The controversy surrounding The Day Before hasn’t been a quiet affair, with players accusing Devs FNTASTIC of manipulating thousands of anticipating fans in the community. The studio has now announced its closure, stirring doubts about whether the once-promising zombie survival experience is shutting down, too.
Keeping all the concerning allegations against the studio aside, The Day Before, as an idea, did have a lot of potential, and some players in the community remained hopeful that the devs would make things better with time. With the development team now disbanding along with the studio, however, playing the game at all could be a challenge.
Is The Day Before shutting down for good?
According to FNTASTIC’s announcement on Dec. 12, while the studio is shutting down effective immediately, The Day Before will continue to remain playable—but there’s a catch. Not only is The Day Before no longer purchasable via Steam, but FNTASTIC also said it’s working with Valve to issue refunds to anyone who wants it, regardless of whether they played for longer than Steam’s two-hour threshold.
So, The Day Before will only remain playable for those who purchased it and didn’t opt for a refund.
In addition, the studio is likely ceasing all development on the game—an obvious move considering it’s shutting down. But we can’t say for sure because both Mytona and FNTASTIC have put a pin on the game’s future (Mytona is The Day Before’s publisher).
“At the moment, the future of The Day Before and Propnight is unknown, but the servers will remain operational,” FNTASTIC wrote in its official statement.
“We’re in contact with FNTASTIC regarding the future of the game,” Mytona wrote in an apology statement.
What went wrong with FNTASTIC and The Day Before?
After postponing its release multiple times and receiving a lot of backlash from the community, FNTASTIC finally launched The Day Before in early access on Dec. 7. But—as several naysayers would say, “I told you so!”— the launch bombed, with the title quickly becoming one of the worst-rated games on Steam.
Most complaints claimed that FNTASTIC misinformed players about The Day Before being an “open-world MMO survival” experience when it was an extraction shooter all along. Others weren’t happy about its lackluster content, underdelivered mechanics and visuals, and rampant performance issues.
Players didn’t just call out FNTASTIC for its questionable marketing techniques with its “first big experience;” they also accused the studio of trying to commit fraud and scam fans.
Mere days after The Day Before’s disastrous launch, on Dec. 11, FNTASTIC announced the studio’s closure because of a lack of funds to continue developing the game and said refunds would be available for those who wanted them, marking the end of one of the biggest controversies in the video game industry.
