Fntastic has released a new statement to the press, clarifying the delay for The Day Before and attempting to address doubts and criticism about the project.

As we had reported yesterday, the company claimed that they were forced to delay the project owing to a trademark dispute over the game’s very own title, The Day Before. We had also noted a lot of red flags about the company, from their questionable business practice of being an all-volunteer company, to what seems to be their limited experience making video games. While this didn’t cast complete doubt that the company was making a real video game, and it didn’t necessarily mean the game would be bad, it does make its status as one of the most anticipated games on Steam quite dubious.

Kotaku independently corroborated that the trademark dispute is real, but doubt is spreading about the game from an unlikely source. A moderator on the The Day Before discord who goes by the name WHOLF, who attempted to address doubts himself, is now himself stating he hasn’t seen the game, and is himself unsure if it really exists. None of the other Discord moderators have seen the game either. Note that based on Fntastic’s business practices, WHOLF and the other mods would be unpaid volunteers who work remotely.

Fntastic co-founders Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev reached out to the media and shared several statements, including a message to reassure fans. For the sake of brevity, we will focus on their answers to questions, but we will share that message below.

The Gotovstevs claim that they were already talking with Mytona about delaying the game, and the trademark dispute coming up just gave them a convenient excuse to do so. They are confident that they will be able to resolve the legal concern by November 10, 2023. They will also be using that time to further polish the game.

It isn’t clear for now if these statements will be enough to satisfy the community that has built around The Day Before, seeing that even their moderators are expressing doubts about the project. But the Gotovstevs make good points that they had not set up a crowdfunding campaign for the game, and also did not open up pre-orders. These are practices that other game companies, including the biggest game studios, have done, only to fail to meet up to promises. Those companies did not just receive scorn online, but even faced lawsuits. It takes a lot for companies who fail to meet promises to make it up to their fans. So far, only No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk 2077 seem to have accomplished this still uncommon comeback. Fntastic may do well enough that they don’t even need to go through all of this.

You can read Fntastic’s statement to their fans below.

    “ For us and millions of people, The Day Before is a childhood dream come true. It’s a game with zombies and other people in a huge postapocalyptic skyscraper city. We understand that some players, not seeing the whole picture, might have doubts about the game. Our whole focus has always been on the product itself.

    We’ve been creating the game for four years. All these 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 checked the game’s build at every milestone per our contract.

    We made a real inner breakthrough when we decided to go for big challenges from the bottom—so big that some people would consider them impossible. “Making a fantastic journey from the very ends of the earth, 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 prove to everyone what he is worth in the end.

    We only believe in the final product. No matter what anyone says, you’ll see for yourself on November 10 this year. We hope that after the game’s success, we’ll give people faith that in this life, if you persevere toward a dream, it will come true, despite all the obstacles and doubts.”