A couple of modders are currently working on an offline mod for the troubled The Day Before, which would add an offline mode.
12.12.2023 - 14:01 / pcgamer.com / Nick Calandra
Trainwrecks aren't exactly rare in the gaming industry, but it's rare that they're this spectacular. After a suspiciously-polished trailer, The Day Before quickly became one of Steam's most wishlisted games.
Then delays, more delays, major red flags featuring «volunteer» workers, a much shoddier 10-minute gameplay video (which you can't watch anymore) and finally a debut on December 7. One preempted by the studio Fntastic begging players to not accuse them of «scamming» people. One pile-up of car-crash Steam reviews and studio closure later, and The Day Before was pulled from Steam, December 11. In response to a baffled fan, Fntastic replied:
I'll just let that sit there without comment. I've given a very abridged history, but in case you want the full run-down my fellow Staff Writer Morgan Park has put together an explainer post. While following this unfolding story yesterday, my US colleagues also watched the game's Discord server collapse into ashes.
«I've never seen a Discord server disintegrate in real time,» Morgan notes before sharing a vaguely apocalyptic screenshot of a voice chat with over 311 people in it on the left, a bot getting bullied with slash commands in the centre, and a vanished member list to the right.
The studio's YouTube channel also has no videos on it. I'm not even confident it'll still exist in the coming days. The cherry on the top of this nightmare sundae? Fntastic's CEO is MIA. As spotted by Second Wind's Nick Calandra, Fntastic CEO Eduard Gotovtsev has deleted his Twitter account and muted his LinkedIn profile.
The Day Before's early access period lasted four days. Now, it's being scrubbed clean from the internet in the world's clumsiest vanishing act. Nobody sets out to make a bad game—but the speed at which this particular one took a nosedive is stunning in the literal sense of the word. From a top-wishlisted game to 'errr, nevermind', I'll be fascinated by what details emerge from game's post-mortem.
A couple of modders are currently working on an offline mod for the troubled The Day Before, which would add an offline mode.
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.
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 will be shutting down in January, less than two months after its disastrous launch.
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.
It’s been confirmed that The Day Before’s servers will be shut down on January 22, 2024, as developer Fntastic has now “officially ceased operations.”
Just two weeks ago, long-awaited post-apocalyptic survival game The Day Before landed on Steam with a thud, drawing thousands of negative player reviews and thousands more refunds from unhappy buyers. Five days later, developer Fntastic announced it was shutting down and removed The Day Before from Steam.
The Day Before is 2023's fastest-moving disaster—starting off as a top-wishlisted game on Steam after an alluring trailer, it only took four days after its (eventual) launch before the thing was taken down. Following that, theDiscord server, YouTube, and even CEO's social media channels disappeared or were scrubbed. The developer's response? «Shit happens.»
A little more than a week after it was pulled from Steam, The Day Before is selling for hundreds of dollars on the seedy gray market.
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.