Survival MMO The Day Before has been hit with yet another massive delay over what its developer describes as a pretty bizarre case of possible trademark infringement. The game was supposed to release this spring, with Fntastic promising more The Day Before gameplay footage last week.The Singapore-based studio announced its post-apocalyptic survival MMO in early 2021, initially intending to release it by the end of that year before pushing it back to mid-2022. It then decided to move the game to Unreal Engine 5 just weeks ahead of its planned launch, delaying The Day Before to 2023 in the process.RELATED: Study Claims to Reveal the 10 Most Anticipated Games of 2023The Day Before will be missing its March 1 release date as well, with Fntastic now saying it's targeting a November 10 release. As for the reason behind this newest postponement, the studio recently took to social media to posit that it is still unable to secure "The Day Before" trademark and has hence "made the difficult" decision to halt its marketing efforts and delay the game until that issue is resolved. The MMO was even delisted from Steam as part of these complications earlier this week. That was a pretty unprecedented turn of events, seeing how The Day Before was the second-most wishlisted Steam game at the time of the delisting.

Based on the company's statement and publicly available intellectual property documentation, it would appear Fntastic only filed for a trademark after announcing The Day Before, but not before another party from South Korea beat it to the punch. The USPTO filing that's currently preventing it from trademarking the upcoming game's name was submitted in May 2021, predating its own application by over eight months.

Social media reactions to this postponement appear to be quite harsh on Fntastic, with many consumers doubting whether The Day Before was ever close to releasing or if the studio simply used its popularity to secure private investments, all the while showing little in the way of raw gameplay. The developer already apologized for the delay, insisting that it remains committed to delivering "the best game possible" and that it will "definitely solve everything" in regard to this incident.

Looking at the bigger picture, there's a reason why the existence of countless products—ranging from games to consumer electronics—leak online months ahead of official announcements via trademark applications. Companies that commit to a product name that they haven't previously filed to protect run the risk of getting targeted by trademark trolls or being forced to waste money on rebranding further down the road in case someone simply secures those intellectual property rights first and then sues to maintain them. This is why everyone from indie studios to the biggest publishers on the planet tend to file for trademarks way before making any marketing investments.

The Day Before is set to release on November 10, 2023, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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Source: USPTO Case 79314174, USPTO Case 97242891