Open world MMO survival game The Day Before, one of the most wishlisted upcoming titles on Steam, has been delayed again. This time, though, the official reason is quite perplexing. According to developer Fntastic and publisher MYTONA, someone else beat me on the registration of the trademark in the United States, which prompted Steam to block the game's page at the request of the registrant, Sun Jae Lee from Seoul, South Korea.
The Day Before is officially delayed from March 1st to November 10th. Here's the full message shared on Twitter this morning.
Dear fans!
Right before the release, Steam blocked our game page at the request of a private individual, because of the name The Day Before.
As you know, our game was announced in January 2021. At the time of the announcement, The Day Before game trademark was available.
After the announcement of the game, the above mentioned individual filled out an application before us to register the game trademark The Day Before in the United States: https://uspto.report/TM/79314174
What's next?
Previously, we were not aware of the existence of claims. We found out about this only on January 19, 2023, when we received a complaint from him and a request to contact him.
Now we find out all the circumstances of the incident and we will definitely solve everything.
We previously planned to post a lengthy gameplay video later this month, but we'll have to sort this issue out first. We will post a video asap.
As a result, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the launch to November 10, 2023. We understand this may disappoint many of our fans, however we want to ensure we release the best possible game.
Our 100% focus remains on the game itself and how to deliver you the best game possible. Thank you and we hope for your support.
The delay news is puzzling because the trademark situation could be easily solved by reaching an agreement with Sun Jae Lee. Afterward, there would be no reason Fntastic and MYTONA cannot release The Day Before right away. A more likely reason could be the need to polish and fix the game itself. In any case, we've sent a list of questions to the developers; stay tuned for the interview.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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