Developed by Fntastic and distributed by Mytona, The Day Before is a multiplayer survival horror extraction shooter game. In this futuristic game, players take control of a character who has to make their way through the fictitious, zombie-infested “New Fortune City” in order to survive. On December 7, 2023, it became available for Windows users via Steam in early access.
The Day Before has received a lot of negative feedback since its debut last week. On Steam, it is currently rated as “Overwhelmingly Negative.”
The Day Before is a wholly disappointing online zombie survival shooter containing essentially nothing of what was originally promised over the years leading up to its disastrous early access release.
Our review: https://t.co/hdRdQxrO4v pic.twitter.com/OKiDILYDKR
— IGN (@IGN) December 12, 2023
When The Day Before first launched, it had 38,000 active players and 496,000 Twitch viewers. Also, because of the game’s protracted development, Fntastic faced early criticism for being viewed as a scam and questions about the credibility of the video game.
Fntastic Studios shuts down
The developer of the contentious The Day Before, Fntastic, abruptly announced its closure, effective right away, four days after it launched.
“Today, we announce the closure of Fntastic studio,” the Studio said in a statement. “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” they went on to add.
Official statement. #fntastic #thedaybefore #propnight pic.twitter.com/AKcRHeIaIW
— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) December 11, 2023
The Day Before has generated a great deal of controversy from the moment it was first announced. Many started to wonder if the game was real or could ever live up to the enormous claims made by Fntastic because it seemed reluctant to reveal any footage. Next came the announcement that volunteers rather than paid staff were developing the majority of it.
There have also been claims that assets from other games have been stolen. In addition, a trademark battle caused an eight-month delay in its release and exposed the fact that Fntastic registered The Day Before as a trademark five months after it was first announced.
The Wild Eight developer changes
The Day Before developer Fntastic Studios appears to have rebranded itself as Eight Points for their survival game The Wild Eight. This is following the announcement of its studio shutdown as The Day Before didn’t live up to the hype. The developer name for The Wild Eight was changed from Fntastic to Eight Points Digital, according to a SteamDB entry.
The entry was made on December 11, 2023, one day before Fntastic published an official post on X to inform that they were closing as their game’s early access didn’t go as planned.
please note that FNTASTIC are being removed as developer for games that they have made.
Eight Points is now the developers for ‘The Wild Eight’ on Steam. The change was made 12 hours ago..#thedaybefore pic.twitter.com/lqRz0zPRJR
— Game Scope (@gamescope_UK) December 11, 2023
Some gamers are however of the opinion that this is all a scam on the part of Fntastic Studios as they want to hide the fact that they developed these other titles. Some are also of the opinion that Fntastic Studios changed its name as it might want to pull off a scam like The Day Before again.