Fntastic Posts Statement Claiming That The Day Before Failed Because Of A “Hate Campaign”

If you thought that The Day Before developer Fntastic was going to go quietly into the night after its closure in late 2023, well think again, with the now defunct (or maybe not) studio posting a statement to social media to address several issues it has with what has been reported and claiming that The Day Before’s undoing was the “hate campaign” against it.

The statement kicks off by addressing the claims that Fntastic deceived players, with the studio rolling out the same sentiment we’ve heard before: “We worked hard and honestly on the game for five years. We didn’t take a penny from users, didn’t use crowdfunding, and didn’t offer pre-orders,” before saying that it gave refunds to all players, even if they didn’t want one. Fntastic asks, “How many companies return money like that?” The answer is obvious.

We then move on to the accusations that Fntastic deceived its investor Mytona, which is also incorrect according to the statement. Apparently, Fntastic and Mytona are still buddies, with its 2021-formed joint venture MytonaFntastic still a thing and its other game Propnight selling almost a million copies. Almost.

Fntastic then turns its attention to the stories and complaints made by former employees about the working conditions and the development process of The Day Before. “We’re unsure whether these employees are real or not,” Fntastic says before stating that it had “excellent relationships” with its workers, and even offered them healthcare and helped with their mortgages and “other personal matters.”

Now this is where the statement really heats up, with Fntastic taking aim at content creators who made “huge money by creating false content,” and exploited the “lack of information about the game’s development,” triggering a “gold rush.”

The last issue the statement addresses is why the game failed and the accusations the game was different to the trailers, to which Fntastic says “We implemented everything shown in the trailers,” (you know, the trailers they deleted before launch), and they only “disabled a few minor features, like parkour, due to bugs but planned to include them in the full release.”

Oddly, Fntastic gives a shoutout to Dr. Disrespect, who streamed the game at launch and supposedly liked the game “despite the bugs.” Fntastic calls it “unbiased gameplay” while saying that certain creators instilled a “negative bias” and that despite “improved reviews over the weekend” (it’s still sitting on Overwhelmingly Negative on Steam) the “hate campaign had already inflicted significant damage.”

Lastly, Fntastic claims that many players felt duped by content creators and have expressed their desire for Fntastic to continue working on the game, with keys selling on the black market for over US$200.

⚡Recently, a lot of misinformation has emerged on the Internet from supposedly anonymous sources. Fntastic provides an official response to these statements.#fntastic #thedaybefore pic.twitter.com/zRKWQ1nfmr

— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) January 24, 2024

It’s a truly wild statement, and it makes you wonder why they would even put it out considering the evidence that’s out there and that some of the developers are reportedly working on a new project. Regardless, The Day Before is dead with the servers being shut down a couple of days ago, so if you’re one of those people who bought a key for top dollar on the black market, best of luck to you.

What do you make of Fntastic’s latest statement? Let us know in the comments or on social media.