Fntastic, the studio that developed The Day Before, announced that it is closing down just several days after the game was launched in Early Access.
The game was poorly received by the community and has an "Overwhelmingly Negative" rating on Steam, with only 17% of the players saying anything positive about it.
Troubled Launch
In a recent tweet, the studio announced that The Day Before has failed to meet financial expectations. Because of this, Fntastic now lacks the funds necessary to continue the game's development.
The game is priced at $39 on Steam, so naturally, people who bought it will think about where their money is headed after this fiasco. According to Fntastic, "All income received is being used to pay off debts to our partners."
In closing, the folks behind the development studio apologized to the public, stating that they failed to meet the community's expectations. They added that they did everything they could, but perhaps, hubris got in the way, which led them to misjudge how truly difficult it is to develop a promising title.
Official statement. #fntastic #thedaybefore #propnight pic.twitter.com/AKcRHeIaIW
— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) December 11, 2023
Read Also: The Day Before is Off to a Rocky Start
Call for Refunds
While the people who are running the development studio may be sincere in what they said in the tweet, the community is not buying any of it. In fact, most of the people who responded to the tweet said that Fntastic should refund all the money that it got after the game was made available on Steam.
One user replied that The Day Before will go down as one of the worst scams in gaming history. Another user said that the studio is only closing down because the people who are running it just want to take all of the money with them.
It seems that the issues do not stop there. One X/Twitter user alleged that they've worked on the Steam Page for Fntastic's other game, Propnight, and were not paid for it.
TFL Games, makers of the simple polygon-based zombie survival shooter DeadPoly, said that this is not the correct path to take. "You have a game that clearly has the potential and audience to be huge, but the launch was rocky so you just quit? Using money from players to pay off past debt and quitting - just no," they added.
Why It Failed
The Day Before had so many issues even before it was launched in Early Access. The game was supposed to be released in March of this year, but was delayed due to a trademark dispute.
That's not all! Fantastic was also accused of copying the promotional materials of other popular titles, including Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Grand Theft Auto 5.
When The Day Before finally launched on December 8, the community discovered that it was actually an extraction shooter and not an open-world MMO survival game. That, right there, is false advertising.
It would be interesting to see how Fntastic handles this situation. If the studio fails to refund the money that the people spent on the trouble game, then it can be grounds for legal action.
What do you think about all of this? Do you think Fntastic should never have quit several days after the game was released?
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