Fntastic, the developer behind controversial Steam Early Access launch The Day Before, has shut down with immediate effect.
A statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, announced the company’s closure this evening – just days after The Day Before launched to overwhelmingly negative response last week.
In its statement, Fntastic said The Day Before had “failed financially, and we lack the funds to continue. All income received is being used to pay off debts to our partners”.
At the time of writing, The Day Before is still listed for purchase on Steam, priced at ยฃ33.50 for its much-criticised Early Access version.
“We invested all our efforts, resources and man-hours into the development of The Day Before, which was our first huge game,” Fntastic’s statement reads. “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.
“It’s important to note that we didn’t take any money from the public during the development of The Day Before; there were no pre-orders or crowdfunding campaigns. We worked tirelessly for five years, pouring our blood, sweat and tears into the game.
“At the moment, the future of The Day Before and Propnight is unknown, but servers will stay operational. We apologise if we didn’t meet your expectations. We did everything within our power, but unfortunately, we miscalculated our capabilities. Creating games is an incredibly challenging endeavour.”
The Day Before had a turbulent development, with frequent accusations the game was a scam and unable to live up to the promises of its developers – accusations that have now been sparked anew by today’s shock news.
Just days ago developer Fntastic released a statement apologising for the game’s marketing, requesting fans “please don’t accuse us of scamming”.
Eurogamer’s Ed Nightingale reported in with some quick impressions of The Day Before at launch last week. “I quickly switched it off,” he wrote. “It’s clear this is an incredibly basic game with little to it and, as the Steam reviews suggest, does not live up to the expectations set by Fntastic.”
Fntastic faced criticism during The Day Before’s development for enlisting the use of unpaid volunteers. Memorably, the game was also embroiled in a bizarre and amateurish trademark dispute with a Korean calendar app.