It begins to dawn on people that The Day Before may not be real

Developers announce a delay based on fishy reasons

The Day Before is the second-most wishlisted video game on Steam. Announced in 2021 by a Russian-based developer called Fntastic, it’s supposedly an open-world RPG.

We say supposedly, because it’s really not quite clear if the game is actually being worked on or if indeed it exists at all in a playable state.

Before today, The Day Before had a March 1, 2023, release date. However, citing a trademark dispute which allegedly led to the game’s store page on Steam being blocked, the developer, who largely relies on volunteers, announced a nine month delay for the launch, postponing it to November 10, 2023.

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— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) January 25, 2023

Leaving aside the fact that developing and announcing a video game without having filed the necessary trademark for the name is quite an egregious oversight, this would in no way warrant a delay of nine months, which makes a lot of people suspicious about what's truly going on.

There is also the issue that seemingly nobody has seen any actual gameplay so far, despite the game initially targeting a release date in a few weeks. The developers promised to post an uncut gameplay video soon to showcase how all the announced systems would interact and come together, but the trademark issue has very conveniently put a hold to that as well.

As noted by Skill Up, even the lead moderator of the game’s official Discord server has by now expressed doubts about the title’s existence, saying: “Nobody saw the gameplay.”

The short clips that have been posted in the past were more akin to tech demos, many of them being stock-full of Unreal Engine marketplace items, which may have been ripped from other games, as noted by some spectators.