Regarded by many as a failed scam, Fntastic, the developers of The Day Before have announced that the game will be retired and the servers shut on January 22, 2024. The company made the announcement today on X. However, the comments that followed the announcement suggest that the game will not be missed.
“Dear community,” the statement posted on the company’s official handle began. “We regret to inform you that the development company Fntastic has officially ceased operations, and as a result The Day Before will be retired and the servers will be turned off on 22 January 2024.”
The company reiterated that they are working with investors to refund players who purchased the game while suggesting that some players may have already gotten refunds. However, we could not verify this claim at the time of writing this post.
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“As previously communicated, Mytona as the investor, has been working in collaboration with Steam to facilitate refunds for all game purchases. For any players that have not already had their purchase refunded, Steam will now proactively refund all remaining players.”
Ending the notice, Fntastic thanked the community for their support “throughout the project’s life”. They further stated that one of the reasons why they could not continue with The Day Before was because they didn’t have a development team anymore.
“We extend our gratitude for the community’s support throughout the project’s life,” read the third paragraph of the announcement. “Unfortunately, without a development team, we had no alternative choice but to officially close the project.”
Fntastic thanked everyone that stood behind them through the journey and wished them a happy holiday season. How The Day Before went from being one of the most wish-listed games on Steam to becoming one of the most criticized games on the platform deserves to be studied.
Fans will not miss The Day Before
After multiple delays accompanied by phony excuses, Fntastic finally launched The Day Before on December 7. The zombie survivor game was hugely criticized for its weak story, empty world, and performance issues.
Fntastic released a patch on December 8, that highlighted several performance fixes including sound and service fixes. However, the hotfix was not enough to save the game. In fact, after the release of The Day Before, many wished it never happened. Four days after the release of The Day Before, Fntastic announced closure.
We could hardly see any comment that expressed sympathy over the announcement that The Day Before servers will be shut down exactly a month from today. The sentiment that was mostly shared under the announcement was that The Day Before was a scam.
“Since you have a great history in scamming, it’s weird that you couldn’t pull this one,” commented @MshariAFC. “Should be experienced by now”.
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“At this point, I don’t think there’s really any apology that’s guna fix the damage,” wrote @SlimMerc631. “Just refund players at this point and remain silent and leave the gaming industry to actual developers and publishers.”
One of the most hilarious comments that we read under the announcement that The Day Before servers will shut down in January was from @BakedGrizz who wrote “The Day Before was such a perfect title for a game that had its peak positive hype the day before it came out.”
However, there was a comment that suggested the developers wanted to make a great game but were limited by the head of the company. While we cannot independently verify that claim, crunch in studios is something that happens often. Developers often complain about it but can hardly change their situation.
Sadly, in the end, the developers are the ones that take the hit in the form of layoffs while the executives that made the bad decision continue to feed fat. By the way, will you miss The Day Before? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
