Fntastic, the studio behind The Days Before, has declared its closure just days after the game’s botched early access release.
The Day Before, previously one of Steam’s most-wishlisted games, “has failed financially, and we lack the funds to continue,” Fntastic announced in a post on X (formerly Twitter), stating that the game “has failed financially, and we lack the funds to continue.” The Day Before briefly rose to the top of Steam’s best-sellers and most-played games lists before plummeting dramatically as negative user reviews poured in.
We put all of our efforts, resources, and man-hours into developing The Day Before, our first large-scale game. We truly wanted to deliver fresh patches to unlock the full potential of the game, but we don’t have the funding to do so.”
The Day Before’s release was widely panned due to game-crashing flaws and server troubles. Fntastic has also been accused of misrepresenting players about the nature of The Day Before, with many noting on how it was an extraction shooter rather than the open-world survival MMO that had been promised. Because of these charges, as well as the game’s other technical faults, it rapidly received a “Mostly Negative” user review score on Steam. Only 20% of over 18,000 user evaluations are presently positive.
Following the game’s release, Fntastic released one hotfix update for The Day Before on December 8, correcting many performance issues and serious bugs. It appears that this will be the game’s final update, with the future of one of Fntastic’s prior games, Propnight, also in doubt.
“At the moment, the future of The Day Before and Propnight is unknown, but the servers will remain operational,” the message said.
In a Steam early access Q&A, Fntastic claimed that The Day Before would be in early access for “six to eight months,” with plans to add extra content and eventually raise the game’s price. The Day Before is still available for $40 on Steam as of this writing, and no comments about the game’s future have been made on its official Steam website. [Update: The Day Before is no longer available for purchase on Steam, however it’s unclear whether this is due to Fntastic or Valve.]
Users on X are accusing Fntastic of defrauding players and demanding refunds.
“Scam, ya’ll taking the money you made and are running from your scam, you false advertised The Day Before for years, and put out a game nothing like what you advertised,” Synth Potato said in a post on X. “We all know you aren’t shutting down because you lack funds, but because you’re taking the money and running.”
Prior to its launch, Fntastic was criticized for employing unpaid “volunteer” workers. The Day Before’s release date had been pushed back several times over the years, initially due to the studio’s decision to switch the project to Unreal Engine 5, and most recently due to a trademark issue with a calendar app of the same name.
