The Day Before
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About
The Day Before is an open-world MMO video game that grew notable for the overwhelming disappointment and criticism from its player base, as technical glitches and simple gameplay contributed to brutal reviews and player numbers in the days after its launch.
History
The reveal trailer for The Day Before premiered on January 29th, 2021 (shown below), promising an open-world zombie shooter MMO. The game is developed by Fntastic.[1]
The development cycle for The Day Before was very troubled, leading to skepticism and suspicion of Fntastic and the game. The game was initially set to release in June of 2022, but was delayed to early 2023 when it the development team switched from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. It was delayed again in early 2023 to November 10th, 2023 due to a trademark dispute.
Some suspected the game may be a scam.[1] Those following the development of the game discovered that Fnastic were using "volunteers" to make the game, delineating between "internal volunteer" (a paid employee) and a "supporter" (an unpaid one). Furthermore, Fnastic had only developed two mobile games before The Day Before.
Fnastic pushed back against claims that The Day Before was a scam,[2] saying "The game is fully funded by Mytona, one of the largest mobile publishers in the world, who checked the game's build at every milestone per our contract."
The game was eventually released in early access on Steam on December 7th, 2023.
Reception
Upon the release of the game's early access, reviews were overwhelmingly negative. As of December 11th, 2023, the game has a "Mostly Negative" rating on Steam[3] from 18,000 reviews. Many reviews report they refunded the game and complained that the game was not what Fntastic had promised, saying it is more like an extraction shooter than an MMO.
Additionally, reports and videos of glitches spread widely on social media. On December 7th, 2023, Twitter user @exfilcamper posted video of his character falling out of the game environment in the opening area, gaining over 120 retweets and 680 likes in four days (shown below, top). User @not2betrite[4] posted a variety of glitches in the game, including models grotesquely breaking, gaining thirteen likes in four days (shown below, bottom).
The Day Before is making a great first impression pic.twitter.com/pMgA5OM5nW
— ExfilCamper (@ExfilCamper) December 7, 2023
The game saw significant mockery on YouTube as well. On December 10th, VideoGameDunkey posted a video playing and mocking the game, gaining over 1.2 million views in one day (shown below, left). Asmongold called the game "The biggest scam of the year" in a video that gained over 627,000 views in two days (shown below, right).
Closure of Fntastic
On December 11th, Fntastic announced it was closing due to the game "failing" financially.[5] This heightened suspicion that the project was a scam from the beginning, and the studio was "closing" in order to salvage the profits of the purchases of the game already made,[6] though that is unconfirmed.
Search Interest
Unavailable
External References
[1] Escapist – Don’t Fall for The Day Before
[2] IGN – The Day Before Devs Say Delay Was Planned Before Trademark Dispute
[3] Steam – The Day Before
[4] Twitter – not2betrite
[5] Twitter – FntasticHQ
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Top Comments
Wilm210
Dec 11, 2023 at 05:04PM EST
Ginkei
Dec 12, 2023 at 04:03AM EST