The Day Before devs lost game's trademark to a calendar app

Fntastic, the developer of the upcoming open-world MMO survival The Day Before, is piling Pelion upon Ossa with every issue that pops up out of the woodwork.

If you skipped over Ancient Greece in your history classes, that's just a very fancy way of saying "Fntastic, please stop jabbering and make proper progress on The Day Before before what remains of the goodwill you've accumulated disappears in a puff of smoke."

Originally slated for a launch in 2022, the team then shifted to Unreal Engine 5 to capitalise on the advancements in technology. The hype for the game was somewhere in the stratosphere, with The Day Before buoyed above titles like Hogwarts Legacy and Starfield on Steam's bestseller list.

Here's the trailer:

Then, The Day Before missed its expected launch of 1 March, 2023, as a result of a trademark mixup. "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," announced Fntastic. And now, it transpires that "The Day Before" was bagged by a calendar app on Android and iOS devices - the sort of one that lets you count down to a specific date.

Fntastic doesn't name the app in its latest notice to its supporters but PC Gamer did some detective work and TheDayBefore (D-Day Countdown) appears to be the body responsible. "After we announced the game in 2021, he also wanted to take over the title and filed for trademarks ahead of us," explained the developer. "He ambiguously offers to contact him to discuss something, but what? We'll fight. Power is in the truth."

Again, this has been received frostily from fans. "Let me get this straight; You guys never filed for a trademark, ran with it, then got asked to stop using the thing you never trademarked and thus, didn’t own, but 'Power is in Truth'”? More like 'power is in hiring or consulting the proper trademark attorneys,'" said one. Cripes.