Image: Fntastic

One of Steam’s most wishlisted games has been delisted after a controversial launch. 

Fntastic, the developer behind the controversial zombie-survival game The Day Before, has officially announced that it’s shutting down for good. The Day Before was Steam’s most-wishlisted game until it was overtaken by The Finals, paving the way for the studio’s most successful release yet. Now, it’s been taken down from Steam and Fntastic has removed all mention of the game from its YouTube channel. 

Fntastic CEO Eduard Gotovtsev has also deleted his Twitter/X profile. The game had only been out for four days in total. 

What happened to The Day Before?

Fntastic’s marketing material for The Day Before promised big things: a large-scale MMORPG with gorgeous visuals, a gear system, player housing, vehicles, and more. When the game launched, players got little to none of those things. The MMO launched in a broken early access state, with visuals far below expectations, none of the promised open-world elements, and bugs galore. Shortchanged players viewed the game as a scam, hitting it with more than 19,000 ‘Overwhelmingly Negative’ reviews on Steam before it was taken down. 

The game continued to be sold for $39.99 after Fntastic made its studio closure official, but it was later taken down. It’s unclear if Steam or Fntastic itself pulled the trigger on the game’s delisting, but the latter did confirm that servers for The Day Before would keep running for the foreseeable future. 

The Day Before reportedly sold a minimum of 201,076 units on Steam, according to GameDiscoverCo founder Simon Carless. Of that number, 91,694 buyers chose to refund the game. In Fntastic’s announcement, the studio said, “Unfortunately, The Day Before has failed financially, and we lack the funds to continue. All income received is being used to pay off debts to our partners."

The developer added that the future of both The Day Before and its other game Propnight is, “unknown, but the servers will remain operational.” In a bid to seemingly avoid legal issues, Fntastic also affirmed that “we didn't take any money from the public during the development of The Day Before; there were no pre-orders or crowdfunding campaigns. We worked tirelessly for five years, pouring our blood, sweat, and tears into the game."

The Day Before launched on Steam on December 7, 2023. It has now been delisted from the platform.