First reported by 80 Level, The Day Before studio Fntastic has reportedly sued Russian news site Yakutia.info, which is based in Fntastic’s founders’ home region of Yakutia in Siberia. The suit claims Yakutia.info damaged Fntastic’s reputation by referring to the company’s behavior surrounding The Day Before as a “scam.”
The news comes from Yakutia.info itself, which says the suit pivots on one story that referred to Fntastic’s activity as a “scam,” as well as another story that paraphrased YouTube influencers who accused The Day Before of having copied or “borrowed” mechanics from other games. As a note, I accessed Yakutia.info’s story via Google’s automated translation.
Yakutia.info characterizes the word “scam” as “relatively new in the Russian language,” and argues it did not intend to accuse Fntastic of fraud. Yakutia.info amended both stories after the fact, changing “scam” to “embarrassment,” and directly quoting the influencers instead of paraphrasing them.
Yakutia.info also draws attention to the way it was singled out among legions of press, influencers, and regular gamers for its criticism of Fntastic and The Day Before, insinuating that the site was singled out for its small size and potential difficulty defending itself legally.
At the same time, the word “scam” carries an implication of knowing malice, and while Fntastic is now infamous for releasing (and un-releasing) an utter flop of a game after an overheated hype cycle, Yakutia.info may find itself saddled with the burden of proof for showing that Fntastic’s actions were criminal, and not just incompetent.
But it’s hard to seriously advocate for Fntastic in any case. Any damage to the company’s reputation by Yakutia.info is surely a drop in the bucket compared to the truly international, boundary-defying scorn earned by The Day Before.
Long Steam’s most-wishlisted game, the Day Z-alike survival game was a buggy, empty mess that was shortly taken offline. I may hesitate to use the s-word to describe The Day Before, but plenty of influencers, YouTubers, and commenters have shown no such compunction, making the singling out of Yakutia.info a curious development.
Fntastic’s poor communication with players, grand promises about the game, use of “volunteer” labor, and the level of attention it garnered certainly don’t help its case, and I’m very curious to see what might come out of this lawsuit’s discovery period.
Fntastic, god bless it, is still trying to make games. Last September, Fntastic failed to fund a new game on Kickstarter, with its physics-based multiplayer proposal raking in just $2,351 of a nearly $15,000 goal. It subsequently announced a new project, and has gone back to the “volunteer” labor idea that previously drew so much criticism, putting out a call for designers to compete for their map to be included in the game.
