The Day Before: Controversy Explained (Snap Aim Podcast)
Just to preface this post, this is the written/readable version of the latest Snap AIm Podcast episode I published!
Okay so we’ve all heard about The Day Before and how the studio behind it, Fntastic, is now shutting down. But just in case you’re out of the loop, let me catch you up to speed.
People were so excited for the release of The Day Before back when it was releasing teasers that showcased an incredible survival zombie apocalypse game. It was first announced in January 2021 with a five minute trailer that had gamers salivating over how good it looked. For me, it was going to scratch that DayZ type itch that survival gamers wanted. It looked way too good to be true.
And it was.
More footage came out from Fntastic covering gameplay and the release date was announced for June 2022. Then that date came and went and Fntastic focused on showing off it’s Dead by Daylight and Prop Hunt from Garry’s Mod game called Propnight. It was fine. It wasn’t anything special. Certainly not worth delaying The Day Before for.
But the release date got pushed back for March 1st 2023 after the devs said The Day Before was switching over to Unreal Engine 5. That already screamed red flags, the game seemed to be far along in development so the late transition over to a new engine seemed unnecessary.
There was a lot of silence from Fntastic after that delay. Fans started to tear the game trailers apart and dig into Fntastic’s background and question whether or not this game was legit or if it was real at all. Then it came out that Fntastic operated by a volunteering culture where they don’t pay all of their workers.
There was heavy backlash after that discovery and Fntastic tried to defend itself by saying that some of their workers do get paid, the ones who are regular employees, and the others are full-time volunteers who get cool rewards, participation certificates, and free codes.
The next update after that was a new gameplay trailer showing 4k graphics with RTX on but then the removal of The Day Before on Steam. Apparently, Fntastic failed to secure the trademark for the game in the United States and Steam blocked the game page.
They tried to claim that they didn’t know about the trademark issue till January this year, in 2023 so they had to push back the game again to November 2023. Fntastic tried to cover up the fact that they’d always planned to delay the game by pinning the blame on the trademark issue.
This was the last straw for fans and people started looking further into gameplay clips and photos and call out The Day Before as a scam. A lot of people, including me, did not think the game was even real. There were so many curated gameplay clips we’d seen that people genuinely questioned its existence.
It definitely didn’t help that the latest gameplay trailer released was almost the same as Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s trailer. Fntastic vehemently defended itself and told the public to just wait and see when their game releases and that fans would just see for themselves the product they were creating.
Well, another delay hit The Day Before, this time from November to December 7th of this year and with the caveat that only the PC Steam version would launch in Early Access. And Early Access on Steam cost $39 with the full price later billing at $49.
Well, there wouldn’t really be a full price moment for The Day Before. December 7th came and The Day Before was just vaporware. Sure, you could boot it up and enter the game but saying you could “play” the game is a bit generous.
Players loading in couldn’t get past the intro scene and load into the world proper, and once actually in the world the gameplay was nothing like what was advertised and the amount of bugs would put Florida in the summer to shame.
The Day Before immediately became one of the worst reviewed games on Steam and then, not even a week after release, Fntastic announced that it was going to be closing its studio. Players who bought Early Access were furious that they were just shit out of luck with no more post-launch support and no plans for the game to fully release.
The Day Before just lives as it is now, a buggy awful mess of a downloadable series of files. Fntastic has been removing all evidence of what The Day Before was supposed to be with taking down trailers from YouTube, and the game being delisted from Steam.
Also, some players pointed out that Fntastic has rebranded on some Steam listings of games they’ve developed and are now calling the studio as Eight Points. The studio specified that they’re not directly profiting from The Day Before’s launch but the sales from the game are seemingly going towards paying off the studio’s debt before shutting down the game.
If you bought the game and want your money back, your best bet is to go to Steam Help, click on purchases, and click on The Day Before and explain why you want your refund for the game. I’m pretty sure a majority of players who bought its Early Access are doing the same.