Steam removes “The Day Before” following developers’ announcement of closure

Image: Fntastic/Mytona

Michael McWhertor
is a journalist with more than 17 years of experience covering video games, technology, movies, TV, and entertainment.

Hours after announcing that highly anticipated zombie survival game The Day Before was a financial failure and that developer Fntastic was shutting down, the controversial game has been pulled from sale on Steam. The Day Before launched last Thursday, just four days ago, on Valve’s storefront. Fntastic has also purged its YouTube channel of all videos of The Day Before, and CEO Eduard Gotovtsev has deleted his X profile.

Fntastic and publisher Mytona had been selling the game for $39.99, even after announcing that no more updates would be released for The Day Before. It’s not clear which party involved pulled The Day Before from Steam. Polygon has reached out to Fntastic, Mytona, and Valve for clarification and will update this story when they respond. Polygon has also reached out directly to Gotovtsev via email.

Prior to The Day Before’s removal from Steam, sales figures of the game were reportedly revealed by Gotovtsev on Telegram. Those figures, posted by GameDiscoverCo founder Simon Carless on X, show that The Day Before had sold at least 201,076 units via Steam. Purported data from Gotovtsev also showed that 91,694 purchasers of The Day Before sought refunds on the game through Steam. Polygon has asked Gotovtsev whether those figures are accurate.

The Day Before launched on Steam on Dec. 7. The game, pitched as a massively multiplayer open-world survival game, launched in a rough, early access state. But early reviews from players of The Day Before slammed it, saying it was much more limited in scope than advertised. On Steam, The Day Before now has more than 19,000 reviews skewing “overwhelmingly negative,” with many calling Fntastic’s game a “scam.” It quickly became of the lowest rated Steam games of all time.

Before its early access launch, The Day Before was the most wishlisted game on Steam. The game’s highly anticipated release (and a great deal of skepticism that developer Fntastic could deliver on its promise) was based on an impressive reveal trailer from 2021.

 

Source: Polygon