After announcing its closure, The Day Before developer Fntastic has removed the zombie game from sale on Steam. The game’s user reviews have dropped to ‘Overwhelmingly Negative’ following today’s news that the early access release, which is mere days old, will not receive future support from the developer.
Fntastic announced its closure earlier today on X (formerly Twitter), claiming the not-quite MMO “failed financially,” which I must admit is a surprise given The Day Before‘s price point and impressive player numbers (at launch, at least – concurrents have since dropped 75%+). Following that announcement, Fntastic quickly purged its YouTube channel of all videos and its official site of everything besides the announcement of the studio’s closure.
The Day Before launched on December 7 in a shameful state, even when judged by the standards of the roughest Steam early access releases: game-breaking bugs, server woes, and a growing, crushing sense of emptiness, not just in its world but in its mechanics and personality.
The game made headlines several times during its development, not least when it rocketed up the charts to become Steam’s most-wishlisted game, or the time when we heard about the studio’s use of unpaid workers.
We’ve covered The Day Before extensively since launch, from its frankly disgusting poke at journalists to Fntastic’s removal of Steam tags related to MMOs following countless complaints about the game resembling an extraction shooter first and foremost. Oh, and how about those definitely-not-AI in-game ads?
In terms of those working on the game and its community-building efforts, we heard earlier today from a Discord mod who said they felt “thrown under the bus” by Fntastic after handling the fallout of the game’s disastrous launch while dealing with “pure silence” from the developer.
The Day Before’s servers will remain online. We’ll let you know if anything changes there.