Only a few days after launching to scathing Steam reviews, The Day Before developers Fntastic have announced that they're closing their studio, and Steam is already granting refunds for the game outside the usual 2-hour window.
It sure has been a hectic few days for The Day Before, hasn't it? First the game releases on Steam in Early Access and its buyers find out that it is not even remotely the MMO its developers Fntastic advertised it as. Then the game loses 80% of its initial player count and becomes the second-worst rated game on Steam within just a couple days! And now Fntastic have apparently decided to take the money and run while they still can.
In an all-too-familiar black-on-white-text-wall.png posted on X (formerly Twitter), Fntastic have announced that they're closing the studio. According to them, "The Day Before has failed financially" and they're unable to continue working on the game:
Official statement. #fntastic #thedaybefore #propnight pic.twitter.com/AKcRHeIaIW
— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) December 11, 2023
The Day Before Is Now An Undead Game
Now, I usually try to give developers the benefit of the doubt in these kinds of cases, but I'm really struggling to come up with any other explanation for all of this than 'this was a huge rug-pull scam from the start'.
I mean, really, promoting your game with severely misleading marketing only to abandon it and close your studio once the initial sales income dries up? Claiming that the game has "failed financially" just a few days after its launch is seriously fishy as well.
What a weird scam, though. I mean, videogames are usually pretty costly to produce and don't lend themselves well to scam models that require you to actually deliver some kind of product. The Day Before clearly cuts plenty of corners by using Unity asset packs and AI generation, but at least some work was required here either way, right? The game is at least playable, even if it isn't really worth playing.
Maybe Fntastic genuinely tried to deliver on what they promised at first, but realized at some point that a zombie survival MMO was beyond their capabilities and decided to try and just cash in on the hype with what they already had? That's the most generous good-faith explanation I can come up with, at least. Who knows what really went on behind the scenes.
The Day Before: How To Request A Steam Refund
If you're one of the unlucky few who actually bought into the hype and purchased the game on Steam, then a refund might be in order. As usual, Steam's automated process for refunds should grant any refund request made within 14 days of its purchase and with less than 2 hours of play time. If you haven't hit the 2-hour mark in The Day Before yet you should give the automated system a try first:
- Go to help.steampowered.com (log in with your Steam account if you need to).
- Select the "Purchases" option.
- Select the game you want a refund for (in this case The Day Before).
- Select "I would like a refund".
- Select "I'd like to request a refund".
- Select which of your payment methods you'd like the refund amount to be applied to.
- (optional) Give a reason for your refund request in the "Tell us why" section. This isn't necessary, but if you're requesting a refund past the 2-hour mark giving a clear reason here might help with your case.
- Select "Submit request".
But according to user reports, Valve recognize that this is a bit of a special situation and are issuing manual refunds for The Day Before regardless of your play time. So if your request is automatically denied, it might be worth opening a Support ticket to have an actual human approve the request.