The Day Before pulled from Steam after devs announce they’re shutting down

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.

It's startling to think The Day Before was once the most wishlisted game on Steam, given how fast and spectacular its fall from grace has been. Earlier this month, the game launched to scathing reviews from critics and players alike, panning it as a shallow, empty extraction shooter that was nothing like what its developer Fntastic originally promised. Just four days later, Fntastic announced it was shutting its doors, with the developer claiming that it «lack[ed] the funds to continue». A few hours after that, the game was pulled from sale on Steam, though the actual servers remained online.

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.

With developer Fntastic ceasing operations just days after The Day Before’s release, publisher MyTona has announced that servers are shutting down on January 22nd, 2024.

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

The Day Before, one of the most controversial and catastrophic games in recent memory, will have its servers shut down in January 2024, just 45 days after the game launched in Early Access.

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.

After seeing a few of The Day Before’s gameplay trailers, one indie dev decided to make a ‘parody’ trailer of their own to see how quickly they could whip up a video that captured a similar degree of promise. But when that project began, they couldn't have known what would eventually happen to The Day Before, and how much it would fail to live up to that promise.

The Day Before went from one of the most anticipated games on Steam to an unqualified disaster. After spending months at the top of the platform’s most wishlisted list, the game’s release on Dec. 7 quickly led to a wave of immense blowback, tens of thousands of players seeking refunds, and the closure of the studio behind it.

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.

Update, 12/12/23: