The Day Before Servers Shut Down: It’s Officially Over
The saga of PC title The Day Before is finally over. Like, completely over. Whatever this game was, and that is still very much an open question at a 10,000 foot level, it's now gone. And I can't say that I know for sure that the speed with which this game went from being launched to being completely shut down set any sort of records, but it sure does appear that developer Fntastic was trying to do so. What many thought was purely vaporware went from a trademark dispute delaying its launch to the company shutting down almost exactly 1 week after a game that took 5 years to release was launched. And because of this whole fiasco, there have been plenty of rumors and accusations floating around out there that, whatever this developer actually is, it might not be a legit developer at all interested in making and releasing a real video game.
Whatever the truth about the developer is, the game is gone. The servers have been shut down, it's off of Steam, all the social media and website presence for the game and Fntastic have simply poofed away.
Controversial, PC-only shooterThe Day Beforeis officially dead, barely a month and a half after its launch.Steam's much-hyped zombie game, which saw developer Fntastic shutter its doors almost immediately after release, is now totally unplayable. For a few weeks following its disastrous debut, it existed in a state of limbo, but on January 22,The Day Before's servers were switched off and various other aspects connected to the game, such as its official website, no longer function. RIP.
Around the time thatThe Day Beforewas burning down, publisher Mytona promised thatrefunds would get issuedautomatically to any player who requested one. Interestingly,if you check Mytona's website now,The Day Beforeis not listed anywhere. It seems we're back to the day beforeThe Day Beforecame out.Shit happens, amirite?
Were all those refunds issued? Who knows? With everything disappearing around us, it's hard to tell! Will anyone attempt to pick up this IP and see if a game can be salvaged from it? Almost certainly not, but as with all things The Day Before, it's hard to know for sure!
What we do know is that 5 years of whatever this was is gone and there might be some lessons for storefronts like Steam to learn when it comes to vetting products like this in the future.