The Day Before developers respond to fans demanding an explanation, ‘s**t happens’

This year’s most infamous video game, The Day Before , will see a timely and expected end on January 22nd, 2024. 

What has been a bizarre development and release saga for The Day Before is coming to an end, after it has been announced by Mytona that the game will shutdown on January 22nd. The Day Before was billed as an open world survival MMO, but the actual released game was far from what was expected, receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews. The game was released on December 7th, yet a few days later developer Fntastic closed its doors.

The Day Before, once Steam’s most wishlisted game before experiencing a bizarre journey through multiple delays, accusations of being a scam, apparent legal disputes and a catastrophic Early Access launch, will shut down its servers in one month. The effective end to the game will accompany refunds for anyone who brought it on Steam.

Game development disaster The Day Before will go dark forever on 22nd January 2024.

Update — Publisher Mytona has posted an update on The Day Before situation, pledging to work with Steam to open up refunds to any players who choose to do so.

The strange situation that is The Day Before keeps getting stranger.

The Day Before, once Steam's most wish-listed open-world survival MMO, has been delisted from Valve's platform. The game launched in early access to an almost immediate flood of negative reviews last week, with most players claiming that it wasn't really an MMO but an extraction shooter reminiscent of Escape from Tarkov, combined with the post-apocalyptic threats of The Last of Us. The misleading gameplay claims were made worse by several game-breaking glitches that caused characters to clip off from the map, an incomplete and sparse world devoid of action, and inconsistent online features. Merely five days after release, the game is no longer available to buy on Steam and Fntastic, the studio behind the game, has announced it is shutting down and working on refunds for customers who bought the game.

After years of delays, overpromising, obfuscated skepticism, and a healthy dose of all around skepticism within the community, The Day Before finally launched in early access last week, and instantly, the game was met with widespread negative reception from players. Things only got worse from there, because just four days after the game’s release, developer Fntastic announced in a statement that the game had failed financially, and that the studio was, as such, shutting down.

Following the disastrous launch of The Day Before, its developer has said it is working with Steam to make refunds available to all, and insisted it will receive no money from sales of the game.

Editor’s Note: Faster than we could publish our early access review, the developer announced it was shutting down and The Day Before was removed from sale . The servers remain up for those who have bought it and not yet refunded, but since our reviewer went to the trouble of playing it, it seems only right that you should get to read what he thought of the experience while it lasted.

Update: Valve has seemingly made the move to delist The Day Before from Steam. While the game's Steam page is still up, you can no longer purchase the game. Those who purchased the game are reporting being able to receive refunds, even well beyond the usual 2-hour limit.

Fntastic, the developer behind controversial Steam Early Access launch The Day Before, has shut down with immediate effect.