The Day Before: Controversial Shooter Game Comes to an Abrupt End
The Day Before, a highly anticipated PC game, has officially ceased to exist just a month and a half after its release. This zombie shooter game, which caused the closure of the development studio Fntastic shortly after its debut, is now completely unplayable. Following its disastrous launch, the game had been in a state of suspension for several weeks, but on January 22nd, The Day Before servers were shut down, and various other game-related elements, such as the official website, stopped functioning. RIP.
The Day Before was one of the most anticipated titles on the Steam platform in 2023, simultaneously stirring controversy among gamers and industry members. The development team had encouraged volunteers to work on the project, offering them “free codes” and “participation certificates.” In January 2023, the game was removed from the Valve game distribution platform due to alleged trademark issues, resulting in a nine-month delay. Frankly speaking, the zombie survival MMO Fntastic had been struggling with a series of problems before and after its December 7th, 2023 release date. It was a dramatic saga that ended in failure as The Day Before shut down just days after a massive Steam premiere.
As reported by IGN, the game’s servers have now been officially closed and laid to rest. We had previously known that The Day Before servers were going to be shut down today; Fntastic mentioned it on X/Twitter on December 22nd. So, the time has come. Let’s raise a glass to The Day Before.
Dead servers aren’t the only sign that the game and its creators are vanishing like Avengers after “the snap.” Fntastic has not tweeted since that December 22nd announcement, the license for The Day Before’s website has expired, and the Fntastic website now only consists of a JPEG declaring the studio’s closure on December 12th. It’s a game that no longer exists, if it ever truly did.
During The Day Before’s collapse, publisher Mytona promised that refunds would be automatically processed for all players who requested them. Interestingly, if you now check Mytona’s website, The Day Before is nowhere to be found. It seems like we’ve gone back to the day before The Day Before’s release. Shit happens, amirite?
Kotaku reached out to Mytona for comment.
The Day Before was not a good game. It had serious flaws that hindered progress, glitches causing the environment to disappear, and issues leading to character entrapment in the world, among many other problems. Perhaps it’s for the best that the game has been withdrawn, but in 2023, 60 games died, and in the first few weeks of this year alone, the industry has witnessed over 3400 job cuts. It remains disheartening when a game is shut down as the industry slowly consolidates and scales back its operations.
FAQ
The source of the article is from the blog regiozottegem.be