ONE of gaming’s weirdest stories has just come to a close after a year of speculation.
Questions over whether the game even existed were finally answered, but not in the way that fans hoped.
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The Day Before was first announced a few years ago, and since then a number of game trailers have been shown off by IGN.
These trailers showed off flashy footage comparing the game to big-budget titles like The Division and DayZ.
The Day Before quickly became the most wishlisted game on Steam thanks to the flashy footage in the trailers.
It was then revealed that developer Fntastic is mostly made up of unpaid volunteers from around the world, leading people to question if the company is capable of producing an open-world MMO.
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MMOs are one of the most time-intensive types of games, requiring thousands of hours of work from talented developers.
Questions were immediately brought up as to whether development of a game like this could be possible with a team of unpaid volunteers presumably working in their free time.
The store page disappeared from Steam for seemingly no reason, something Fntastic later claimed was an error on Steam’s end.
Gameplay trailers were promised and a release date was set, but these dates passed by without any communication from Fntastic.
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The company first blamed a licensing issue for the delay, and set a new release date for seven months later.
Fantastic later said that the delay was planned before the trademark issue arose, leading to further confusion.
Gameplay footage was finally released, but the video only further confused fans.
Not only was the footage nothing like the video shown in the trailers, but it also focused on mundane tasks like organising your inventory.
The next release date, November 10, 2023, came and went without a game launch or explanation from Fntastic.
It was finally said that the game would be released in Early Access on December 7, and much to everyone’s surprise it actually was.
However, it in no way matched up to the trailers that were originally shown, and was an extraction shooter instead of an MMO.
The release featured very few zombies to attack, and was full of previously used assets and bugs that made it practically unplayable.
Just four days after launch, the player count was down by 90% as people scrambled to claim refunds for the broken game.
Then, as the pattern has been for Fntastic, The Day Before was removed from sale without warning, and the company announced that it was shuttering on Twitter.
The statement reads: “We invested all of our efforts, resources, and man-hours into the development of The Day Before, which was our first huge game.
“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.”
The saving grace for players is that Fntastic says that everyone will be eligible for a refund regardless of playtime.
Usually refunds on Steam can be issued only to people who have played for less than two hours.
The Day Before was a fairly pricey game, costing players almost £40 for the broken experience.
If you need to request a refund for The Day Before you can follow these steps.
- Log in with the Steam account you used to purchase The Day Before.
- Select “A Purchase” from the suggested things you may need help with.
- Find The Day Before from the list of purchases.
- Choose a reason for refunding the product – anything will do in this case.
- Fill out the form and submit it. Valve seems to be refunding anyone who bought the game, regardless of playtime.
- If you did it right, you should get an email to confirm that your request has been received.
Following the announcement of the studio’s closure, many players expressed their disappointment on Twitter.
Fntastic’s official account responded to some of these concerns with: “This was our first big experience. S**t happens.”
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If you want to find out more about the biggest releases, then check out the biggest and best games from 2023.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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