Things have not gone very well for The Day Before, the once-second-most-wishlisted game on Steam. After two years of weird delays and a near-complete dearth of gameplay footage, the whole thing was muscled off Steam (and the rest of the internet) by a copyright dispute with the maker of a calendar app called TheDayBefore. Developer Fntastic vowed that a triumphant return was in the offing, and despite a certain air of sketchiness to the whole thing, it looks like it might actually happen—under a different name.
As noticed by Well Played (via PCGamesN), a company called MytonaFntastic—a joint venture between the developer and publisher Mytona—applied on August 3 for a trademark for “computer game software” called Dayworld. There’s nothing in the filing that indicates specifically that Dayworld is connected to The Day Before, but given that Fntastic has previously said that its trademark issues were being handled by MytonaFntastic, it’s a reasonable assumption to make.
The potentially sticky bit is that Dayworld is also the name of a series of novels (a trilogy and a prequel) by Hugo Award-winning sci-fi author Philip José Farmer. Publisher Open Road Media still offers the trilogy for sale through various digital retailers, and it’s not inconceivable that it could cause more headaches for Fntastic if it decides to launch its own dispute over the new name.
There’s been no official word from Fntastic about a potential name change, which is especially interesting because there’s also been no update on the planned release date. Fantastic said in January, when The Day Before was released from Steam, that it had decided to delay the launch from March 1 to November 10, and there’s been no update since—that remains the on-record launch date.
But November 10 is not much more than two months from now, which means that either Fntastic has all its ducks in a row and there’s really nothing left to do but get a new name attached, or that this bonkers ride is going to continue into the indefinite future as another last-minute delay becomes necessary.
Stranger things have happened than the release of a game no one thought would ever see the light of day, but I won’t lie: Whether as The Day Before, Dayworld, or something else entirely, I will be very surprised if we see this game go live on Steam in November.
I’ve reached out to Fntastic for more information, and will update if I receive a reply.