The Day Before developers respond to fans demanding an explanation, ‘s**t happens’
If you haven't been keeping up with all the juicy drama surrounding it The day beforean absolute disaster of an early access zombie survival game, then here's a quick overview.
The game was first revealed in 2021, with an impressive announcement trailer that showed off some seriously good visuals and a whole host of interesting mechanics reminiscent of online games like The Division 2.
After two years of setbacks and delays, the game finally released last Thursday (December 7, 2023) and turned out to be virtually nothing like what was first shown. Rather than being an open world survival MMO, The day before was actually more of an extraction shooter along the lines of Escape from Tarkov with zombies thrown in clumsily.
It was also riddled with bugs and technical issues, so it's safe to say that people who spent their hard-earned money on the game (which cost $39.99 / £33.50) were less than impressed.
In response to the incredibly rough reception, the game's developers, Fntastic, suddenly deleted all content on their computer Youtube Channelwith all previous trailers seemingly removed in an attempt to cover up the obvious discrepancies between what was advertised and what players ultimately got.
The company then posted a lengthy statement on Twitter saying that the game had “financially failed” and that they were shutting down. The day before was subsequently removed from sale on Steam, although it is currently unclear whether this was requested by the developers or an action taken by the platform's owner, Valve.
This leads us to today, where Fntastic has bizarrely responded individually to angry fans on social media. “I can't believe you hyped this game so much and this is the end result,” the user said @Kypershot on a Twitter thread in which the developer detailed its plans for refunds to customers. “This was our first big experience,” Fntastic replied, “S**t happens.”
Elsewhere, one fan responded with a mockup logo for “The Day Before 2,” with the comment “hell yeah, the comeback is real.” Fntastic destroyed all their hopes and dreams and simply responded, “No, we're closing.”
This is clearly wildly unprofessional and seems indicative of a studio that is way out of its depth. The future of the game is currently up in the air, but this seems like a fitting end to one of the strangest sagas of recent years.
For some titles that are actually worth playing, see our guides to the best indie games or the best FPS games.