UPDATED: "Totally Not A Scam" Game The Day Before Sees Developer FNTASTIC Closing Up Shop The Week After
This news comes a LITERAL 4 days after The Day Before released.
Yes, you read that right. The Day Before's future is "uncertain". So is the future of one of their other titles, Propnight, but who the hell cares about that.
This all comes from a statement posted to developer FNTASTIC's X (formerly Twitter) account today.
The team claims that the zombie survival game failed financially...four days after the damn game, which is still getting lambasted in the Steam reviews, actually launched.
The servers will be staying on, but no one seems to know for how long. Moderators on the game's Discord (having previously closed servers) have also said their good-byes, chiming in to say that they may have been misled as well, and had to bear the brunt of the community's disdain for launch, even though they were misled.
"All income received is being used to pay off debts to our partners," the message reads, "It's important to note that we didn't take any money from the public during the development of The Day Before. There were no pre-orders or crowdfunding campaigns."
This seems to be a way to try and once again sell the game as "not a scam," something FNTASTIC tried to do in its "Revelations" prior to launch.
What the post does NOT mention, however, is refunds. Sorry, not taking money BEFORE release, but totally running with the money AFTER release is still "scam" worthy behavior, FNTASTIC.
It's time for Steam to step in here. There is no version of our universe where FNTASTIC should get a dime from the release of this abomination. (We've reached out to Valve for their take and we'll update you should we hear back from them. We've also reached out to the game's publisher, MYTONA.)
If you weren't part of the almost 50% of users that were granted refunds already, you can try this advice if you're outside of Steam's normal "2 Hour" policy.
Here's a link to the X post itself, but since things about this game have a nasty way of disappearing, here's the original image they posted, too.
UPDATE: Look are DayZ throwing some SERIOUS shade! LOL!
/s🤭 pic.twitter.com/xwfNIGpY0W
— DayZ 🖥 🎮 ❤️ (@DayZ) December 11, 2023
Rust getting in on the action, too!
/s🤭 🫶 pic.twitter.com/xbVCzd81ES
— Rust (@playrust) December 11, 2023
UPDATE 2: The ability to buy The Day Before on Steam has been disabled.
UPDATE 3: The CEO of FNTASTIC, Eduard Gotovtsev, has dropped from X (Twitter) and LinkedIn. The FNTASTIC YouTube channel now has ZERO public videos on it. We've archived the MYTONA site page for The Day Before as it is still up but who knows for how long. FNTASTIC itself doesn't have anything on their public website anymore, instead all that can be viewed there is the pictured closure announcement above.
UPDATE 4: MYTONA is "working with Steam" to open up refunds to anyone who wants one and is "in contact with FNTASTIC regarding the future of the game."
— Mytona (@mytona_official) December 11, 2023
FNTASTIC says they will receive $0 from The Day Before sales and reiterates that MYTONA and Steam will be allowing refunds regardless of time played on Steam.
#thedaybefore #fntastic #mytona
Answer 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 5: "The Wild Eight" game that FNTASTIC made is now showing on Steam under a new developer name "Eight Points". This change was made today according to SteamDB. "Propnight" also seems to be going back and forth on the developer name between FNTASTIC and MYTONA FNTASTIC for some reason. Eight Points was the name of the company prior to them taking the name FNTASTIC back when The Wild Eight was on Kickstarter. Eight Points was "kept as a second developer" on The Wild Eight to pay homage to the original team, even if some weren't there anymore. The Wild Eight is published by Hypetrain. This name shift could be happening to attempt to avoid any potential review bombing of existing FNTASTIC products or to divide things for any potential incoming lawsuit.
UPDATE 6: Yeah, FNTASTIC is replying to some people on X (Twitter). The replies show a stunning lack of caring about the situation at all. In a reply to one person, the account replies "This was our first big experience. Shit happens."
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About the Author
Mike “Magicman” Byrne has been a part of the MMOBomb family for years and serves as the site’s current Editor-in-Chief. His love for MMOs and gaming in general has led him to covering games for numerous gaming websites including Gamebreaker TV and XIV Nation where he proudly displays his fanboy flag for FFXIV:ARR.
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