Update, 12/12/23:
Fntastic, the studio behind The Day Before, announced its closure yesterday. He then declared that the game’s servers, launched last week on December 7, would remain operational but that the future of The Day Before was unknown. Now, less than 24 hours later, The Day Before is no longer available for purchase on Steam (although you can still visit the page).
Additionally, anyone who purchased the game is entitled to a refund, according to Fntastic.
“Respond to those asking for refunds,” read a tweet from Fntastic. “(We and publisher Mytona) are currently working with Steam to enable refunds for any player who chooses to request one, regardless of the length of the game. Fntastic received $0 and will receive nothing from The Day Before sales .”
Notably, Steam allows users to refund games if they have played them for less than two hours and it has not been more than 14 days since the purchase date. Mytona, however, is offering refunds to anyone who purchased The Day Before.
Mytona also released the following statement on Twitter:
“To all players of The Day Before: As an investor of The Day Before, we would like to provide some updates on the current situation around the game. We are sorry for the fact that the game has not responded to the expectations of the majority of players.
Original story continues below…
Original story, 11/12/23:
Fntastic, the studio behind The Day Before, is closing its doors. It announced the closure today with a statement that comes just four days after The Day Before launched into early access on December 7.
The studio says The Day Before’s servers will remain operational, but it also says that at this time the future of the game (and its 2021 release, Propnight) is unknown. Fntastic opened in 2015 – its first game was The Wild Eight, released in 2017.
Here’s Fntastic’s statement on its closing, in full:
“Today we are announcing the closure of the Fntastic studio. Unfortunately, The Day Before has failed financially and we lack the funds to continue. All revenues received are used to repay the debts of our partners. We have invested all our efforts, our resources, and hours of work for the development of The Day Before, which was our first big game. We really wanted to release new patches to reveal the full potential of the game, but unfortunately we don’t have the funds to continue the work.
“It’s important to note that we took no 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. At this time, the future of The Day Before and Propnight is unknown, but the servers will remain operational. We apologize if we did not meet your expectations. We have did everything in our power, but unfortunately we miscalculated our capabilities. Creating games is an incredibly difficult endeavor.
The statement also lists its release schedule over the years, as you can see above.
The Day Before launched in Early Access last week, on December 7th. As reported by IGN, the game peaked at 38,104 concurrent users at launch on Steam, but today that number is down to 4,197 players, according to SteamDB. Over the course of four days, The Day Before also received enough negative reviews from players to place it among the top 10 lowest-rated games on Steam.
Over the years, The Day Before has been the subject of controversy, ranging from requests for pro bono work to various delays, broken promises, and more. Bizarrely, Fntastic deleted their entire YouTube channel, leaving the following note as their channel description: “We are grateful to everyone who supported us during these difficult years. It has been a fantastic journey over the last eight years .”
Have you played The Day Before? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Gn tech
