Gaming: The Day Before gets a 2023 release date... as an Early Access game

Remember The Day Before, the open-world zombie survival game that first drew incredible hype and then incredible criticism over the last three years? It’s back with a ‘final’ trailer... to, err, announce that it’s been delayed again and is entering Early Access on 7 December rather than launching as a final release.

The story began in 2021 when indie studio Fntastic dropped a reveal trailer for a new apocalyptic MMO. It was extremely well received, and it helped the game to eventually become the most wishlisted upcoming title on Valve’s Steam storefront.

But the game’s also been a magnet for skepticism and controversy.

As the months rolled by without updates, gamers and media outlets began to wonder if this blockbuster game that seemed to have come from nowhere was all a bit too good to be true. Developer Fntastic’s portfolio prior to The Day Before includes only three small indie titles: Radiant One, The Wild Eight, and Propnight. Based on what the studio showed of The Day Before, it appeared that this was a project of a vastly bigger scale.

That led to concerns the footage being described as gameplay in a subsequent trailer might not actually be real-time in-engine gameplay, but rather target renders.

Then the studio announced that it was involved in a copyright battle due to the game name. It turned out The Day Before shares its nomenclature with a calendar app. Using that legal battle as its rationale, Fntastic delayed the game into 2023.

But there’s the faintest hint of silver around the dark clouds now, though. On 7 December when The Day Before launches in Early Access, we’ll finally be able to put to bed the debate about whether this game actually exists. We can compare the reality of the playable game to the gameplay trailer. And hopefully we’ll get a few decent zombie chases out of it.