The Day Before
by Fntastic / Fntastic / Mytona
About the Game
An open-world survival MMO set in a post-pandemic America. Marketed for over two years as one of the most wishlisted games on Steam based on cinematics that bore little resemblance to the final product.
Why the Developer Killed It
Fraudulent Marketing Conduct
Trailers shown for over two years depicted an open-world survival MMO. The shipped product was a small extraction shooter with no resemblance to the marketed game. Steam reviews are 79% negative.
Studio Dissolved Four Days Post-Launch
Fntastic announced its dissolution on December 11 2023 — four days after launch, after collecting purchase revenue. Servers went offline and the game was delisted on December 22.
Built on a False Premise for Two Years
The game reached #1 on Steam's most-wishlisted list for extended periods using footage that was not representative of the actual game. Hundreds of thousands of players wishlisted a product that did not exist.
The Day Before was one of the most wishlisted games on Steam for over two years. The wishlist count was built on trailers showing sweeping open-world survival gameplay — players managing resources, exploring large environments, and building bases in a post-pandemic United States. On December 7 2023, the game launched. It was a small, generic extraction shooter. The environments shown in trailers were not in the game. The 'MMO' elements were absent. The opening hours were structurally indistinguishable from a dozen other survival extraction titles, none of which cost $39.99.
Peak concurrent players reached 38,000 on launch day — driven entirely by the two-year marketing campaign. By day two, the player count had collapsed. Steam reviews came in at 79% negative, citing the wholesale misrepresentation. Within four days, Fntastic announced the studio was dissolving due to 'financial failure'. The framing was extraordinary: a studio that had just launched a game to 38,000 players, collected purchase revenue, and then declared itself financially failed while simultaneously closing down — all within 96 hours.
On December 22 2023, servers shut down and the game was delisted from Steam. Buyers had no recourse unless they qualified for Steam's two-hour refund window — which most did not, given that the game's true nature only became apparent after launch. The Day Before is a textbook case of deliberate consumer deception: a product marketed fraudulently, sold at full price, and abandoned before most buyers could process what had happened.
Information sourced from public records, press coverage, and developer announcements.