The Day Before studio closes down – the chronicles of misery
13.12.2023
Translation: Veronica Bielawski
After bombing, the post-apocalyptic game The Day Before will not be developed further. The studio behind it, Fntastic, is shutting down.
The Day Before was periodically the most anticipated game on Steam. After delays and allegations of fraud, it was released last week. And turned out to be nigh unplayable. Now, The Day Before and its developer studio Fntastic are shutting down. The studio posted on X (formerly Twitter), stating it has run out of money and is therefore ceasing operations.
It also apologised for being unable to meet the high expectations. Reading the statement, I almost feel sorry for Fntastic. But looking back at the three years since the game’s announcement, this was, in fact, a foreseeable course.
«Too good to be true»
In January 2021, Fntastic released the announcement trailer for The Day Before. Like all other videos on the studio’s YouTube channel, it has since been deleted. But you can still watch the trailer here. It showcases a post-apocalyptic survival game in which you fight against zombies alongside other players in a large, online open world.
The trailer was very well received and set high expectations. But there were initial doubts. Some wondered: can a small, virtually unknown studio possibly make a game like this? What also gave cause for concern were the game scenes, which look like they could have been taken from The Division and The Last Of Us, two very popular games in a post-apocalyptic setting. User Techboah voiced their doubts on Reddit, saying this was a very obvious case of sounds too good to be true.
Other trailers for The Day Before showed rural regions in addition to the big city. Players were supposed to have the option of getting around in vehicles. In addition, survival elements such as weather, hunger, thirst and exhaustion were announced.
There’s no question that such a game would have sent a clear message to the established top dogs. The Day Before periodically ranked first among the most anticipated games on Steam. Initially, the release date was set for June 2022.
Release delays and negative headlines
Alas, 2022 came and went with no release. Fntastic postponed the planned date a total of four times. This raised doubts about the playability and even existence of the entire project, for instance in this article published on MADS (in German). The first postponement was announced in May 2022 with the release date being pushed back to March 2023. The developers cited the switch to Unreal Engine 5 as the reason. The studio provided no answers to questions about exact gameplay mechanics.
In June 2022, the studio came under fire when it became known that numerous unpaid volunteers were working on the project (linked article in German). Indie studios in particular rely on dedicated help from the community, for example in localising their games. Adding to the postponement, the excessively obvious copying from famous examples and the lack of real gameplay videos further fuelled the accusations and doubts about the game.
In January 2023, The Day Before briefly disappeared from the Steam store. The studio initially cited a bug and later trademark problems with the game name as the reason. The announced trailer with uncut gameplay wasn’t released either. And so it came as no great surprise when the release was yet again postponed to November and then December 2023.
The release: dashed expectations and bugs galore
On 7 December 2023, the fated day arrived. The Day Before was released in early access on Steam for 40 euros, or around 38 francs. As no external reviews were permitted in advance, there were no longer any great expectations regarding the quality of the game.
Lo and behold, The Day Before was indeed bursting with bugs. There are numerous compilation videos like this one circulating on YouTube, showcasing the problems the game has to contend with. The negative reviews on Steam are overwhelming: out of over 20,000 reviews, only 16 per cent are currently positive.
Players not only criticised the bugs, but also openly accused the developer studio of cheating. Inaccessible servers, performance problems including lags and crashes, poorly developed gameplay as well as missing promised features – the announced MMO survival game had become a poorly implemented extraction shooter. After the release, Fntastic even removed the original tags on Steam which had categorised the game as an MMO.
Judging by the Steam reviews, the game is far from ready for an early-access release. To charge 40 euros for a game in this state is brazen.
Scam or incompetence?
In its statement on the closure of the studio, Fntastic says that it had hoped to reveal «the full potential of the game» with new patches, but had overstretched themselves and ran out of money. It doesn’t take much imagination to believe that a small game studio might overestimate its capabilities. And it’s tragic when it does. But the state of their own game can’t have escaped the developers. To release it with such a hefty price tag borders on a scam, in my opinion.
Steam’s return policy allows anyone who has played a game for less than two hours to return it and get their money back. But even if you’ve spent more time playing The Day Before, you should start the return process if you want to give it back. After you get the automatic rejection, you can open a manual ticket. Your chances of getting a refund are reportedly good (linked article in German).
According to the studio, all income received is being used to pay off debts to its partners.
In the end, I’m left wondering: is it really high ambitions and overconfidence at play here? Or is it, in fact, a scam? Either way, it’s a sad moment in gaming history.
What do you think: fraud or incompetence? Let me know in the comments.
Header image: Fntastic
Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
