The spectacularly ill-fated game The Day Before has met its demise. On Monday, the servers officially shut down for the title dubbed “the biggest flop in video game history” by IGN. This comes just over a month after the much-hyped game launched into Early Access on Steam on December 7, only for developer Fntastic to abruptly announce the game’s closure four days later on December 11.
In that short span, scathing reviews piled up, with complaints of bugginess, lack of originality, and slow gameplay. Currently holding an 81% negative rating on Steam, nearly half of buyers requested refunds. Videos showed players aimlessly wandering empty cities with little to actually do. Reviewer Gabriel Moss gave the barely playable disaster a rare 1/10 score, slamming the $40 game as not delivering on promises of being an MMO or open world.
After the December 11 closure notice, Fntastic said The Day Before had “failed financially” and they lacked funds to continue. But alleged leaked messages from Fntastic’s CEO claimed over 200,000 copies were sold. This underscores how quickly things went downhill. Just over a month since its hyped launch, publisher Mytona has now wiped all references to the game from its site.
For those who purchased The Day Before, Fntastic said in December they were working with Valve to allow refunds even outside the standard Steam policy. Players can still request a refund through Steam support.
The Day Before’s stunningly rapid demise from most wishlisted game on Steam to servers offline in days serves as a cautionary tale. Even with hype and strong pre-order sales, delivering on ambitious promises is difficult. For Fntastic, The Day Before ended up being The Game That Never Was rather than the hit they envisioned.
