The Day Before dev insists zombie MMO is not a scam following latest delay

Developer Fntastic has rebuffed suggestions from increasingly vocal detractors that The Day Before - its now twice-delayed and seldom seen open-world zombie survival MMO - is a scam, saying, "When the game comes out, people will finally see the truth."

The Day Before was revealed back in 2021, with a striking trailer that helped propel it to the top of Steam's most wishlisted games chart. Since then, though, its journey to release has been less than smooth. Its initial June 2022 release date was delayed by a year when Fntastic suddenly announced it was switching development to Unreal Engine 5 less than a month before its planned arrival, then earlier this week, with just two months to go before its revised launch date, the developer pulled the game's Steam listing and announced another delay - pushing its release back a further nine months, this time blaming a trademark dispute.

Throughout all this, very little has actually been seen of The Day Before beyond its initial announcement trailer, a 13-minute gameplay video revealed several months later, and 59-seconds of additional gameplay at the start of this year. All of which has lead to a rise in suggestions around the internet the game may not even be in development at all.

Fntastic has now pushed back against those suggestions, telling IGN, "Time will put everything in its place [and] when the game comes out, people will finally see the truth."

"We understand that some players, not seeing the whole picture, might have doubts about the game," it admitted. "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."

The studio also questioned how The Day Before could even be considered a scam, noting, "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."

As for the strange circumstances surroundings its most recent delay to November, Fntastic said it was originally intending to announce a revised release date even before this week's news of a trademark dispute. It also claimed the announcement would have been accompanied by a new 10-minute gameplay trailer, but "then you all know what happened."

Despite ongoing skepticism around The Day Before's development status, Fntastic says it's "very confident that this issue will be resolved since we have strong legal partners. The extra time will allow us to better prepare for the release and make the overall improvements for the game. It will become even more polished, optimized, and content-filled."

The Day Before - which has also been mired in controversy over Fntastic's use of unpaid volunteers - is due to launch on Steam on 10th November following its most recent delay.