The long list of controversies keeps piling up around The Day Before and Fntastic. The game development came to a halt right after 4 days of its release. The development company stated that they are closing down due to “financial failure,” but in reality, the reason is much bigger. Recently it was found out from ex-devs that the game was never planned as an MMO, during an interview with Dual Shockers.
When Fntastic first revealed The Day Before, it was advertised as an MMO game with features like no other. This is how the game quickly became a sensation around the gaming world over the years. The false advertisement continued right before its release as well, making fans believe that the target had been reached. Alas, The Day Before was released as an unfinished extraction shooter with nothing to do.
As a developer I wouldn’t even touch this but start from scratch, given the sheer amount of assets used and that it is mostly based off of survival framework it is a no go from networking perspective and things that have been pitched.
— solo dev (@lilsolodev) December 12, 2023
In a DualShockers interview with an ex-developer at Fntastic, the dev thoroughly chatted about the plans behind the title. It was revealed that the game was never supposed to be an MMO as they were working on a co-op third-person shooter. The idea of MMORPG wasn’t even discussed or implemented throughout stages. Though it was revealed that the “skills system” was in the prototype stage while creating The Day Before.
There was miscommunication throughout the years between the development and marketing teams. This was highlighted by the interviewee that the founders Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev used to argue over it. The following was quoted by them during the interview:
Maybe the CEOs knew something and didn’t tell us. Technically speaking, there were no RPG mechanics implemented. There was no possible way to put a lot of people in the world or make the world bigger.
From the beginning, the server size has always been planned for accommodating 100 players and not more. It was also revealed that there were no MMO mechanics like clans, raids, and closed hubs were added. This has been like it for well over two years and no necessary changes were made throughout.
None of this makes any sense… An investor doesn’t just wake up one day and just realizes “oh crap, we don’t have anymore money for this project.” You would’ve likely known months in advance how much capital you had left and was would be needed to continue..
— Kaeyon (@Kaeyon5) December 12, 2023
It was revealed by the anonymous ex-developer that the founders of the company are the ones to make all decisions. Even team efforts like giving feedback on gameplay and design were disregarded by the higher-ups. This is how the development ended up being based on whims and no collective improvements were done. They also revealed how disorganized it was when working at Fntastic by quoting:
Anyone who complained too much was kicked off the team. A lot of stupid ideas were implemented, removed, and re-implemented because the brothers thought they knew better than us about what people wanted. A huge amount of time and work was wasted because jobs had to be done and re-done.
The ex-developer allegedly leaked a message from Eduard Gotovtsev, which revealed why it wasn’t a financial success. Out of approximately 200,000 sold pieces, 90,000 of the copies were refunded. Though there was no straight answer to why the studio was closed off, it was assumed by the interviewee that Mytona wasn’t funding the CEOs further.
Fntastic accused of changing its name hours after announcing closure due to The Day Before fiasco
This isn’t the first rodeo for Fntastic as they have faced multiple controversies in the past. For instance, the company was held accountable for trademark issues, unpaid volunteers, false marketing, and more. All of this gets topped with their alleged name change after announcing their departure from the industry due to the failure of The Day Before.
According to SteamDB, Fntastic changed its name to Eight Points on December 11, 2023. This was spotted on the game page of The Wild Eight, which has been published by HypeTrain Digital. Furthermore, this change happened right after their announcement on X (formerly known as Twitter), making it more suspicious.
Fntastic is trying to hide its identity by rebranding to Eight Points for the game The Wild Eight. It’s getting slammed with negative reviews warning people that the game was released by scam artists. pic.twitter.com/VQ1SwfWDnW
— Connor (@mmofallout) December 12, 2023
Official statement. #fntastic #thedaybefore #propnight pic.twitter.com/AKcRHeIaIW
— Fntastic (@FntasticHQ) December 11, 2023
These events are further lowering the reputation of the company and supporters are not against Fntastic. For a long time, it has been speculated that the studio has only been after delivering games for quick bucks. The same story has followed for Propnight as well, before going viral due to The Day Before release. Currently, fans are enraged at the development studio for abandoning the game project and running away instead of fixing it.
Many users have called out the studio for being a scammer as they didn’t provide the product that was promised. However, it has to be mentioned that The Day Before copies are being refunded by Mytona, proving the scam statement false. Yet, the studio has been doing suspicious things like changing their names without announcements, which is a concerning matter.
