Early access zombie MMO game The Day Before has a Times Square, New York advert and the internet has quite a few questions. Questions along the lines of “Is this real or green-screened,” and “How can they even afford this?” have popped up on both Twitter and Reddit.
We can’t blame them for being suspicious. We greeted the footage, tweeted out by the official The Day Before account with a similar note of disbelief. Revealed back in 2021, The Day Before is a new zombie MMO game that has been the subject of some controversy. The work of a small indie studio, Fntastic, it seemed like a hugely ambitious project, even with publisher Mytona’s backing.
Then, the game became subject to a string of delays, including an apparent naming dispute with the maker of a mobile calendar app. Until it was resolved, that resulted in the game’s Steam page being pulled.
In celebration of the upcoming release of The Day Before, Mytona and Fntastic are showcasing its final trailer in the heart of New York, Times Square.#thedaybefore #newyork #timessquare pic.twitter.com/YgTrdKGoWK
— The Day Before (@playdaybefore) December 1, 2023
There were other happenings, to the point where Fntastic formally denied that the game was a scam. Then, 9 days before Fntastic were due to release it, they announced they were delaying it till December 7th. On top of that, it would no longer be a full, final game but, instead, a Steam Early Access.
So, with all this in mind, it’s more than a little surprising to see the game advertising in Times Square. And with all the suspicion we can absolutely see why people would say the footage is edited, even in jest. But it’s not green-screened, nor is it rendered in Unreal Engine 5.
How do we know? Because after poking around several Times Square live webcams, we were able to spot the advert running. We spotted the vertical ad on this stream, at least.
And as to how can Mytona/Fntastic afford this? It’s not quite as expensive as you might think. The general consensus is that $50,000 – $75,000 will get you a day or two and this is just one of many adverts running on the same billboards. Speaking of money, it was revealed last year that Fntastic makes use of volunteers, over 100 according to them. So even if the cash came straight from Mytona’s pockets, we can see this leaving a bad taste in some people’s mouths.
So is The Day Before actually happening? It certainly looks that way. Though whether it’s good or not is another thing entirely. Given the fuss surrounding the game, we wouldn’t be surprised if there was a Sons of the Forest-style flurry to purchase the game. And we’re absolutely aware that we’re contributing to that, but we just can’t look away.
Zombie MMO The Day Before releases into Steam Early Access this December 7th. Probably.
