Fntastic founders Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev have hit back at claims that their upcoming open-world survival game The Day Before is a scam, following numerous delays.
The game was originally due for release in June 2022, before being delayed until March 1, 2023 last year. Earlier this week, Fntastic revealed that The Day Before would be delayed by eight months after the studio failed to trademark the game’s name. It’s now set to release on November 8.
At the same time, the studio hasn’t shared any new footage of The Day Before since 2021 and a planned gameplay reveal trailer has also been pushed back due to the legal dispute.
However the Fntastic founders have denied there’s anything fishy about The Day Before’s troubled launch.
— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) January 25, 2023
Speaking to IGN, the Gotovtsevs said: “We’ve been creating the game for four years. All these years have been full of sweat and blood to make this game, and for many members of our team, it is unpleasant to hear such accusations.”
“We didn’t take a penny from people: no crowdfunding, no pre-orders, no donations. The game is fully funded by Mytona, one of the largest mobile publishers in the world, who checked the game’s build at every milestone per our contract,” they added.
“We only believe in the final product. No matter what anyone says, you’ll see for yourself on November 10 this year,” continued the statement. “We hope that after the game’s success, we’ll give people faith that in this life, if you persevere toward a dream, it will come true, despite all the obstacles and doubts.”
In the same interview, the founders claimed they were always going to delay the game before the alleged issues with the trademark. “We planned to move the game’s release before and planned to announce with a 10-minute gameplay video,” they said, before the trademark dispute forced them to delay the video as well.
Last summer, Fntastic was criticised for using “unpaid volunteers” despite The Day Before being one of Steam’s most wish-listed titles.
The developer then defended its use of unpaid “volunteers”, writing in a website update that: “Fntastic’s culture is based on the idea of volunteering. This means that every Fntastic member is a volunteer.”
It went on to explain that while “full-time volunteers” are essentially paid workers, “part-time volunteers” are unpaid developers that are instead given “cool rewards, participation certificates, and free codes” for their work.
In other news, Dambuster Studios has teased one of the “most exciting” new additions to Dead Island 2, the skill deck.
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