Game dev company Fntastic has announced it will be closing its doors mere days after the problematic early access launch of “The Day Before.” This is just the latest development in a seemingly never-ending list of issues surrounding the video game.
“Today, we announce the closure of Fntastic studio,” the company posted in a statement on X (formally Twitter). “Unfortunately, The Day Before has failed financially, and we lack the funds to continue. All income received is being used to pay off debts to our partners.”
The company explained that it wanted to release more patches “to reveal the full potential of the game.” [Or to, you know, to fix the bugs that plagued it]. Fntastic insisted that “we didn’t take any money from the public during the development of The Day Before; there were no pre-orders or crowdfunding campaigns. We worked tirelessly for five years, pouring our blood, sweat, and tears into the game.” It also clarified that the future of “The Day Before” and its other game “Propnight” is “unknown, but the servers will remain operational.” Even though they have been delisted on Steam.
Mytona, the game’s publisher, also released a statement on X. “We are sorry for the fact that the game didn’t meet the expectations of the majority of the players. Today we will work with Steam to open up refunds for any players who choose to make a refund. We’re in contact with Fntastic regarding the future of the game.”
The problem is, this closure and offer comes after fans did spend money on the game. “The Day Before,” was selling early access on Steam for $39 a piece. Its page is flooded with so many negative reviews, it became one of Steam’s 10 worst-reviewed games of all time.
Many of these complaints centered around bugs and server issues which they could have possibly fixed through the aforementioned patches. But the bigger problem is many customers felt misled about what the game even was. “The Day Before,” was billed as a vast open-world zombie apocalypse MMO. While, in reality, it’s an extraction shooter. This lead several players to start calling it a scam. These issues caused the game’s player count to drop by 90% only four days after its early access launch.
But the controversy around “The Day Before,” goes back even farther than this. Fntastic has already come under fire for using unpaid workers to develop the game. A choice they defended last year saying the “company’s values are built upon the idea of volunteering which means that every person who works or volunteers here is doing that willingly.”
Fntastic and Mytona claim that they are working with Steam to issue refunds to any players that request them. While still being adamant that both companies saw zero profit from “The Day Before” sales. You can read the company’s full statements below:
