God Save Birmingham Makers Unfazed By 'Scam' Game Tags

When the medieval zombie survival game God Save Birmingham debuted in April, its 8-minute "gameplay" trailer ignited both excitement and skepticism. Jokes about its Birmingham setting aside, many felt the visuals seemed too polished to be genuine—some animations hinted that the trailer might feature pre-rendered footage, intended to mislead viewers.

More critically, God Save Birmingham was labeled a "fake game" or even a "scam" by some, who drew parallels to the ill-fated The Day Before. For context, The Day Before became one of the most disastrous game launches in recent years. Initially promoted as "the next generation of post-apocalyptic MMO open-world survival," it shipped as a stripped-down, bug-ridden extraction shooter. IGN gave it an almost unheard-of 1/10 rating, and its servers were taken down merely four days after its Early Access release.

After the April video gained traction, Korea’s Kakao Games and developer Ocean Drive presented a demo at PAX East and shared a new gameplay video that reflected the game’s actual development state more accurately. This update helped counter some doubts arising from the original trailer—yet allegations of it being another The Day Before-style scam persist.

With that in mind, I spoke to Ocean Drive CEO Jae Kim and head of publishing Jungsoo Lee to explore whether God Save Birmingham can escape The Day Before's shadow. Surprisingly, both executives appeared quite comfortable with the comparison. Read on to discover why.