Not every game can hit the ground running, and The Day Before is one such game that crashed upon launch. Developed by Fnastic, The Day Before was a short-lived survival MMO that was released in December 2023 to poor reviews, and has since dropped off the map. Now, Fnastic is blaming the game’s failure on “certain bloggers” who spread a campaign of misinformation prior to the game’s release. Despite apparently shutting down after The Day Before bombed upon release, Fnastic is telling fans to stay tuned for something new – but how much of it is true?
Fnastic Blames “Hate” For The Day Before’s Poor Launch
Released on December 7th, 2023, The Day Before is a survival-horror MMO that sees players waking up in New Fortune City, a once-booming city on the east coast of a post-apocalyptic United States. After it was released, it became apparent that The Day Before wasn’t doing well almost immediately. The game had seen a lot of solid hype prior to its release, with Fnastic calling it a “real breakthrough in the MMO survival genre” a month after it entered development. The Day Before the most wishlisted game on Steam in May 2022, and Fnastic continued to build anticipation even as the game was delayed several times and even pulled from Steam with the developers citing “trademark issues” surrounding the title.
In the midst of the game’s development, Fnastic became the subject of controversy regarding unpaid labor among the company’s “volunteers” and were faced with many people claiming the entire game was a scam. Despite this, the game was eventually released in December 2023, only to immediately be faced with a variety of poor reviews. Critics cited The Day Before‘s mismanaged development, collection of hefty technical issues, and lack of original concepts as reasons to avoid the game, with fans giving it “overwhelmingly negative” reviews on Steam, which was it’s only platform.
One week after The Day Before’s launch, Fnastic announced that they were closing via a post on Twitter/X. Now, they’re back, releasing a statement that puts the blame for the game’s poor performance on “bloggers” who made money off of “hate afflicted perceptions” of The Day Before. Meanwhile, they maintain that “worked hard and honestly” on the game, and seemingly had nothing to do with its incredibly poor reception across the board.
Certain bloggers made huge money by creating false content with huge titles from the very beginning to gain views and followers, exploiting the lack of information about the game’s development…Unfortunately [upon release] the hate campaign had already inflicted significant damage.”
Fnastic (@FnasticHQ via Twitter/X
In closing their address, Fnastic thanked everyone who had supported them and recommended following them on social media to see “what will happen next.” It’s hard to say what company that’s supposedly been shut down could get up to, but whatever they might do next, we’re hopeful it’s better than what they’ve left behind.
