287

The Day Before Servers Shutting Down Next Month, Leaving Game Active for Just 45 Days - IGN (www.ign.com)

submitted 11 months ago by AnActOfCreation@programming.dev to c/games@lemmy.world

46 comments fedilink hide all child comments

• Controversial game The Day Before will have servers shut down in January 2024, just 45 days after its troubled launch.

• Developer Fntastic has closed down and the entire project will cease to exist, leaving players unable to purchase or play the game.

• Steam will automatically refund remaining players and Mytona, the investor, has been collaborating with Steam to facilitate refunds for all purchasers.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] RaincoatsGeorge@lemmy.zip 176 points 11 months ago

This was a scam from the start. They fucked themselves because their trailer was popular and they promised the world. Their goal was to create a shit early access game with pre-made assets, get lots of buy in when it was released, endure some bad reviews, promise to fix things but then slowly dump support for the game. I've watched this exact thing happen probably ten times now.

What killed them was the hype and popularity. They were called out immediately for what they were doing and got stuck having to now make an actual game or face legal repercussions.

At the very least these cash grabs are getting spotted early and they're not getting to sneak by without facing consequences.

[-] PrettyLights@lemmy.world 56 points 11 months ago

Due to the way Steam refunds work I feel this wasn't their end goal unless they really didn't think it through at all.

The theory i subscribe to is that they intended to release a "decent" game but had no experience or intent to make it themselves. The marketing hype machine was to build community hype, which would drive investor funding so they could pay for new talent or to just outsource most of the work. I'm guessing that either didn't materialize or they mismanaged that plan.

[-] thoughtorgan@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

I don't think they intended to release anything ever. But there was so much attention an them they had to release something.

They got funding from a Kickstarter right?

[-] PrettyLights@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

Nope, no Kickstarter or obvious public funding before the early access "release".

There's a chance some people weren't able to get refunded but due to Steam's refund policy I suspect most got their money back.

If it was always intended to be a total scam and never release they'd likely have used their own launcher to bypass the Steam revenue share and refund policy.