Mytona, the publisher of the trainwreck known as The Day Before, has issued an apology for the state of the game, and has stated that they will work with Steam to refund anyone who wants their money back.
In case you missed the ongoing saga of The Day Before you can read my post from the other day (which is a bit scruffy, I admit, owing to my ongoing flu) but here’s the TL:DR: The Day Before was released just days ago into Early Access and was apparently such a huge disaster that developer Fntastic closed its doors on Dec 11, citing a lack of funds.
Mytona’s statement notes their role as an investor in the game before going on to say that “We are sorry for the fact that the game didn’t meet the expectations of the majority of the players. Today we will work with Steam to open up refunds for any players who choose to make a refund.”
— Mytona (@mytona_official) December 11, 2023
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Fntastic also posted to X to confirm that they are working with Mytona and Steam to allow refunds. They also once again reiterated that they have received $0 dollars and will not receive anything from the game’s sales.
I noted in my post yesterday that some very fast, rough math using the peak player count suggested at least $1.3 million in sales had been made. The actual numbers are far more confusing though. For example, Valve holds back a chunk for refunds, plus they get a 30% cut of the sales. Then there’s game engine royalties to consider, tax and so on. It’s also important to note that developers typically get paid at the end of each month, meaning Fntastic wouldn’t have seen any money until the end of December.
Fntastic also claim they have a $1 million server contract for the first year to uphold.
While many people still believe The Day Before to be a scam, I think it’s looking a bit less likely at this stage. If it was a scam then it has suffered from hilariously poor execution as it looks as though Fntastic really are not going to get anything from the game.
It looks like this really was just a case of people being stupid. They promised the world, couldn’t deliver it, drastically scaled back the vision and possibly event freaked out and built most of the game from purchased assets so they could at least release something.