Fntastic Studio Shuts Down - The Day Before Had Over 50% Refunds, Devs Can't Afford Servers [UPDATE]

[UPDATE 12:55PM EST] Developer Fntastic states they have not received any money for The Day Before and they along with publisher MYTONA are accepting Steam refunds no matter the amount of time played.

#thedaybefore #fntastic #mytonaAnswer to those who ask for a refund. Mytona and we're currently working with Steam to allow refunds for any player who chooses to request one, regardless of game time. Fntastic received $0 and will receive nothing from The Day Before sales.

— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) December 12, 2023

[UPDATE 1:50PM PT] After news that Fntastic was shutting down following the disastrous launch of The Day Before, it appears you can no longer purchase it on Steam, according to industry insider Wario64.

The Day Before can no longer be purchased on Steam pic.twitter.com/clHDh9up0v

— Wario64 (@Wario64) December 11, 2023

We headed to the Steam store listing and can confirm that it is no longer for sale. The news feed on the Steam page has not been updated, though, with any news of the company shutting down, and throughout the day Fntastic has been nuking its social and community presence, from its own Discord - which is in chaos right now - to removing all traces of videos from its YouTube channel.

Original Story Follows Below:

The saga of what was once The Day Before has been put to rest. New developments have been speeding by at a mile a minute, and the developers at Fntastic have shut down the studio. Here's a recap of what's happened since the game launched 4 days ago.

The way The Day Before has been going, it’s hard to deny that the game was in a very public crisis. After losing 80% of active players in 4 days, and many of the negative reviews left on steam having been refunded already, it’s hard to discount that there are some major issues with the game.

The developers were not sure what they needed to do. A day after launch the team at Fntastic promised that they would wipe the servers due to a duplication exploit that granted players the ability to make endless coins, and buy whatever they wanted. The developers planned for a wipe, which would have resulted in the loss of all progress players made, but the wipe has not happened, and will not happen as the team is shutting down the studio and the game (though it remains operational for the time being).

In a leaked memo that we could not authenticate but now appears to be true, the developers marked that the game has lost significant funds from the game, that refunds are over 50% and that they cannot afford the servers anymore. 

In regards to the game itself, the development team had their community volunteers express that the game was an MMO and not an extraction shooter for several years. However, now that the game has released (and shut down), and has proven to be the exact representation of an extraction shooter, the developers seem to have turned on their volunteers, prompting many of them to revolt. One such case is Community Volunteer Levitate.

Levitate was working as a volunteer for about 2 years or so. During that time he had no direct interaction with the development team, and instead received direction from their community management team. During this time, Levitate was not provided access to the game, and only provided the information that he was given, even going so far as to continuously state that the game was an MMO and not an extraction shooter.

Three days ago, that changed, when the community team threw Levitate under the bus, stating that the volunteers wish to help, but that what they are saying is without the knowledge or approval of the Fntastic team. This was in response to a question related to the game being an extraction shooter, rather than an MMO proper.

After returning to the discord after a brief stint away, Levitate responded, stating that the information provided by him was what was given directly from the team. This falls completely on the backs of Fntastic. Our previous coverage spoke specifically about the team’s lack of communication. Their inability to provide details, and their unwillingness to speak with any outlets regarding the state of the game.

It's important to note that the developers at Fntastic stated that Volunteers were able to test the game, but we were told that wasn't the case. Volunteers in the Discord did not get any advanced testing of the game, which is likely why they were as in the dark as everyone else.

Fntastic has also gone suspiciously silent in the Discord itself. While numerous volunteers labeled Fntastic and Moderators have been communicating regularly, no developers have actually joined the chat to give an idea about where the game is headed, and instead prompted the team at Fntastic to release a notice on their social media about their closure. This is consistent with the lack of communication we reported on before, and although I don't relish in being right, it's been painful to watch. 

Official statement. #fntastic #thedaybefore #propnight pic.twitter.com/AKcRHeIaIW

— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) December 11, 2023

Regarding players peeling apart the game, essentially calling it a scam, and blaming the developers for simply flipping assets, a thread was put together showing off all of the assets the team has utilized within The Day Before significantly undercutting the amount of work the team at Fntastic has done over the past several years. It’s important to note that simply buying assets off of the Unreal Asset Store is not necessarily a bad thing, as they are in the store for exactly that purpose. However, many players felt cheated, as this zombie Survival MMO that was once highly sought after for its premise and gameplay, hasn’t materialized, even in relation to its original trailer.

One such example of this was the number of zombies around the world. In the gameplay trailers from two years ago, you saw numerous zombies throughout several locales, whereas in the extraction game that released, you would rarely run into a group of three of them in a single area. The zombies were also not particularly dangerous, with players being able to run through them on their way to other areas.

Finally, there were an overabundance of issues that were detrimental for the few players who actually enjoyed the game. One of the worst of the batch is that players never knew exactly when their progress will reset. That is due to an inventory issue that happens when some players return to the main player hub. Often players will completely lose all the items in their inventory, essentially destroying their entire extraction encounter progress.

While we did plan on having out full impressions on the way this week, due to the impending wipe that never happened, we planned on holding the impressions until after the wipe. However, Now that the game and studio has shut down, it's clear that our final impressions will never release afterall. While it looks like The Day Before is dead in the water, we'll keep an eye out for more information related to the game and the studio from this point forward. If you've purchased the game, and need to get a refund, you can do so by following the after 2 hours played instructions for Steam.

[Update 1:35 EST] It appears the Discord has ultimately been gutted and is pending a shutdown as well.