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News video games 14 February 2023, 13:57

author: Adrian Werner

We May Witness One of the Biggest Gaming Scams in Recent Years; Internet Analyzes The Day Before [UPDATE #2]

The developers of The Day Before have again been caught copying other people's works. The latest trailer for the game is full of scenes pulled straight from famous games.

Update #2

Fntastic has released a new statement. In it, it informs that for legal reasons, the developer's materials on The Day Before have disappeared from YouTube, including the recent gameplay. At the same time, the company revealed that the "owner" of the rights to the name, who is causing problems is the developer of a calendar mobile app - presumably named TheDayBefore - which has nothing to do with the game in question.

Interestingly, he was said to have recently asked the developers to contact him to discuss "some issues." Perhaps a little more detail will be revealed on February 16 - when a new material from Fntastic is scheduled for publication, in which the developers of The Day Before will provife a closer look at the process of creating the game.

Update #1 (Feb. 8, 2023)

Responsible for The Day Before, devs at Fntastic responded to allegations of copying other games. In a statement, the developers said that the accusations are untrue and declared that after the release of their work, they will try to develop a program to help other developers fight misinformation. In addition, they informed that if players so desire, they will publish a video showing work on The Day Before since 2019.

It's hard for Fntastic's statement to calm the prevailing mood. The team did not address specific allegations in any way, which is not surprising, since the authors are unlikely to be able to fend them off. Copying other games is, in the case of footage from The Day Before, simply too brazen and obvious, to be explained in any other way. The fact that the developers can't admit it and apologize is unlikely to help their reputation.

Reactions on Twitter are visibly negative. The developers are accused of lack of transparency and manipulating facts. In the comments, the developers also admitted that in the work on The Day Before they used elements purchased from asset stores, but they are supposed to be a small part of the whole.

We May Witness One of the Biggest Gaming Scams in Recent Years; Internet Analyzes The Day Before [UPDATE #2] - picture #1
Source: Twitter.

Original message (6.02.2023)

Survival network shooter The Day Before is causing increasing controversy. Since its announcement, the game has been accused of copying other games. The developers have not learned their lesson, as a video released a few days ago is once again packed with scenes pulled straight from other popular titles..

The video shows sequences copied from such games as Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War or The Last of Us: Part I. There can be no question of merely drawing loose inspiration here. A comparison prepared by a Twitter user known as Chroma shows how brazen the devs of The Day Before were in copying parts of other people's productions.

Not the first such case

This is not the first time the devs have been caught doing this. Early footage of the game looked suspiciously similar to Snowrunner and to The Division 2.

The Day Before in general appears to be a very suspicious project. For some strange reason, this average-looking game was for some time the most tracked game on Steam. Then it turned out that the studio responsible for it, Fntastic does not pay some of its employees and relies on volunteers in many aspects.

In recent weeks, the game was again mentioned in very negative context. The authors have not kept their promise to release a new gameplay, and the release has been heavily delayed. The reaction of the gamers has been very bad, and many have begun to wonder aloud whether The Day Before even exists. Even the moderator of the official Discord channel stated that he was not sure that the project was not a hoax.

Eventually, the developers changed their minds and released an extensive gameplay, but what we've seen on it was severely disappointing. The whole thing looks like an early-stage project, with a nice but empty world.

It is worth recalling that this is not the first case of an affair of this type. Suffice it to cite the infamous adventure game Limbo of the Lost, which is one big plagiarism, or WarZ / Infestation: Survivor Stories, whose authors were caught for copying other people's work.

  1. The Day Before - official website

Premiere of The Day Before is scheduled for release on November 10, this year. The game will first hit PC, and at a later date also PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

Fntastic is a Russian studio. The company was originally founded in Yakutia. Later, the developers moved to Singapore. They are assisted in their work by people from different parts of the world (such as the Netherlands and Thailand). Publishing The Day Before MyTona company also comes from Russia. Its headquarters are currently in New Zealand, and it additionally has offices in Singapore, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia and Serbia. Founded in 2012, the company develops and publishes video games.

Adrian Werner

Adrian Werner

A true veteran of the Gamepressure newsroom, writing continuously since 2009 and still not having enough. He caught the gaming bug thanks to playing on his friend's ZX Spectrum. Then he switched to his own Commodore 64, and after a short adventure with 16-bit consoles, he forever entrusted his heart to PC games. A fan of niche productions, especially adventure games, RPGs and games of the immersive sim genre, as well as a mod enthusiast. Apart from games, he devourers stories in every form - books, series, movies, and comics.

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