It's Not Our Fault, It's Yours: FNTASTIC Claims The Day Before Was Doomed By A "Hate Campaign" And Only Those Content Creators Made Money

Hey, do any of you remember The Day Before? Yeah, that zombie survival game that went belly up within days of opening, forced the closure of the developer, saw the publisher scramble to work with Steam on forced refunds, has a myriad of stories coming out about development behind the scenes, and generally went from the most wishlisted game on Steam to a complete disaster?

Yeah, that game.

Well on top of rumors that the founders of FNTASTIC may be already working on their next game, rumored to be mobile, the company's X (formerly Twitter) still keeps ticking for some reason, despite having announced the studio's closure back on December 11th (posted as an image below because things involving this game sometimes disappear.)

In a post early this morning, FNTASTIC claims that every rumor you've heard from "alleged developers" is false. They apparently were a great company to work for, offered remote work and healthcare, helped employees with mortgages and equipment, and even paid salaries on time...nice of them...

 

⚡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

They also claim they didn't deceive players or their investors, and they claim to have a good relationship with them still...you know, this company that CLOSED last we heard.

Fine, you feel unfairly attacked? I get wanting to defend yourself. As absurd as the first 3 points on their post are, let's skip them as just being reactionary. You did deceive players, but I've covered that so much, we'll skip it this time around.

Points 4 and 5 get wild though, friends.

In these particular points, FNTASTIC tries to paint an alternate reality where it isn't their fault at all that things went south.

Then who is to blame, you ask?

Easy. You. And Me. All of us that cover or consume gaming content.

Players that accused them of being a scam, journalists who covered the game from start to finish, content creators that levied a "hate campaign" against the game and were the only ones who "made money" in the "gold rush" of pre-release popularity...that's who gets the blame. Not the company that literally used their massive hype following to sell totally different games, then mentions those games selling in this post as an example of their successes.

FNTASTIC didn't remove advertised features, they were all in there except "a few minor features, like parkour"...despite clips being removed from their own YouTube channel because they showed content not in the game and other small things, like, you know, the ENTIRE GENRE OF THE GAME NOT BEING WHAT WAS ADVERTISED.

The post goes on to say that after some initial fixes, the game started to be reviewed better, people were enjoying it, and keys were on the black market for over $200 dollars (not something you want to really use as an example of a "good thing" since they were only there because the game was a trainwreck and you couldn't get keys on Steam anymore). The team says they were even getting emails from people begging for keys, modders were starting to do their thing, and petitions were made asking the team to continue development. 

(Side note: If you Google "The Day Before Petition" right now, your top results are asking for accountability, refunds, and other actions against the company/game...there's also one reddit post in the top results that calls for The Day Before to be saved...it didn't go over well.)

It's all very "alternate reality" shit. It's the politician giving the story of a "big strong man came up to me one time, big man, tears in his eyes" crap. Did you get those emails you claim you did that were asking for access or giving you words of encouragement? Maybe, I don't check your email, so I'll give you a "maybe." In the end, who cares? YOU (FNTASTIC) put up a game that was wildly different from what you advertised, YOU decided it was ready to charge money for, YOU gave it 4 days before you gave up on it...those are YOUR decisions.

For some unknown reason, a closed company ends its statement by saying you should follow their social media  to "know what will happen next."

Un-freaking-real.

So much for "not holding a grudge" against those that didn't believe in them.