The story behind The Day Before is a bizarre one. Advertised as an MMO, it was at one point the most wishlisted game on Steam. Then, it launched, and everyone hated it. It wasn't even an MMO, and was much more akin to an extraction shooter - albeit a very basic one that fell apart very quickly due to bugs and performance issues.

Now, Fntastic is back, and asking the gaming community for a second chance. As part of this, it's given its own view on what went wrong, pinning much of The Day Before's woes on overpromises and poorly communicated marketing.

Fntastic Shares Its Thoughts On The Day Before's Disastrous Launch

After the unsuccessful launch of the game, we were unable to continue development due to financial losses. Among the factors that led to the failure were overly ambitious goals with a low indie budget, a team with no AAA experience, and excessive marketing, which we deeply regret

— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) September 27, 2024

"Everyone deserves a second chance," said Fntastic, announcing that it's back and hoping to fundraise for its next game. "We deeply apologize to everyone for The Day Before and take full responsibility for what happened."

The studio has been responding to tweets, and in one reply, explains what it views as the problem with The Day Before. "Among the factors that led to the failure were overly ambitious goals with a low indie budget, a team with no AAA experience, and excessive marketing, which we deeply regret."

However, it doesn't seem that many are convinced. In another reply, the studio is accused of trying to scam its playerbase. In response, the studio writes, "how we scammed? We refunded all the money [sic]".

Now, Fntastic is asking for money once again. It has set up a Kickstarter of $15,000, all in aid of a completely different game called Escape Factory.

Unsurprisingly, it's found little success so far, As Fntastic itself mentions on social media, The Day Before failed to deliver on its marketing, so few are likely to trust the studio again. When The Day Before gameplay footage was finally shown off, it barely resembled the product that was promised. It also looked incredibly unfinished, something which became apparent when it finally launched on December 7 to overwhelmingly negative reviews.

Four days later, Fntastic said that The Day Before had "failed financially" and the studio would be shutting down. Servers shut down the following month, and refunds were sent out to players.

However, there were signs of trouble long before launch. The studio was accused of copying trailers for other games in its own promotional material, and even failed to secure the trademark of its own game title. The latter issue saw the game temporarily removed from Steam before launch, and the whole ordeal led many to believe that The Day Before wasn't actually a real game.

Developers later came forward with claims that they were crunched to get the game out, and were even fined for "small errors" made at work (via IGN). With so much going wrong is every department, few expected Fntastic to return.

It remains to be seen if Fntastic can get Escape Factory off the ground. But right now, it's still struggling to defend itself against The Day Before detractors, so the studio certainly has a lot to prove - especially now that it's asking for money once again.

Posted: 2 hours, 8 minutes ago
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/the-day-before-failure-explained-by-devs-marketing/