A shocking announcement has been made by developer Fntastic, which is delaying its MMO The Day Before a few weeks before its release and moving it to Unreal Engine 5.

The Day Before has received a lot of attention since its unveiling, as it’s a serious MMO with a The Last of Us 2 feel. Players will be gubering vehicles, houses and skyscrapers to rebuild a colony of survivors while somehow surviving in a post-pandemic world. Developer Fntastic has always had huge goals for the game, and even once showed off a ray tracing gameplay trailer for The Day Before. The combination of all of this makes it the most coveted game on Steam.

News of The Day Before has been very slow in coming, but gamers have finally learned that it will be coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X after its PC release. Finally, they even learned that it will be released in June 2022 – roughly a month away at this point. However, in a surprising move, developer Fntastic has pushed back the release date for The Day Before.

Delays aren’t uncommon in the games industry, but the circumstances surrounding this one are odd to say the least. In a statement to IGN, developer Fntastic announced that it will be replacing The Day Before with Unreal Engine 5. There’s no doubting the sheer power of the new engine, and several games have been confirmed for Unreal Engine 5 in recent weeks. This will undoubtedly allow The Day Before to reach its goals visually and beyond, but switching engines so close to release is a bold move.

Developer Fntastic has announced that The Day Before will be delayed to March 1, 2023 for this reason. This means they plan to release 10 months after the engine change. For comparison, Kingdom Hearts 3 changed engines early in the development cycle, and many still believe that this played a big part in why the game was in development for so long. The engine change and the expectation that the game would be released in less than a year shows either the development capabilities of Unreal Engine 5 or the sheer ambition of Fntastic.

The reason for the last-minute change can be traced back to the popularity of The Day Before. Fntastic said it was aware of the responsibility of delivering an outstanding MMO for The Day Before and expressed its gratitude that so many people were interested. He further explained that a more advanced open-world engine would allow for “an even more fantastic gameplay experience for The Day Before”.

The Day Before will be released on 1 March 2023 and will be available for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Source: IGN