”

There is at least a trailer this time, though some of the narration is a little weird (at the end, the voiceover calls it “A Day Before”). And while this is probably not going to be a title that does much for the frustrated MMORPG genre playerbase regardless of how long it delays, can we just note how shocked we are that the game is coming out at all after those legal battles. Dang.