The Day Before has officially sunsetted, bringing its early access drama to a final ending

This year’s popcorn drama is currently being provided by the likes of Palworld, but last year, it was The Day Before – and now it is no more.

MOP readers will remember that The Day Before was Fntastic’s open-world survival MMO, first revealed back in 2021, though it was 2023 when the game actually started down its path of ridiculousness. There was a canceled trailer launch, disappearance from Steam and YouTube, bizarre last-minute trademark dispute that helped obfuscate a massive delay, insane MMO content promises, unpaid labor, the Times Square ad, and insistence that it was not a scam. The game’s early access launch in December was the beginning of the end, as it became clear to early buyers that the game was actually just another unfinished shooter without the massively multiplayer elements promised. The playerbase collapsed under the weight of Steam refunds and negative reviews and video takedowns until eventually, Fntastic announced the studio’s and game’s outright closure, admitting it had “failed financially.”

At the time, Fntastic initially implied the servers would stay up indefinitely, then changed that to clarify that the whole game would go dark on January 22nd. That, I’m afraid, was yesterday, and as first noticed by IGN, that’s exactly what happened, as all access was cut off, though the Steam page is still technically up, toting its 23K negative reviews.

We’re fighting off the urge to echo Fntastic in saying “shit happens,” but honestly, the games industry has so many problems right now that our heart’s just not in it. This sucks even if the game was bad and the studio was teetering into false advertising scam territory; it’s the last thing the multiplayer games genre needs.