A reveal of “raw gameplay footage” from The Day Before that was planned for January was scrapped at the last minute because of a trademark dispute (opens in new tab) that also purportedly forced a lengthy launch delay. But now the show may be back on, and coming very soon: Levitate, a head moderator of The Day Before Discord (opens in new tab), announced today that a gameplay revealiew will take place on February 2.
“Get ready to immerse yourself in a world of pure hype, as we unveil a 10-minute gameplay extravaganza, on our YouTube channel,” Levitate wrote. “Tune in tomorrow, for an experience like no other. Trust us, this is one reveal you won’t want to miss! Stay tuned for more updates and information.”
The surprise announcement of a gameplay reveal is the latest twist in a saga that’s been suspicious, to say the least. As staff writer Morgan Park said in his rundown of the situation so far (opens in new tab), The Day Before had been slated to come out on March 1, yet the last time we had a real look at it was in April 2021—nearly two years ago—in a heavily scripted gameplay demo.
The nature of the game has also been kept very vague, and one of the Discord mods (not Levitate, for the record) recently came under fire for expressing doubt that the game exists at all. Last week, developer Fntastic confused things even further by saying that the launch delay had been planned before the trademark trouble (opens in new tab), even though they’d previously blamed it specifically on the dispute.
Today’s announcement on Discord doesn’t bring the situation into better focus. There’s no mention of the upcoming reveal on any of the official Day Before social media channels, and while Levitate said he was given permission to post the announcement on Discord, he declined to clarify whether this will be the “raw gameplay” footage that was promised in January, saying, “That mystery I will leave to your own imagination until it hits tomorrow!” More confusingly, he declined to say when the footage will be aired. There’s no countdown placeholder video on the Fntastic YouTube (opens in new tab) channel, so I guess we’re just supposed to wing it.
It’s also interesting that the graphic announcing the upcoming gameplay reveal is just text laid overtop an old screenshot. That’s not necessarily significant but after all the controversy I would think that a new gameplay reveal warrants a new image, if only to solidify the idea that something “new” is indeed coming.
The reveal is apparently happening, though: Several hours after the word went out on Discord, a Fntastic rep confirmed in an email sent to PC Gamer that 10 minutes of “uncut” gameplay will be revealed on February 2, at 10 am PT, on Fntastic’s YouTube channel (opens in new tab).
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