The Scam Before | Cold Take

The Day Before has come and gone, but was it truly a scam? How did it get so popular? Let's take a look.
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[@yupjuliansje]

Hearing this man say "it takes more then thick thighs to pull the wool over my eyes" is a priceless gamer moment

[@Mene0]

5:41

[@huzi990]

Thick thighs save lives

[@Rehteal]

You say that, but think about how many gamers have thighs pulling the wool over them so hard that they're becoming mummified. I help work on a project that has some elements which appeal to a very specific subset of people. I've seen em.

[@AintNobodyAtAll]

"Cheeked up" was pretty great too.

[@azuarc]

Meanwhile, I'm seriously considering buying Atelier Ryza, just because.

[@This-Was-Sparta]

I just genuinely don't understand what made people go so crazy over this game, especially considering how little we got to see of it over the years it was supposedly in development for.

[@VeraTheTabbynx]

Yeah I really don't get it, none of the trailers had anything original or really did anything to say that this would be a game worth talking about.

[@ExValeFor]

It's really hard to comprehend just how stupid people are on average, but events like this put it into painful perspective

[@theomegajuice8660]

I'm amazed that anyone gets excited about (alleged!) open world zombie survival games anymore. That well has been so well and truly tapped that I immediately tune out whenever I hear it... probably why I only started hearing about this game after it finally collapsed

[@Gulyus]

Honestly? People go gaga over open world games despite 99% of them being bad. "This one will be the dayz killer!" "This will be better than botw!" People want to be lied to sadly.

[@spyder7648]

I think a lot of people see a framework and fill in the gaps with what they want to see. its easy to get hyped about something that you know nothing about because you make it what you want to be in your head.

[@nicklager1666]

I think we all can have big debt of gratitude towards the work Nick does in the background. Without Calandra this would be much harder for the content creators.

[@ng_canadian]

Nick is out here, being the biggest Chad of video editors

[@Darkfyreofthezenith]

@@ng_canadian I think calling him a video editor is a bit of a misnomer. He is/was the “editor in chief”, so think J Jonah Jameson. Probably shouts for Yahtz to “get me animatics of Spider-Man!” But in all seriousness his job is to be in charge of helming the SS Second Wind ship, and he does a damn good job of it.

[@Doomerang01]

@@Darkfyreofthezenith Wait a sec, so Nick is actually JK Simmons?!

[@DanGamingFan2846]

"Takes more than thicc thighs to pull the wool over my eyes." Frost really is the greatest wordsmith of our time. Rule of thumb: If there's no unscripted gameplay footage in any of the trailers, it's going to be bad. Honestly, I'm surprised this got as much hype as it did, zombie shooters are pretty dime a dozen nowadays. Of course, this is less of a zombie shooter, and more of a post apocalyptic walking simulator where you barely use your gun. Not surprised it turned out to be a big scam.

[@watershipup7101]

I couldn't agree more.

[@hazukichanx408]

Even unscripted gameplay footage can be edited to show the best parts of a game, and none of the half-assed parts. No trailer will tell you the whole story, unfortunately (unless it is, by marketing standards, very poorly made... or by human standards, what some people would call "honest"). When in doubt, be skeptical. You'll find yourself getting burned a lot less when your expectations are low to begin with. ;)

[@genjis5155]

Frost is a poetic genius.

[@ihatecabbage7270]

@@hazukichanx408 most people do NOT CARE, they want a zombie game, buy a zombie game, got a lame game and just move on after took a massive L.

[@DragonKnight90001]

But at the same time if it is scripted we know it’s just for show to build up hype and pre orders and most games know it’s not in the final product/ does not represent the final product cause it is still in development. I mean look at Ubisoft they are known for their downgrades with previous games.

[@Itachigan22]

To call this game a fiasco would be an understatement. Props for covering it though. Scams like this should be archived as a warning that something like this could happen again, and should serve as a reminder to us gamers to not fall for this and be smart with our money.

[@invictus4050]

@@MysteriousStranger50 Just because you're correct doesn't mean you're right.

[@Vzzdak]

For me, IGN is somewhat a red flag in itself. Hearing their name reminds me of the bad rating they gave to Alien Isolation.

[@klaykid117]

I'm looking at another exclusively IGN announced a game called blight with the exact same skepticism

[@mirkinzaathnar3167]

@@MysteriousStranger50 let's all laugh at an industry am I right? Haha

[@enskje]

@@MysteriousStranger50 If it counts for anything, I never preordered another game after No Man's Sky. It was a harsh lesson, but I did learn from it. Then again, one drop does not make an ocean.

[@lyinarbaeldeth2456]

Honestly the most unbelievable part of all this is that The Day Before was the most-wishlisted game on Steam. There are so, so many online competitive co-op/pvp open world zombie shooters with crafting and survival elements. My Steam queue is flooded with them every time there's a sale. How can that market not be well past its saturation point? Are all the fans of the genre just shambling from one title to the next like some sort of mass herd?

[@colmryan9289]

Like some kind of… zombies?

[@azuarc]

I would've thought Silksong or something triple A (or maybe more recently Hades 2). But competitive online multiplayer gamers are a different breed, and their market trends are quite different.

[@grindtoothmedia120]

Thanks to bots, stolen/hacked/sold accounts, and stupid humans, how the modern internet can be gamed, cannot be understated. Skepticism is important for navigating the webs. Hone it, feed it, and ingest healthy doses of it.

[@DannyboyO1]

@@grindtoothmedia120 It was "most wishlisted" before I first heard of it. That set off a few alarm bells by itself. Especially when you look at what else was on that list. More wishlisted than *Silksong* and freakin' Hades 2? I can believe it was skulduggery that put it there. It didn't make them not actually do any dev work until the last couple years. That part's weird no matter what. But I look at the ingredients. Half of the games weren't refunded. So, there was a transfer of money, and a veneer of a shitty game to cover for it. There's a publisher with a company town in Russia. There's a very real possibility the wishlisting was bot activity. Russia's got serious sanctions and botnets out the ass. I think... this wasn't anybody's plan A. I think... I think putting this on the top of the wishlist was a joke or a test of reach. But then, being at the top of the list got the game a lot more attention before people sorta moved on. And then the war started, and Russia got sanctions out the ass. Like I said, it's not plan A, I think this is lemonade made out of extra lemons. But... those involved knew before the 7th that this was going to happen, and did it anyway. The publisher has made no statements about suing the devs... so they don't view it as malfeasance (or, yanno, can't do that without the devs confessing to a lot more, potentially). But also, this doesn't have to relate to the Russian intelligence community in any official capacity. It could have turned into a way to get a lot of money out of a lot of stolen credit cards. I just... don't know how much gets eaten by processing fees from the refunds. That might tank the hell out of the whole theory.

[@PunishedDad]

I found this game on my steam wishlist and I can't recall at all ever wishlisting it

[@TheMonghy]

Wait, how are there still defenders of this game to the point where Nick had to actually debate them? Are people so blind to obvious scams, even after the jig is up? 💀

[@jeffsmith3550]

Have you seen the United States? Yes, we are blind to obvious scams.

[@ShermTank7272]

It's easier to fool a person than to convince them they've been fooled

[@userunnamed5204]

The only people who were scammed are devs. Buyers can refund their money, devs can't refund their 5 years of work for 2 moronic CEOs.

[@GmodPlusWoW]

Some people keep denying that Covid is real. These humans are too easily deceived, and they need a proper immune system.

[@riemaennchen]

Well according to SteamDB there are still around 150 people playing this game. I guess it was the game or their dreams all along.

[@stevenblakeley4452]

"Nick Calandra, Editor in chief for the Escapist at the time" that was some subtle shade

[@elvastan]

I quite like the parallels between the Day Before, and the game that outsold it that came out the same day, Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. Owlcat Games and Fntastic are pretty similar studios, Owlcat even being 2 years younger than Fntastic (Founded in 2017 vs 2015) and they both started out with a kickstarted game. However, Owlcat has released 3 major games since it was founded, all extremely well-recieved. The Development of Rogue Trader was done transparently, and as a result has been fantastically successful. We knew what the game actually was for years, and it was more successful despite never being shown off on IGN or Gamespot. It shows the stark differences between people who know what they're doing and people who don't.

[@Nayenezgani]

While Owlcat is undoubtedly more skilled and more successful than Fntastic, I feel I do have to mention that Owlcat has never released a game that was completed and fully playable at launch. Even Rogue Trader, their most polished game to date, falls apart after the first few acts with loads of bugs and broken quests.

[@thedeathray8620]

​@@NayenezganiThat is certainly a fair statement, but bugs can be fixed. A game pulled from the store after 4 days cannot.

[@Nayenezgani]

@@thedeathray8620 Definitely true. To Owlcat's credit, they do support their games quite well with patches and DLC.

[@thosebloodybadgers8499]

@@Nayenezgani Hell, this year's GOTY - Baldur's Gate 3, has a rather disappointing third act, the game overall being in a state of jank all the way through to 1.0, from what I've heard. Getting a big RPG simply working and polished enough to see the surface of seems like high expectations as is. It's like a curse of the genre.

[@warmachine5835]

@@thosebloodybadgers8499I've actually compared Rogue Trader and BG3 a few times on the "third act collapse" problem, since both had early access/beta periods where "playtesters" (a term I use loosely because of my next words) didn't have access to the final act/chapters of content. Which means that those areas didn't get the beta treatment and no one could reasonably raise the alarm that if this is released now, the wheels will fall off as soon as players reach Act 3/Chapter 4. If I had a nickle... etc etc. BG3 had a much longer time in Early Access than Rogue Trader had in beta, yet both have a similar problem--it leaves me wondering if there's a problem with how companies think about playtesting RPGs and other narrative-heavy games.

[@purpleyeti705]

Bro, the raspy, smokey, noir voice your using, combined with the dragnet/cold case files/unsolved mysteries structure of this video is absolutely blowing me away. Great work!

[@angelnickl]

"Within reason" is the most impossible thing you could ask someone to do when getting hype over things. But I agree.

[@cpkg.mp4]

The irony of suggesting a "Watch Dog" series for misleading trailers, because I sure remember that first trailer for Watch_Dogs...

[@AceRevero]

The whole "The Day Before" really drives him the fact that gamers out there want that "The Division" experience. See, The Division had something that many people wanted in that game, but it was bogged down by its RPG elements that were added, i.e., the rarity system. So... if some group of folks want to make a semi-arcade, extraction/survival shooter, there is money to be made there.

[@RavenGlenn]

I'm so blown away by the fact over 200k bought this game. I thought everyone knew this "game" was a scam and not even remotely real.

[@ihatecabbage7270]

fools will be fools, they do not care as all they want is a pvp zombie survival shooter online only trash

[@reno_2200]

I see it as being a bit like pro wrestling Most fans are 'just' fans and it's only a smaller subset that really gets into the behind-the-scenes stuff, but since they're the people you'll 'bump into' online, they seem over-represented.

[@luizpanigassi]

Now we need Yahtzee making a "Let's all laugh at the industry that never learns anything teeheehee" lookalike for Second Wind. This one, alongside Redfall and other fiascos deserve it.

[@SMG-vx3mu]

i think this is what replaced that.

[@luizpanigassi]

@@SMG-vx3mu actually no, that's the Cold Take, Frost does it. Yahtzee did a couple of those in the old ZP!

[@SMG-vx3mu]

@@luizpanigassi no i mean, even back during The Escapist era, i think cold takes was supposed to replace the occasional guide to retarded/special moments in gaming history. though tbf, a variant of those kind of vids has yet to show up on fully ramblomatic, so maybe? but considering this and some of the stuff that was on the escapist version. i think it was basically turned into cold take. though i guess another thing that could've also replaced the occasional guide to retarded/special moments in gaming history is Extra Punctuation/Semi-Ramblomatic. which is voiced by yahtzee and is a side series that tag alongs with ZP/FR respectively. i'll be surprised if i see something like the occasional guide to retarded/special moments in gaming history in a FR episode, but there are already like two things that does similar jobs to it: one, while being voiced by someone who isnt yahtzee, is far more simillar to the OG(R/S)MGH MO; and EP/SR, which is voiced by yahtzee, but doesnt really cover the stuff you would find in a OG(R/S)MGH video.

[@JasonX909]

May be part of the ZP copyright... I hate IP laws sometimes

[@luizpanigassi]

@@JasonX909 well, they can just change the name like Ramblomatic! Different name, same content, no one cares.

[@GmodPlusWoW]

NGL, a "watchdog" series would be pretty cool. And if it had a bloodhound in a trilby and trenchcoat, that'd probably give Ludo a playmate.

[@ObadiahtheSlim]

Or it's just Ludo's alter ego.

[@jimmy1232ya]

A series finding red flags in trailers would go crazy.

[@SubSpace-bs5fr]

It's beyond poetic that The Day Before ended the days after.

[@GZilla311]

Two days after. It was up for 4 days and if it started the day before…

[@gakuka]

I can't get enough of these deep dives into issues in the gaming community, and I really admire how Frost can lay out the facts and describe all the conspiracies without committing to any of them. It's hard to separate these things as an outsider, and now I feel like I can actually discuss it without being completely lost.

[@PanduPoluan]

And doing it with that oh-so-nice Noir voice narration 👍🏼

[@Robstafarian]

If you have the same interest in the gaming industry, then check out Jim Stephanie Sterling's nonbinary finery.

[@gakuka]

@@Robstafarian after that Breath of the Wild review and reaction following it, that's a blanket "no" 😂.

[@Robstafarian]

@@gakuka You do not want to watch Steph because they chastised people who behaved like spoiled children for behaving badly? The reaction to Steph's Breath of the Wild review is part of why gaming culture has such a bad reputation.

[@gakuka]

​@@RobstafarianI could argue that the review itself is why gaming has such a bad reputation. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but Sterling was dismissive and combative in their defense, arrogant and holier-than-thou. I disagree with hatred or vitriol against Sterling and CERTAINLY with the DDOS attack, but Sterling was not innocent and everyone knows it. Sterling was trying to provoke a response and they succeeded, good for them, and I wish them well in their future endeavors which I will casually ignore. I also respect anyone that chose to follow them, of course! There's more than enough room to choose to whom we give our attention.

[@FubukiTheIcyKing]

Man its gotta be hard to pick worst game of the year since they seem determined to one up each other every other day.

[@matosz23]

Forspoken Redfall Gollum Kong The Walking Dead The Day Before Which am I missing? Although Forspoken may fall in top blandest.

[@kempo_95]

@matosz23 Starfield seems popular for worst game. Although personally I would put it in the blandest list.

[@matosz23]

@@kempo_95 Starfield sounds like a bland one to me.

[@peterclarke7240]

I feel like we need a new category, called "most creatively and morally bankrupt."

[@SimuLord]

@@kempo_95Starfield is the Platonic ideal of a bland game. No soul, no spice, nothing but a game from a studio whose game engine and design philosophy have aged alongside each other since 2002. Forspoken at least tried to be good. It failed horrifically and became a meme, but you've got to land like Icarus to crack "worst game" nowadays. Starfield didn't fly any higher than I do when I try to jump on my 46-year-old knees and ankles.

[@jsj0520]

The weirdest thing for me is that I never even heard of this game until it released and everyone started calling it a scam. And I’m on top of all kinds of gaming news

[@Mooo105]

Yeah, pretty sure this game popped into existence just as an alternate timeline merged into ours or something. Hello, alternate timeline people.

[@94knux]

Same, I’ve never heard of any of this.

[@gabrielstrong7322]

I think I heard of this with the trailer, and I think I thought it was a prequel to the last of us

[@nadtz]

This was called out by some smaller youtbers as soon as the original 'gameplay' video came out. I've been following this fiasco for about a year on a couple of channels so info was definitely out there well before the disaster of a launch.

[@ironviper72]

I heard of it a couple times but never thought it was so hyped and wishlisted

[@greenhowie]

It would be nice to think that this will never happen again. However,

[@matosz23]

Gamers? Learning from past mistakes? I too wish to live in that alternate timeline.

[@Mene0]

Let's all laugh at an industry that never learns anything tee hee hee

[@Mene0]

I'm digging Frost's investigative journalism drive. Keep it coming Also 3:55 too #relatable

[@Asaski09]

Played this at Fyre Festival, loved every minute.

[@imarobobot8795]

Did they have a booth at DashCon, too?

[@Asaski09]

​@@imarobobot8795do you guys not have Tumblrs?

[@thechevyferrari9559]

“Tin Foil Fedora.” Best line ever.

[@burningsnow9870]

M'Egyptian Alien *Tips fedora*

[@danny_decheeto8300]

Idk but this guy sounds like a 1920s PI breaking down a mystery to a group of befuddled cops and I vibe with it

[@xethier]

I'd argue the failure here is the Early Access model and games development's current state overall. It's obvious that the corporations involved were not operating in good faith. (for whatever reason) It's equally obvious that the system we've allowed to develop over the last 20 years has become an unregulated trainwreck as we see more and more of these stories cropping up, each one more absurd than the last.

[@Robstafarian]

Capitalism is a lot more than 20 years old.

[@commanderwyro4204]

IGN and Nvidia need to be held some what accountable for promoting the game so much and offering legitimacy to it, without actually playing it themselves

[@alldayagain]

Partially unrelated to the topic at hand, but I hope once there is a good enough catalog of "cold take" owned by second wind, you guys do a compilation video like they used to do for zero punctuation. Real great sleep Vibe for me personally. And no offense intended. Just the tone and the thoughtful nature usually what I sleep to.

[@imarobobot8795]

+1

[@TheLordDracula]

I love how you go through and talk about all the juicy conspiracy possibilities before pointing out that, like many things in life, it's probably incompetence not malice. And then you go on to point the finger at everyone including us gamers who keep letting ourselves fall for this crap time and time again. Keep up the fantastic work Sebastian!

[@chwenhoou]

Mondays are the worst. Thankfully, a Cold Take with Frost helps us ease into the day.

[@persephonemcguffin5606]

I love the fact youtube auto tagged this video as featuring Watch_Dogs gameplay when it was all The Day Before.

[@Rhyno012345]

Thanks for actually taking us through the timeline. I’ve heard bits and pieces of the story over the last week or two, but this is the first video I’ve seen that’s summarized everything so nicely

[@corylong5808]

So glad to see this video is accurate unlike so much reporting on this situation. Countless commentators and KZbinrs are claiming the investors are profiting off this disaster and it was planned to fail from the start. That’s obviously not how any of this works. Not that there aren’t people, and industry practices to blame, but this is the first video I’ve seen actually bother to research the situation beyond what their vibes are telling them.

[@metaljay77]

That's the Internet for you. They'll latch onto the biggest news story and scream it as loud as they can to get views. It's happened with recent KZbin controversies too. Once the internet grabs hold of an opinion they are not letting go, regardless of future facts or developments. This game didn't even get a chance to improve or allow info to come out about what actually happened. A lot of the Internet will now believe it was a planned scam. I'm glad Cold Take did a deeper dive instead of screaming about it being a scam.

[@yourgoodfriend276]

I mean, refund the steam copies all you want, but the crowdfunded and Mytona money was pocketed

[@ExValeFor]

@@yourgoodfriend276 mytona ARE basically the same as Fntastic, they're owned by relatives

[@carolbaker2773]

My take on it was that the developers were a startup that had a vision for a game that they did not have the skills to make and could not afford to hire those that had said skills. And all the delay tactics were used because they kept thinking if they had more time, they could make it work. But the truth was that it couldn't work because they did not have the necessary skills to do it in the first place. I remember having friends that worked for a start-up and all the random bullshit that the owners made her do. Like she was supposed to be the social media manager but they had her learning code so she could maintain their website. Those might seem related, but most realize that those are two very different skill sets and she ended up spending more of her free time learning how to code than what she was paid to do. Any complaint from her was met with "we are all pulling our extra weight to make our dream come true". At some point she started to have medical issues from the stress and lack of sleep due to long hours and was only being paid minimum wage (when she was paid that is). All for the promise that one day they would all make it big and be rich for being there at the start of something great.

[@arandombard1197]

To me it seems obvious that this is largely just incompetence and not a scam. The game was overhyped and they just couldn't deliver.

[@jcace13]

I guess this is the quality of game you get when you call your employees volunteers.

[@WitchLunaEstrella]

This reminds me of another game, appropriately called Abandoned, that somehow got advertised on the Sony YT channel despite the team behind it having a trail of abandoned low effort projects and not much to show about this new game. The last thing I heard about it was that the weird trailer mobile app they were pushing ended up doing nothing. No idea if anything happened after that but I'd be surprised if it resulted in anything resembling an actual game.

[@fuzzydude64]

I remember that. They just had some pre-bought assets walking down a random hallway. The guy kept insisting that it was real, but the individual assets were quickly discovered. Eventually, they just quietly slipped into the aether. That dev had a long history of abandoning projects, not unlike Fntastic here!

[@potatodadave]

Finally the perfect topic for Frost's detective monologs

[@ProjectXA3]

Honestly I've never heard of this game before the controversy blew, so I appreciate the breakdown here and so fast. Frankly, the most shocking thing about this to me, is that people were _excited_ for a _PvP zombie-survival M M O_ in *_2023_*

[@Dzztzt]

A masterwork of investigative journalism. A real treat to watch!

[@ZechsMerquise73]

oh yeah its right up there with watergate

[@ZechsMerquise73]

I'm sure if The Day Before's devs had caught mr. ruiz looking up press releases on the game's trailers from the comfort of his own home, he was in real danger of being cut up into little bits and fed to the lead developer's dog.

[@Dzztzt]

@@ZechsMerquise73 they aren't Saudi Arabia

[@sisyr5615]

@@ZechsMerquise73 lol yeah a bit hyperbolic

[@Nezul]

Honestly, the moment I saw anything about the game alarm bells started screaming in my head. I bought into Crowfall, Dual Universe, amd Canelot Unchained. I can smell these things now, you just have to get hit a few times.

[@generalredbrook8123]

Really enjoyed this video, love the gumshoe detective style. Would watch more videos done in this style.

[@matthiasjones]

To the notion of "hyped within reason", there's an argument to be made that the real test of any complex system isn't how few catastrophes it has, but how easily it recovers from them. It seems this was a pretty decent recovery. As usual, this was quality meta-level analysis of the ridiculous on-goings in the real world of gaming. ❤

[@hackcubit9663]

I'll bet the guy at KiraTV is feeling quite justified regarding his predictions of The Day Before that he made some ten months ago in his own video regarding the project as it stood at the time. I remember my takeaway from that video being the conclusion that the developers kept announcing new projects (like Prop Night) in spite of showing so little regarding TDB's own development progress. This alone should have been a big enough red flag, but I can't blame consumers for being uninformed. I'd say if anything, the big takeaway here is that if the developer seems to be promising the stars, look them up on Google and KZbin, see if someone with more time or more skills at sleuthing than you, has already noticed red flags. If they have, definitely keep your guard up.

[@lordofheckfire51]

The issue is, as proven by Steph sterling, there is a lot of potential for pushback when it comes to any amount of anti-hype

[@serenity8839]

If there is anything that gives me hope for humanities ability to carry on through a struggle, its the Zombie survival community ability to back blatant scams and carry on with hope after every refund and onto the next scam. Truly resolve unmatched.

[@El-Burrito]

I somehow never heard of this game until all the controversy blew up around it.

[@Brunosky_Inc]

5:41 I swear, the music, your voice, and the writing here brings to mind something straight out of a detective noire spoof. I can practically see the rainstorm and you holding a lit cigarrette

[@brolicanklesanonymous]

Dude I'm so glad you and the other guy were able to take your thing that was so popular and keep it going over here on Second Wind. I had just found your stuff and binge watched it all like two months before you all left and I was thinking the formats you had wouldnt eber come back, but here they are! So cool!

[@thomasmusleh4049]

I like that watchdog Idea for theses types of things

[@Silvershadowfire]

This is turning into one of my favorite series where gaming is concerned. Your insights are always enlightening and I was looking forward to what you had to say about this mess. Thanks for the hard work (probably more work than the developers put into their game :) )

[@leightonpetty4817]

2023 has been the most fascinatingly chaotic year for major game releases-we are getting literally everything. Groundbreaking titles that reinvent genres, unfinished messes that shut down studios, sequels that take an already good title and elevate it to new heights, bland forgettable slop that functions but feels entirely soulless, outright scams, unexpected sleeper masterpieces-every release story under the sun. All that needs to be said: Baldur’s Gate 3 and LotR: Gollum released about two months apart. That alone proves 2023 is certainly a year to remember, for better _and_ for worse.

[@kyecaven]

Ya know Cold Take is starting to grow into a very close second favorite to Fully Ramblematic for me. All of the interesting crunch of industry talk mixed with relevant gaming topics. Good ass stuff, very excited for more. Love the flavor too

[@SimuLord]

Fully Ramblo probably ranks third among series on this channel for me, behind Cold Take and Semi Ramblo. I'm more interested in Yahtzee's deeper thoughts on game design, to be honest. Not that I don't love a good roast of a game after Yahtzee pulled a double shift at the cuss word factory.

[@TheRogueWolf]

I must not hype. Hype is the mind-killer. Hype is the thinking-death that brings wallet obliteration.

[@heinrichdubloon3139]

"Tinfoil fedora" for game speculation is a beautiful phrase. Thank you Frost, and well done Nick.

[@LeafseasonMagbag]

Here’s my shot at explaining how this happens: Asking “how did people fall for this?” should remember that people didn’t engage with the whole concept as we see now. A bunch of marketing infrastructure exists to hype these games and algorithms exist to serve that hype to precisely the people who want to get hyped for it most. And that social machinery will do that to any product, legitimate or not. How did people fall for it? The people who did got sold the world and were already selected to be most vulnerable to that kind of marketing. TLDR: Advertising companies try to sell you something regardless of if it’s real or not.

[@alejandrogiha7583]

Frost nailed the "an investigator down on his luck" theme.

[@KotharKorinth]

This is actually the first video I've seen since they started Second Wind. Idk y I watched this particular video. Idc about The Day Before, I barely even knew it existed. But man is this a cool idea for a show. The whole noir detective theme is really cool, I was enthralled despite not caring about the game at all. Lol Edit: Oh yea, and fuck those guys for scamming everyone. I get the idea of making video games is really exciting, but someone really needed to reinforce the idea into them of making smaller games and continuing to learn while doing that until u have enough successes to try something slightly bigger. Part of me wants to give them the benefit of the doubt and say they didn't intend to scam anyone, but this level of incompetence seems suspicious as hell. It stinks no matter how I try to think about it.

[@hensarita]

I’m so impressed with the channel! Freed from the clutches of the corporate, every single one of your shows has become spectacular. Excellent work!

[@BackdoorBarnyard]

I still have absolutely no idea how the Day Before ended up on my steam wish list. The first time I even heard of it was when it shut down.

[@Subject_Keter]

I mean if you saw that and fell for it, i dont got a bridge to sell for you.

[@rafaelflores2207]

Frost, I absolutely love that you’re still getting to do gaming investigative journalism. Your analysis (or postmortem in some cases) is insightful and entertaining. A perfect blend for someone like me who still loves games, but doesn’t have the time to dig in like I used to anymore. Keep up the fantastic work, and if I ever see ya, the next drink will be on me 🥃

[@emilybroderick2421]

A watchdog series would be really interesting. Instruct us on how to spot the signs of fishy game design, Teach

[@MrTombombodil]

Sebastian has the *perfect* voice and delivery style for this series.

[@Prof856]

Commenting to satiate the algorithm gods, but I also have to say, I can’t get enough of the second wind content. Keep it up!

[@roboknobthesnob]

The take is cold The voice is hot I can’t believe people bought this game When it clearly was a cash grab with no shame Mom’s spaghetti

[@Morgaen_Rei]

Best comment I saw on topic: - What is tradional occupation in Yakutia? - Deer farming.

[@SpectorCorp]

Love this host/narrator and his style for these videos.

[@Surkai25]

exactly why i ignore all hype and wait for the finished product before deciding.

[@internetmovieguy]

Thank you for covering this. It was well written, researched and kept me entertained the whole video. See you all when we return for the next over hyped game that people spent their money without researching.

[@Fluffkitscripts]

This might just be hindsight, but I’m astonished nobody seemed to notice that this project was more sketch than a takeout menu in the hands of a bored da vinci.

[@harrygoad329]

"It takes more than thick thighs to pull the wool over my eyes." This is the kind of Shakespearean eloquence that I subscribe for.

[@Lillian2167]

You have the perfect voice for a film noir detective, Frost. This was a great ep too!

[@mezarisage6055]

I just discovered this video series and I love the style, I never knew I needed a noir detective talking about videogames.

[@shia_labeouf]

5:41 Absolute poetry. I want this on a T-shirt.

[@mph8200]

Kudos Frost n all at Second Wind. quality was never in question, n views are through the roof to what was. Top Top buzz Nice one. Love it x

[@Nickle_King]

I’m glad you mentioned Watch Dogs at the end there. The game that was teased pre-release? That was something new. Something I wanted so bad, I could taste it. The game that came out? Another Grand Theft Auto clone. Scripted trailers will always be terrible, no matter what. All it is is showing a tangential related movie to the audience with the game’s engine being the projector. It is just as much nothing as the cinematic trailers, but more manipulative. And people are stupid. They see flashy lights and empty promises, they get their wallets ready to spend money, no questions asked except “why can’t I buy it sooner!?” Pathetic. People say they started to get suspicious of this game after the trailers started getting worse or started noticing the similarities to other trailers of successful games. I wrote this game off the moment it was announced. No name studio claiming to be making the moon, the sun, and all the candy you can eat without gaining weight? It doesn’t take a deep dive to look at that and see it as either a scam or a band of idiots. Critical thinking should have won out long before it did.

[@mateofantasma]

"It was not good, and it was not true', genius...

[@Bladebrent]

12:57 on this idea, I will say theres one big red flag in Balan Wonderworld's gameplay reveal that set me off even before the demo. This is gonna sound like such a know-it-all thing but I swear, its the first thing that tipped me off to the game's at least overall gameplay idea When the player characters change into their costumes, the new outfits clearly have nothing to do with the kid's normal design. Doesnt sound big but in other games with big costume gimmicks granting new powers, the player character's outfit is still reflected in the transformation. Rayman 3 and Ape Escape 3 being good examples; you still see the character's personality underneath the new form. In the Balan trailer however, there was absolutely nothing. Right away, what this tells you is that the player character, minus the costume, has a good chance to not do anything. The costumes dont harkin back to the default outfit cause the default outfit isnt special; theres no reason to get attached to the kid cause the kid isnt important. You can critique character design with this too and theres the chance the game just didnt adhere to this design philosophy to begin with, but it was this that was the first red flag for me.

[@brick7560]

Okay, but rolling up in a tank shouting " Heeeeyy Motherfuckeeerrrsss!" Is pretty on point lol

[@HugeFrigginGuy]

Well researched and excellently presented, as usual!

[@KitDivine]

"Takes a lot more than thicc thighs to pull the wool over my eyes" Frost is stronger than most of us 😂

[@musicenjoyer4203]

I’m so obsessed with the dissonant theme music for this show

[@Medb822]

This is my favorite video of yours! Great work.

[@TheSpectator64]

It's wild to think there are fan boys for "this game", truly there are very gullible people out there that you can sell them smoke and they will eat it in full.

[@RobVespa]

This is such a nice series. Love that opening. All the best!

[@revzsaz9418]

And that's why I wait for gameplay footage cool kids. I wanna see streamers and content creators I already know about playing the games and giving opinions *before* I reach for the credit card 😜 Cheers Frost and Nick 🍻 Happy Holidays! 🙏

[@AlienDude51]

I truly did not hear a word about this game before it's release, I'm way further out of the loop than I thought...

[@huzi990]

I still don't think I can believe that there was no scam involved when it comes to this "game".

[@Ecter]

Pretty cool that it ended up as a Cold Take episode! Good job on that research, Nick & Frost 👌🏿

[@Rubberman202]

To be honest, I literally never heard of The Day Before until someone in a stream I was watching joked about streaming the game, back when it was still on Steam even though the studio shut down. Apparently there's more to this mess than I realized...

[@hemogoblin6789]

I love the hardscrabble noir detective vibes in this video. Perfect

[@trise2033]

I honestly don't understand how anyone can still get hyped over advertisements. I used to buy in to that schtick, but I've had so much shit thrown at me that I can't trust any gaming company anymore. Gaming isn't a culture anymore, it's just another market... no more exciting than shopping for laundry detergent.

[@TheRockwhisperer]

Well done, all from Second Wind is good! This is so awesomely made!!!

[@gamepapa1211]

The lesson of this story is one as old as time: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Thank you for the reminder, Frost. And beware of hype, people!

[@zalankarpati4387]

Another banger for the Cold Take-series! If you take recommendations, I'd be more than happy if at one point you spoke about player anticipation and longstanding 'unfinished' series, like Half-Life or Titanfall.

[@Valius_]

Great video. In response to the end, I would love a "Watchdog" series picking apart red flags in trailers and bullshot. Good idea!

[@KeybladeSpirit]

Thank you for such an informative video, not only for explaining the scam but also for finally giving me an answer about what the hell an extraction shooter is.

[@cybertruckeralpha]

Bad development can be forgiven. Bad games happen to the best of devs. The real problem here is the full blown deceptive advertising, not just aimed at players but also prospective investors, which was the whole point of those bizarre "dev showcase" videos. Fishy as their marketing was, it was all effective enough to still net them 200 thousand sales in 4 days, and who knows how much budget money that went, at best, toward more pre-baked marketing, 300 dollar Unreal asset maps, and mostly their own pockets.

[@LotusEater14]

One of your theories about MYTONA and FNTASTIC being in it together... actually makes the most sense.

[@rairyu7528]

Stay hyped, within reason. Words to live by.