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The Day Before poster

The Day Before

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Updated Dec 11, 2023 at 03:02PM EST by Adam.

Added Dec 11, 2023 at 12:17PM EST by Adam.

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About

The Day Before is an open-world MMO video game that grew notable for the overwhelming disappointment and criticism from its player base, as technical glitches and simple gameplay contributed to brutal reviews and player numbers in the days after its launch.

History

The reveal trailer for The Day Before premiered on January 29th, 2021 (shown below), promising an open-world zombie shooter MMO. The game is developed by Fntastic.[1]



The development cycle for The Day Before was very troubled, leading to skepticism and suspicion of Fntastic and the game. The game was initially set to release in June of 2022, but was delayed to early 2023 when it the development team switched from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. It was delayed again in early 2023 to November 10th, 2023 due to a trademark dispute.

Some suspected the game may be a scam.[1] Those following the development of the game discovered that Fnastic were using "volunteers" to make the game, delineating between "internal volunteer" (a paid employee) and a "supporter" (an unpaid one). Furthermore, Fnastic had only developed two mobile games before The Day Before.

Fnastic pushed back against claims that The Day Before was a scam,[2] saying "The game is fully funded by Mytona, one of the largest mobile publishers in the world, who checked the game's build at every milestone per our contract."

The game was eventually released in early access on Steam on December 7th, 2023.

Reception

Upon the release of the game's early access, reviews were overwhelmingly negative. As of December 11th, 2023, the game has a "Mostly Negative" rating on Steam[3] from 18,000 reviews. Many reviews report they refunded the game and complained that the game was not what Fntastic had promised, saying it is more like an extraction shooter than an MMO.

Additionally, reports and videos of glitches spread widely on social media. On December 7th, 2023, Twitter user @exfilcamper posted video of his character falling out of the game environment in the opening area, gaining over 120 retweets and 680 likes in four days (shown below, top). User @not2betrite[4] posted a variety of glitches in the game, including models grotesquely breaking, gaining thirteen likes in four days (shown below, bottom).


Burgers and Blitzes @Not2BeTrite Don't buy The Day Before. I've never seen such ponzi scheme disguised as a game. Pls don't buy it. That video is literally from the intro. "WE'RE NOT SCAMMERS" is quite the statement prior to release TASK SUPERCHARGE Find the required tem for Woodberry 194/69 0:26 B ZED4 TTV FOLLOWED tilis We made this game for you, too. We accept any kind of criticism and don't hold a grudge against you. Before we continue moving forward together, kindly allow us to note a few things: Please forgive us for not doing the best marketing and teasers. We learn something new and improve ourselves every single day. Please don't accuse us of scamming; that's not true. We didn't take a penny from anyone. Please don't accuse us of asset flip; that's not true also. Our team worked day and night for five years to make our dream game a reality. Please don't underestimate our work; it wasn't easy. We are like you, we worked hard. And we're incredibly happy that our game will finally see the light of day for everyone to explore. ● To our supporter - no matter what: Thank you for protecting us from injustice and fakes. Your kind words gave us the energy to create this game. Blessings to you! ● To a future streamer showing the game on December 7: We wish you many views and new subscribers. We hope all the secrecy of The Day Before will help you make a ton of interesting content from the game. ● To our volunteer who supported us not only with words but with deeds: Your support helped us get to this day. You have supported us through our darkest nights, and we look forward to sharing the best days ahead with you. ● And to a partner who believed in us despite all the difficulties: :


The game saw significant mockery on YouTube as well. On December 10th, VideoGameDunkey posted a video playing and mocking the game, gaining over 1.2 million views in one day (shown below, left). Asmongold called the game "The biggest scam of the year" in a video that gained over 627,000 views in two days (shown below, right).



Closure of Fntastic

On December 11th, Fntastic announced it was closing due to the game "failing" financially.[5] This heightened suspicion that the project was a scam from the beginning, and the studio was "closing" in order to salvage the profits of the purchases of the game already made,[6] though that is unconfirmed.


FNTASTIC Fntastic @FntasticHQ. 2h Official statement. #fntastic #thedaybefore #propnight 5.6K Today, we announce the closure of Fntastic studio. Unfortunately, The Day Before has failed financially, and we lack the funds to continue. All income received is being used to pay off debts to our partners. We invested all our efforts, resources, and man-hours into the development of The Day Before, which was our first huge game. We really wanted to release new patches to reveal the full potential of the game, but unfortunately, we don't have the funding to continue the work. 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. We worked tirelessly for five years, pouring our blood, sweat, and tears into the game. At the moment, the future of The Day Before and Propnight is unknown, but the servers will remain operational. We apologize if we didn't meet your expectations. We did everything within our power, but unfortunately, we miscalculated our capabilities. Creating games is an incredibly challenging endeavor. We're grateful to everyone who supported us during these difficult years. It's been a fantastic journey over the past eight years: 2015: Opening of the studio 2017: Release of The Wild Eight 2018: Release of Dead Dozen 2018: Release of Radiant One 2021: Release of Propnight 2023: Release of The Day Before FNTASTIC Synth Potato @SynthPotato 8.4K 8K : We all know you aren't shutting down because you lack funds, but because you're taking the money and running. 口企 : Scam, yall taking the money you made and are running from your scam, you false advertised the day before for years, and put out a game nothing like what you advertised.

Search Interest

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External References

[1] Escapist – Don’t Fall for The Day Before

[2] IGN – The Day Before Devs Say Delay Was Planned Before Trademark Dispute

[3] Steam – The Day Before

[4] Twitter – not2betrite

[5] Twitter – FntasticHQ

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Top Comments

Wilm210
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Wilm210

I've been following the Day Before for over a year and I've come to suspect the game was some sort of cover up for illicit financial activity such as money laundering or embezzlement. Everything about the game, from promotional trailers to volunteer/unpaid labor to the studio itself set off so many red flags that something bigger must have been going on behind the scenes. It's was so blatantly a scam to everyone with half a brain could see a mile away. Well, except for the 38k tards who bought the early access.

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Ginkei
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Ginkei

What a year. It gave us:

Pizza Tower
Hi-Fi Rush
Dead Space Remake
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Amnesia The Bunker
Balder's Gate 3
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Slay the Princess
Armored Core 6
Lies of P
Lords of the Fallen (not a fan of it but I've seen plenty of people who will still defend it, and props to the devs for trying to fix the game)
Darkest Dungeon 2's full release
The last updates to Monster Hunter Rise
Blasphemous 2
The Last Faith
The Super Mario RPG remake
The emergence of Vampire Survivor-like games (aka "Bullet Heaven" games)
And god knows what else that wasn't on my radar nor my roommate's…

… We get a game that's such a stinker and such an absolutely soulless cash grab that it somehow elevates Gollum, Rise of Kong, and Walking Dead: Destinies.

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