Back in December, we told you the story of the game's disastrous launch The day before. It was one of the most anticipated games on Steam and now it's dying on January 22nd. It's the end of a funny saga.
Survival MMO The Day Before, revealed in 2021, looked promising. During its development, the game's release was postponed several times, but it continued to enchant players and became the most anticipated game on Steam in the summer of 2022.
During the early access launch in December 2023, everything fell apart for the developers at Fntastic. The game is riddled with bugs, the mechanics are tedious, and the game doesn't feel like an open-world survival MMO. According to the first impressions, it is more of a mining game with disappointing 3D models. Players are calling it a scam and the game is making a big splash online for all the wrong reasons. All the specialist media are talking about it and YouTubers are going wild.
On December 11, Fntastic announced the closure of its studio, stating that The Day Before was a financial failure. The servers were supposed to become unavailable on January 22, 2024, and according to IGN's reviews, that's what happened. After about 45 days the game is completely dead.
What happened? The Day Before was popular upon release in Early Access with over 38,000 active players. The big problem is that the game contained almost nothing that was promised during the preview. The studio might have kept The Day Before if it had been presented as a Tarkov-style extraction game. $50 for a bug-filled early access game that doesn't play at all like it was presented is a guaranteed failure.
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A game doesn't have to be the crème de la crème of modern design to be successful. Released on January 19th, the small game Palworld is at number one on Steam and is causing quite a stir with its entertaining gameplay. As of this writing, 37,000 people are playing Stardew Valley, a 2016 game originally created by one person. A small, ambitious game can be successful. The important thing is to present it as it really is.
Goodbye, the day before. Thanks for the memes.
A timeline of events can be found here The disastrous saga of The Day Before.