Just four days after The Day Before finally launched, devs Fntastic have closed down

Less than a week after The Day Before’s disastrous launch on PC, following multiple delays and becoming the most wishlisted game on Steam, the makers of the zombie-survival shooter have announced their closure.

The Day Before finally hit Early Access on Steam four days ago after a series of delays that saw it slide back from its original release date last year to this December 7th, amid no shortage of controversy – ranging from unpaid development staff and the game’s page vanishing from Steam amid an apparent trademark dispute to accusations that the whole game was a scam.

Its arrival on Steam quickly saw the game bombarded with thousands of negative reviews that criticised the fact that it wasn’t the open-world MMO that many had expected – being more like an extraction shooter with zombies – and a general lack of development polish including missing features, poor gameplay and naff loot, which was previously put front-and-centre as a big part of the experience.

Creating a character to survive the post-apocalypse in zombie MMO The Day Before — Image credit: Fntastic

Now, just four days on, developers Fntastic have announced their closure, saying that the financial failure of The Day Before had left them unable to continue developing the game. It had been outlined as being expected to stay in Early Access for six to eight months, with plans to address bugs, issue improvements and add extra content during that time.

“All income received is being used to pay off debts to our partners,” Fntastic wrote in a statement posted to X. “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.”

Official statement. #fntastic #thedaybefore #propnight pic.twitter.com/AKcRHeIaIW

— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) December 11, 2023

The studio added that servers for The Day Before and previous game Propnight would remain up for the time being, but added that the games’ future “is unknown”.

“We apologize if we didn’t meet your expectations,” Fntastic added. “We did everything within our power, but unfortunately, we miscalculated our capabilities. Creating games is an incredibly challenging endeavor.”

Before The Day Before, Fntastic launched with their 2017 debut, Don’t Starve-like co-op survival game The Wild Eight, which raised close to $60,000 on Kickstarter. The studio went on to develop games including Dead Dozen and Radiant One. The best of luck to those staff caught up in the sudden end to a very messy saga.