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The Day Before Developer Cancels Game Due To Lack Of Interest; Turns Around And Announces Another New Game

Just when you thought it was safe

I debated whether or not to write about this and give the bizarre company more exposure, but this is too entertaining and strange to ignore.

Having been the subject of controversy and confusion for years, developer FNTASTIC finally released The Day Before on December 8, 2023. Those who eagerly awaited what was promised to be a survival MMO that blends the open-world gameplay from The Division with the atmosphere of The Last of Us were left baffled by the catastrophe that was the final product. Plagued with a litany of game-breaking technical issues and missing countless advertised features, the barebones and broken extraction shooter was a disaster on all fronts, marking a catastrophic failure from what was the most wishlisted game on Steam at the time.

As a reminder of the marketing that went into The Day Before, I present you with this:

Four days after launch, it was announced that FNTASTIC would be closing up shop due to the blunder. Shortly thereafter, automatic refunds and the complete closure of the game’s servers were announced. The now infamous team nuked its social media accounts before briefly resurfacing to shift blame for The Day Before’s failure onto content creators and a perceived “hate campaign.” And then, silence.

But wait, there’s more.

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Rising once again, FNTASTIC’s website flickered back into life with a PDF apology/plan of action titled “Everyone Deserves a Second Chance.” Outside of the absurdity that a shady company would have the audacity to make a statement like that, the plan outlined a return to game development with a new title named Escape Factory. Of course, games are notoriously expensive, and the most logical thing for a company with a poor track record to do is to look at crowdfunding.

Yep, this new physics-based multiplayer party game that could give you genre whiplash if you looked back at the studio’s previous titles needed your support to get off the ground. The Kickstarter campaign had a funding goal of $22,784, with some exceptionally lofty stretch goals that reached as high as $700k. Well, on October 23, FNTASTIC released another statement (this time on X) announcing that Escape Factory’s Kickstarter campaign had been cancelled because it hadn’t “generated enough interest.”

And fair play, after nearly a month, the campaign only managed to raise $3,583 from 50 backers, so you can hardly blame them for bowing out of the race. Amazingly, in the same breath, the statement hard pivots from a sombre admission of missed targets to a platform for a new game announcement.

“However, your wishes are very important to us, and we are happy to announce the start of development on a new action-horror prop hunt game called ITEMS!”

Prop hunt games are more in FNTASTIC’s wheelhouse, having previously released Propnight, though that received mixed reviews and has since been removed from sale on Steam. At any rate, the insane 180 of this statement made me laugh, and I thought I would share the joy. For those worried about the funding of this game, don’t stress because FNTASTIC confirmed in the post that all funds will be generated from mobile games they plan on releasing as they work on ITEMS!

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Are you still following this rollercoaster, or did you get off when The Day Before was released? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.

Written By Adam Ryan

Adam's undying love for all things PlayStation can only be rivalled by his obsession with vacuuming. Whether it's a Dyson or a DualShock in hand you can guarantee he has a passion for it. PSN: TheVacuumVandal XBL: VacuumVandal Steam: TheVacuumVandal

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