The Day Before's Developer Folds After Extreme Backlash

Fntastic's "The Day Before" has been receiving a side-eye from gamers pretty much ever since it was first announced, and now things have gotten even more dire for the long-awaited game. Though it quickly became the most-wishlisted game on Steam, many gamers had a hard time believing that smaller dev was capable of putting out a game with the ambition and visual fidelity glimpsed in early trailers. Things got even stranger for "The Day Before" as the game was pushed back multiple times and Fntastic announced its intention to hire volunteers to help with the game. "The Day Before" was finally released in early access last week and gamers rushed to check it out at long last — only for the developer to now announce its closure, mere days after launch.

"Unfortunately, The Day Before has failed financially, and we lack the funds to continue," explained Fntastic in a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter). "All income received is being used to pay off debts to our partners." According to the post, the developer had hoped to continue rolling out updates for "The Day Before" that would address player feedback, but the financial failure of the game has made that impossible to do at this time. 

Initial reactions to "The Day Before" have been absolutely savage, with the title already taking up a spot among Steam's worst-reviewed games of all time. A number of customer reviews have noted that the game isn't quite what was advertised, playing as more of an extraction shooter than a survival-focused MMO. Others have complained of extremely long loading times and server issues. Some have noted severe problems with the game's graphics, with buildings occasionally failing to load correctly and some areas being replaced with a white void. 

The Day Before is making a great first impression pic.twitter.com/pMgA5OM5nW

— ExfilCamper (@ExfilCamper) December 7, 2023

All in all, the player backlash has been severe. The game's player count quickly diminished as scores of gamers requested refunds and lambasted "The Day Before" on social media. After facing such widespread rejection, it's no wonder why Fntastic is calling it quits. Fntastic has promised to keep the game's servers running for as long as possible, but it's doubtful that the game will maintain much of a following without a promise of proper updates in the near future. "At the moment, the future of The Day Before ... is unknown," explained Fntastic. The statement continued, "We apologize if we didn't meet your expectations. We did everything within out power, but unfortunately, we miscalculated our capabilities. Creating games is an incredibly challenging endeavor."