The developer of The Day Before, Fntastic, has announced that it is shutting down just four days after the game’s early access launch on December 7. The studio, which opened in 2015, cited the financial failure of The Day Before as the reason for closing in statement on their Twitter account.
“We invested all our efforts, resources, and man-hours into the development of The Day Before, which was our first huge game,” the statement reads. “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.” All future income will go towards paying off debts owed to partners of the studio.
“It’s important to note 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,” it continues. “We worked tirelessly for five years, pouring our blood, sweat, and tears into the game.” For those who already own the game, as well as 2021’s Propnight, the servers will stay up, though the future of support is unknown.
Since 2015, Fntastic has released five games, including The Wild Eight, Dead Dozen, and Radiant One. The Day Before, their latest, has received reviews that Steam classifies as “overwhelmingly negative,” which call the game broken and not what was advertised. After only four days, it is the ninth worst reviewed game on Steam of all time, with over 19,000 reviews.
The developer promised an update with server and AI fixes the day after the game launched, with an otherwise silent social media presence before the shutdown announcement.
With the studio shut down, it is likely that it will be the game’s last patch. At the very least, it will still be playable for the near future.