Earlier this month, the once-highly-anticipated The Day Before launched and quickly crashed and burned in dramatic fashion. As many had begun to suspect, the project was essentially a fake – rather than the open-world zombie MMO promised, developer Fntastic delivered a limited extraction shooter filled with cheap purchased assets and not a lot of fun. Fntastic promptly announced they were shutting their doors, and Steam delisted the game and begun offering refunds to those that asked.
The Day Before dev Fntastic shuts down after game's launch weekend
11.12.2023 - 21:57 / gamedeveloper.com
This past Thursday, December 7, developer Fntastic's The Day Before launched on Steam. Now on Monday, December 11 (today), Fntastic is closing its doors.
"Unfortunately, The Day Before has failed financially, and we lack the funds to continue," Fntastic explained. According to the developer, all the income the game's received thus far is being used to pay off debts incurred by the company to its various development partners.
The Day Before is a zombie extraction shooter that, prior to release, quickly became one of Steam's most wishlisted games. Originally announced in 2021, the game was briefly delisted at the start of 2023 because of a trademark claim regarding its title, but was later resolved.
At time of writing, the game's launched to largely negative reviews on Steam, not unlike Overwatch 2's debut on the platformearlier in the year.
In its statement, Fntastic noted that it never took money (read: pre-orders or crowdfunding campaigns) from the public during the game's development. "We invested all our efforts, resources, and manpower into [its development]."
Fntastic opened in 2015 and released titles such as The Wild Eight and Dead Dozen. But for all intents and purposes, this was intended as its "first huge game."
Had Day Before become a sales success, the developer would've released patches to help the game hit its "full potential." But with its closure, it said the fate of both that game and its 2021 title Propnight are unknown. Both games will remain operational in the meantime.
"We did everything within our power," the studio concluded. "But unfortunately, we miscalculated our possibilities. Creating games is an incredibly challenging endeavor.
The Day Before isn't the only 2023 game with a troubled developer. Earlier this year, both Skull Island: Rise of Kong and Lord of the Rings: Gollum were made under allegedly unfavorable conditions on their respective developers.
While IguanaBee and Daedelic are both still active, it does feel like this year has seen a greater scrutiny of games that are underfunded and lacked the proper amount of resources.
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