The Day Before Collapses, Dev Studio Shuts Down & No Longer Purchasable Just 4 Days After Launch

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SOURCES
1: store.steampowered.com/app/13...
2: / 1734265789237338453
3: / 1734328286241550832
4: / 1734364434066477191
5: store.steampowered.com/app/13...
6: / 1734359076690362582
7: / 1734422905042391160
8: steam250.com/bottom100
9: steamcharts.com/app/1372880
10: steamdb.info/app/1372880/charts/
11: / 1734282332671205736
12: www.metacritic.com/game/the-d...
13: / 1734382637266149520
14: / 1734400449942261868
15: www.ign.com/articles/the-day-...
16: www.ign.com/videos/the-day-be...
18: / enchantingscrumptiousk...
20: kotaku.com/day-before-steam-z...
21: / 1732834806906363971
22: / 1733083019672478142
23: / 1732858755392393721
24: / 1732828768257904824
25: / 1732856223098151153
26: www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-...
27: www.polygon.com/23992623/the-...
28: insider-gaming.com/the-day-be...
29: www.pcgamesn.com/the-day-befo...
30: • The Day Before - Befor...
31: / 1734270513369809269
32: / 1734302756981158242
33: / 1732886788069306753
34: / 1734402222018953455
35: steamdb.info/app/526160/history/
36: store.steampowered.com/app/52...
37: • The Bizarre Case of Th...
38: • The Day Before Will Be...
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[@YongYea]

They got what they deserved. PATREON: www.patreon.com/yongyea TWITTER: twitter.com/yongyea INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/yong_yea TIKTOK: www.tiktok.com/@yongyea TOP PATRONS [BIG BOSS] - Devon B - gergely oggolder - Jonathan Ball [BOSS] - Charlie Galvin - Gerardo Andrade - Marketing aag - Michael Redmond [LEGENDARY] - azalea - dirt

[@tomatomaki]

Thank you Chong Yue for the awesome news.

[@dyea_b_tis5319]

.

[@QuestionMarking]

This is like a publisher survivability speedrun, wonder if you could put that in Guinuess world records?

[@paperstarbit]

The shutdown tweet was also AI generated BTW

[@legendxcarisso]

It's funny, because this game almost had about the same level of non-existence as Skull and Bones. Yikes.

[@happytimes8623]

“the day before” we shut down lol

[@SevastovTv]

😂

[@miguellilly8859]

Lol

[@robertnapier624]

Ba dum tss!

[@That_One_User_314]

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

[@redohealer2]

Memes

[@at_las]

The speed-runs of studio shutdowns is crazy this year

[@bobjoe5937]

Let's hope they shut down Bethesda next.

[@TheForever206]

@@bobjoe5937 Not happening anytime soon. Bethesda games makes to much money.

[@bobjoe5937]

@@TheForever206 yea yea...i know. It's just they're one of the most scummiest gaming companies of all time.

[@Steveo0547]

@@bobjoe5937agreed bro

[@mistermistermr732]

@@bobjoe5937 bro i totally agree with you i would love for them to shut down too. right after they make elder scrolls 6

[@rafaelbordoni516]

King Kong game came in clutch to save Gollum from the title of worst of the year, now in a never seen before move at the last second, The Day Before is coming in clutch to save King Kong from that title, what a year...

[@karthiksubramanian2279]

Honestly i am not shocked or angry or sad...but i am just laughing hard at the situation....its totally hilarious..😂😂😂

[@GreenKnight07]

Wait until that there Will be a game even worse than the day before

[@jannovak6987]

Damn you're right lmao

[@danielturunen7237]

This is clearly an asset flip. There's no way a team of developers would spend 5 YEARS shitting out something like this. They took the money and ran.

[@EskChan19]

Yep. The whole map is a single 300 dollar asset you can buy.

[@irishijo1]

They couldnt even take the money, seeing as how they owed their investors *alot* of it for prior failures. Their least failure game was Propnight, which after some personal reaserch, had the exact same issues across the board. It was buggy, janky, full of hackers and cheaters, had nonsensical design choices, and the Developer (to my knowledge) did next to nothing about alot of those issues. To put the chery on top: Fntastic changed their name.

[@PeculiarNotions]

It certainly looks that way.

[@forslos8756]

The asset flip post someone put together show that they only start buying asset after the reveal trailer which is 2 year agos. This isn't 5 years long development, the development literally only start after reveal and is 2 year only.

[@genlando327plays2]

They also won't have received any money from Steam yet, plus they have a publisher to pay. Honestly, if this WAS an asset flip, they 100% did it wrong. It's more likely just really THAT bad of development

[@BrenTenkage]

quite a year for gaming. We have some of the best games around...and then also the worst games around, I'm kinda impressed

[@InsidiiousLad]

This year will be really hard to top in the next year's lol

[@biblicallyaccuratecockroach]

Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

[@lightingthief4482]

And the return of horrible licensed games. Never thought I'll see that

[@oneandonlyJonnySad]

It’s the disappointment that comes with the ‘worst games’. Saints Row and Gotham Knights really hurt.

[@unironicallydel7527]

@@oneandonlyJonnySad dont forget the absolute dumpsterfires that were Gollum and Kong. I dont even know HOW you make games that bad.

[@AvocadoDesperado_]

There were so many red flags and so many warnings from the community about this game. Yet they still sold so many copies! Also, how is this legal?!

[@blackfacegaming191]

Because it’s not in USA maybe they could get sued in russia

[@unironicallydel7527]

*was legal, until they charged for it. Legally, it wasnt a scam until now bc as they said they werent getting money for development, but now that theyve sold it for a profit, its definitely illegal.

[@johnnyk3950]

As you would expect from Russians. cheaply made, lying and then blatantly ripping people off. didn't expect anything else

[@phillipchappell6013]

Saw somewhere that steam may not being paying them. as it vallidated several of their rules. not to mention if refunding everybody money from what i hear

[@thexmacx812]

Sue dammit let me get a few bucks of this lmaooo

[@kingfreedom160]

Developer: 'Four years of blood, sweat and tears to release this game to you' Translation: 'We pulled together a shit ton of unity assets and only made a couple areas by hand because we gave up right after the announcement but knew we had to release something or we would likely be sued.' Developer: 'The Day Before ended up not being financially high enough to continue production or keep our studio open. Translation: 'Too many people refunded the game after they saw what it was, so now instead of jumping ship next month when we get enough money for ourselves, we're leaving four days after release and making Steam pay you all back. See ya suckers!

[@ShinKamaitachi]

The game was made in a few months and it was a cash grab that's all it is.

[@crapshot321]

Yeah, pretty much. Good translation!

[@Celphied13]

Don't forget "made by hand by our totally-not-exploited 'volunteers'"

[@battlion507]

Wait, doesn't Steam hold that income for 30 days?

[@crapshot321]

@@battlion507 I believe so. That's why another poster claimed that this company was too incompetent to even steal the money they've gotten.

[@Olinser]

The idea that a company can sell 'early access', then immediately close down and basically say 'screw you, no refunds', is utterly INSANE.

[@RoyMatzem]

They cant. Everyone is getting their refunds. But Steam needs up the Standard, we cant have scam stealing people like that

[@popereptillianlord6174]

they didnt get any money and all refunds are being accepted via steam. They screwed themselves bad

[@tarille1043]

Not only can they NOT do that, since Steam controls refunds. But they also don't even get any money from sales until at least 30 days after release, until that point, Steam holds onto every single cent. Which is why this sort of thing isn't common. It just doesn't work because Steam actually has policies to combat this sort of thing. The worse thing are the ones who sell "Early access" and just don't do anything. Leaving the game in permenant half-baked "Early access" and letting it fester long enough that the 30 day hold on funds for newly released titles doesn't last long enough to cover any refunds. Meaning this company couldn't even do the Early Access scam correctly. Since Steam's just going to use every cent they would have made from sales to refund everyone.

[@genlando327plays2]

To be fair, THEY'RE not the ones giving refunds. Given Steam's policies they probably haven't even been paid for the sales that aren't getting refunded. Steam is working with the PUBLISHER to do refunds

[@rafaelbordoni516]

Half the reviews in this game had a "Game refunded" tag.

[@pikapat321]

“This was our first big gaming project. Shit happens” You know how many studios first games aren’t a scam? Lmfao the fact they were making excuses on Twitter

[@LoganHunter82]

Lmao the fact that they used Twitter at all

[@mogscugg2639]

Obsidian's first game was KOTOR 2, which they rushed out in 13 months because of pressure from LucasArts And it was still great

[@randomguy6679]

Team Cherry’s first game was Hollow Knight ffs

[@StormsparkPegasus]

@@LoganHunter82 Merely using twitter these days makes someone suspect.

[@arthurleggywulf]

Took a gander on Steam when this first released as I couldn't believe it actually released. Saw one review saying something along the lines of "yeah it's buggy but what game nowadays doesn't have a rough release? It'll improve" and I suddenly remembered how these blatant scams make so much money. I love optimism, but there have to be limits here, come on.

[@ZABORRA]

People's standards are so low, they don't even expect a finished game

[@beetleprime5927]

​@@ZABORRASo sad but unfortunately true.

[@arthurleggywulf]

@@ZABORRAYup, it's pathetic.

[@Zack_Wester]

@@beetleprime5927 yep. EA, Blizzard, Ubisoft, Bathesta(that said not sure how much of that is there engine they really need to remake). CD Projekt RED. that said some bugs exist thats a fact and that was a a fact sins day 1 back in 1980. the question is how severe are the bugs, how easy are the bugs to find and what do I need to do to trigger them (aka that super wierd HL1 bug that I can´t wrap my head around on how it works vs press new game start fall throught world.).

[@beetleprime5927]

@@Zack_Wester Yeah I'm honestly ok with some bugs as I think it's reasonable enough that at least some will sneak through at first, but here it's just like they know full well the bugs were here and just didn't try to do anything about it.

[@TrashComments]

A game that was in “development” for 5 years just for it to be taken off the Steam store 4 days after its Early Access launch has got to be the biggest failures in gaming history

[@JuwanBuchanan]

Was a scam from the get go

[@ItsAv3rageGamer]

The entire game is an asset flip. The big city the open world takes place in is $300 on the Unreal Engine store.

[@Shinbu150]

ET for Atari says hi. That game most likely caused the home console gaming crash in the 80s. The entire stock of the game was dumped in a New Mexico landfill.

[@TheManHimself0213]

@@Shinbu150good news is gaming wasn’t too big then. Now it’s higher than ever

[@fuzzspanden]

@@Shinbu150 ET didnt cause the crash on its own, it was just a famously unpopular game at the time. Kinda gets scapegoated IMO. The whole market was full of shovelware for years, and it was hard to tell it from the good stuff. ET was just a major flop at the time that people remember now because it's easy. They buried other games in the desert with it, yknow.

[@Davitron_87]

This has got to be one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in gaming. The deception campaign, all the delays and excuses. Then they finally release a completely different game,the studio closes a few days later, the CEO is MIA, his socials are nuked, all the marketing has been removed. Then finally all they can say is “shit happens.” You really can’t make this up 😂

[@SoftisNelaris]

It's even funnier because this video is the first time I've heard anything at all about this game. This just popped up in my notifications, so I decided to check it out.

[@theevokeruser2356]

This games a real cherry on top for terrible games this year. Never seen a game and developer shut down so quickly before.

[@CookyMonzta]

_Because there was never a game to begin with!_ It was a Ponzi scheme from start to finish! 💩🚽

[@MeggaMann_theBlueLion]

Facts. But it was bound to happen. And one always wondered who someday would be the face of such things. And well, here it is folks. I love it. Games with no micro transactions becoming game of the year. Indies shining over Triple A’s, Game Awards mediocrity. I mean I really love it. Makes me wonder what’s gonna happwhen GTAVI comes out

[@megarhombus7532]

Well some one manged to do WORSE than gollum. Not saying much.

[@CookyMonzta]

@@MeggaMann_theBlueLion By the time GTA VI comes out, HADES II might be ready to throw a monkey wrench in their quest to become GOTY.

[@michaellane5381]

​@@megarhombus7532and Kong... We cannot forget Kong... Though we may want to...

[@birdmanrising]

I was looking forward to hearing you cover this :) sorry to hear you’re feeling under the weather. Feel better soon Yong!

[@tiaxanderson9725]

One more time; you could have 175 200 hours on a game from 20 years ago and you can still request a refund on steam. The two hours and 2 weeks own time is the *no questions asked* refund policy. Everything else is handled on a case by case basis like every other platform. If you give a valid reason and haven't refunded tons of games; it'll be considered.

[@Mizufluffy]

I think 175200 hours from 20 years ago sounds a bit too much. That is basically playing the same game 24 hours per a day every day for the entire 20 years. If it was perhaps 58400 hours (8 hours per a day) or even 116800 hours (16 hours per a day) then I could believe it because you would still have 8 - 16 hours time each day for other things than gaming. Have you heard about sleeping? Eating? But yeah, I understand the point you are trying to make. I just thought the hours were a bit too much.

[@DMBLaan]

The bug where people are falling though the map, that's the very FIRST SCENE of the game after making a new character on a server!

[@sfooshy4517]

When I saw that on twitch I assumed the devs only made that room, and the bug was an excuse for lack of game 🤣

[@Reikuma-X]

Definitely not “the greatest scam” anyone who followed this game knew it was going to go exactly like this. I’m even surprised the game released to begin with tbh. People who did/ still are defending this are actually delusional.

[@arthurleggywulf]

Straight up. People will defend anything to the ends of the Earth. And people wonder how predatory stuff like the NBA 2K series still makes so much money. It's depressing.

[@Spike2276]

There's people defending this?

[@SentiNel090]

True, the greatest scam is Star Citizen. But you can at least PLAY that game, or so I've heard...

[@Spike2276]

@@SentiNel090 Star Citizen has evolved from a scam to a cult by now

[@GholaTleilaxu]

Or perhaps you are all just being manipulated by the comments you are reading on your favourite social networks.

[@madfox58]

We had Baldur's Gate, Alan Wake, RE4, Spiderman 2, Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Wonder... and then we also had Redfall, Gollum, Skull Island Kong, CoDMW3, Forspoken, the Switch port of MK1... PERFECTLY BALANCED. AS ALL THINGS SHOULD BE. All is well in the world.

[@LloydTheZephyrian]

Let's not forget Hi-Fi Rush as a highlight! That's the game that gave Forspoken the people's elbow.

[@arnox4554]

RE4 had inexcusable after-launch microtransactions, so it goes in the shit tier now. (Why am I the only one that remembers they did this?) Have no mercy for this kind of behavior, for you will receive none.

[@osvaldorubalcava9721]

baldurs gate is worse than The Day Before

[@LloydTheZephyrian]

@@osvaldorubalcava9721 Can't really make such a bold claim without explaining yourself.

[@NeO_SaNdMaN4040]

@@arnox4554micro transactions in the way they handled it was absolutely an afterthought. And plenty of folks haven’t even touched the micro transaction bullshit, including me. RE4R and even Separate Ways’ DLC were fucking PHENOMENAL for being as faithful as it all was, while adding and subtracting great and less than good things. It is nowhere close to shit tier.

[@Liberater4589]

its so hilariously obvious that they just shat something out as quick as they could so they could try to avoid a lawsuit by saying "its not a scam look we released it"

[@KawaiiSoulB42]

Well, they cant be sued because it wasn't a scam. LOL They just couldn't afford a MMO. Shame if it had the current tags, U all would bitched anywhy.

[@domanskikid]

@ KawaiiSoulB42 People would still “bitch” because it would still be a bad game. The tags wouldn’t change that, stupid. 🙄

[@toblerone1729]

Looks like pulling the rug to me 🤷‍♂️ I'd immediately ask for a refund if I suddenly lost access to a game I bought yesterday if I didn't do anything wrong in the first place

[@ry_an.]

@@KawaiiSoulB42definitely is a scam kid

[@LloydTheZephyrian]

Wasn't it released in early access, though?

[@ryuuotaku35]

The people behind this scam should be prosecuted for this. This must not happen again.

[@DZGenesiszero]

I'm sure the KGB knocked on their door demanding a refund.

[@genlando327plays2]

I mean... considering Redfall, Gollum, and Skull Island, in a court of law, a case can be made that this falls below the burden of proof to LEGALLY be considered a scam. Honestly, even if the burden WAS met, at this point I feel like a judge would rule under caviat emptor given the obviously "accepted" trend by consumers in the industry

[@wolvie90]

I learned about this game yesterday. It never ceases to amaze me how gullible the gaming audience is.

[@GDUBMX]

You learned about it the day before today?

[@wolvie90]

@@GDUBMX Yes. Getting off the videogame hypetrain is the best decision you could ever make.

[@StudlyFudd13]

@@GDUBMX I just learned about this game. Had no idea this was thing coming out, nor who this dev team was.

[@AT7outof10]

the literal embodiment of that meme "Gamers want one thing and its disgusting."

[@DeadKraken]

@@wolvie90 Gamers are almost at the same level of cryptobros credulity-wise. No Man's Sky's shitty launch happened almost 10 years ago, and these dumbasses still get swindled by the "huge game concept that costs minimum 50 millions from first time indie dev" thing, this time even without a known publisher behind it. They deserve all the scams and microtransactions and underdeveloped overpriced shite they get, I learned my lesson to never pre-order and never fall for hypetrains again when Dark Souls 2 came out, and I was a teenager back then lmao

[@mattcanich4287]

Steam should absolutely refund every purchase. But every refund should come with a mandatory "sucker" Steam badge so everyone knows that despite multiple years of obvious issues and tons of people pointing out that it was going to be terrible you still bought it.

[@evandaymon8303]

That's not gonna happen. The badge part Refund part they are already doing regardless of how long you played even in the video he mentioned someone with 15 hrs getting their refund. As for badge they wont do it. It will be insulting there customers and they will get sued over it. Happened to xbox when they used to have a label where they call you a cheater and take all your achievements away because you cheated. Long story short the system fucked up and label a autistic kid a cheater (when he never did anything much to deserve it.) his mom made a fuss about it in court and they had to stop doing that

[@nocaptainmatt3771]

This is an absolute concrete example of proof that most game developers overinflate their games, big or small and you should never ever believe them until they deliver what they promise

[@dew_b_dew]

What a crazy year for gaming. Record setting lows such as kong, gollum, and the day before to cap it off speed running bankruptcy. But then you have the pinacle of gaming with masterpieces such as Zelda TotK and BG3, which has more hours of dialoge than the amount of hours fntastic spent developing their game. Truly wild.

[@toastertastic5085]

There are simply no words to be said other than “I don’t know what else I was expecting”

[@markmathisen3908]

Even worse is what the devs tweeted about people complaining (rightly, I might add) about how misleading and piss poor the game was: "This was our first big game project. Shit happens." I'm not kidding, that's what they said. 🤦 Edit: just saw that Yong did reference this tweet in the video.

[@300IQPrower]

Honestly this was so predictable even calling it a scam seems generous.

[@Real_Infinity95]

I knew they fucked up when they said “we miscalculated our capabilities”. This is truly pathetic.

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

The Day Before is the perfect encapsulation of what gaming has become.

[@Xyler94]

Not really. It's more of an indication how easily people are fooled by trailers. I've said it before, even trailers can deceive, so those who cry "I want gameplay trailers" are still idiots. And yes, I'll blame consumers here. The Outer Worlds 2's trailer really did encapsulate it, yet people just think it's a joke. It is satire, but satires have an air of truth to them... unfortunately.

[@durenatu]

Seeing this kind of response in this trailer with the yakuza debacle is really funny

[@thefiresworddragon927]

Not really; it's really this, minus the backlash because they hide the bad stuff behind a two hour window on PC, and kept alive with $50 mtx for 2 gold coins minimum

[@K7Reaver]

Everyone been getting sick. I guess it's the right time of year for it. I hope you feel better soon.

[@skyuru]

This is what happen when people are jumping in to a game without taking any information and this is what happens with big corporates too, but modern audience will never learn the lesson lol

[@hideshisface1886]

I'll be bloody honest. This game was one of the most obvious scams I have ever seen - they could hardly make it any more obvious if they wanted to without just spelling it out right there. And yet, people still fell for it - this is the terrifying part.

[@niallreid7664]

Not terrifying, frustrating. And these dumbasses continue to defend the game or act like victims. I mean, honestly I don't feel pity for them. That kind of mindless buying is genuinely what's wrong with gaming.

[@allthenamesiwantedweretaken]

Every time we think "the worst game ever" is released, someone else always manages to steal the crown. "There's always a bigger fish"

[@TheConpletionist]

Heard the sequel The Day Before The Day After Tomorrow is coming along nicely

[@tyleroutland435]

No way it's getting a sequel 😂

[@morty2630]

​@@tyleroutland435♿️

[@zachhawn8720]

"Why does it look like the Day Before the Day after Tomorrow was yesterday?"

[@johnwright5179]

​@@morty2630 😂

[@SkylerHamm587]

Not only that, it appears to have just changed their name so to scam more people again.

[@urogoth]

My favorite time, and the time that made me go "oh, this isn't gonna end well", was when they said they were switching to UE5 and we saw it look worse even though the touted features were meant to make a thing look better more easily.

[@urogoth]

The 2023 footage just made it undeniable for me after that

[@jneff6456]

22:50 Asking for volunteers for a for-profit venture is not just questionable... under the Fair Labor Standards Act, its illegal.

[@sierramike0913]

Not a US company so they wouldn't follow US law in that regard.

[@sparky4878]

Game self destruction speed run. Sounds like something for a Karl Jobst video.

[@marybdrake1472]

They didn't fool everyone, I was skeptical from the start. The false advertising was one of the least idiotic things they did. The most being that they thought they'd actually get away with it.

[@sharpester7277]

I heard how much of a scam a lot of games are. But damn, the developers shutting down only a mere four days after the game released alongside the game, getting delisted, sure is something.

[@CrowMercury]

If this doesn't learn people to not buy Day 1, then they deserve every scam they get.

[@gwp151]

That`s why you should always buy The Day After

[@mememachine376]

Yes the people who are excited to buy a game the day it comes out are the problem, not the scummy devs who push them out

[@rebelking_21]

​@@mememachine376well we can't do shit about scummy devs. As consumers what we CAN do is not pre order and wait for reviews before the masses purchase it.

[@rokkraljkolesa9317]

@@mememachine376 both are at fault

[@LloydTheZephyrian]

​@@rebelking_21Reviews tend to be mixed in terms of credibility.

[@terminatorxp2007]

i’m genuinely curious what their plan was with this? did they really expect to release this and not get destroyed by the gaming community?

[@EskChan19]

Nah, fairly sure the plan was to create as much hype as possible, stretch the beginning to just above 2 hours so people couldn't refund, then run with the money.

[@Peylix]

Obvious that it was an attempt at an early access scam. Build as much hype as possible to maximize day one FOMO buys, Then vomit out something barely coherent to be pass Steams requirements, and keep it viable just long enough (30-90 days) to get the payments from Steam's escrow, then dip. The best part is, they're too incompetent to even do that correctly. This is why they dipped just 48hrs after. It wasn't going to work, so they ran and are trying to vanish like this never happened. It's this part that shows what it was from the beginning and when you look at the entire shit show with this in full context. It's clear as day. lol

[@Peylix]

@@EskChan19 Steam holds money for 30-90 days. You're right in theory, just not on the time frame. Rather than 2hrs, this scam needs to run for at least 30-90 days before Steam releases the profit from sales. Steam does this as a way to protect against these scams such as The Day Before. It's just that these devs were really bad at even doing that, which is why they dipped almost right away after it became apparent they'd never hit even the 30 day mark lol

[@sytherwusky]

it may have either been a ponzi scheme or a pyramid scheme?

[@etienne8110]

They just planned to get away with the money while leaving behind something that was just enough to give plausible deniability against incoming lawsuits.

[@jamesverner9132]

Yong thank you for not running away. Your a good guy and Yakuza is not going to stop you from giving us the news.

[@xyavdast5554]

The real question is how they can just continue selling games on Steam by changing their company name. If their original "development studio" had to close down as a result of this "failure" (scam) --> for financial reasons then how can they start a new studio without money? If they got a new game developed as "Fntastic" then that game should also fall into the assets of the studio "Fntastic" and hence not be able to be sold under a different developer name. --> for reasons of bad reputation then why does Steam not automatically write the former developer name next to the new developer name on the game's store page? Like "Developer: Eight Points (formerly: Fntastic - changed due to negative reputation)". That way the people would be warned on the game's store page directly instead of needing to wait for reviews from others. After all reviews can only be written if you purchased a game. So even if they refund it after the review, people still need to buy that game first. And that should not be neccessary to call out scammers.

[@Achillez098]

Just when I thought the final contestants for Worst Game of 2023 had all arrived, The Day Before comes rushing to the finish line. Redfall, Forspoken, Gollum, King Kong, Day Before...what a year...

[@LongClawzHidden]

The company tried changing their name to 'Eight Point' in order to avoid any retaliation. Disgusting!

[@WolfsGamingBlog]

They didn't. Basically, to keep it short, Fntastic developed a game called The Wild Eight under publisher Hypetrain. The game hit early access and Fntastic decided to ditch it and move on to something else. Hypetrain bought the full rights to the game, and ceased all business with them in 2017. Hypetrain then decided to change the developer name from Fntastic to Eight Point the other day. Their reasoning, according to a statement given to Eurogamer, is that Hypetrain saw a wave of negative reviews for The Wild Eight that weren't about the game but rather about Fntastic. They made the call to change the developer name to curb the backlash. It was a dodgy decision because obviously from the outside it makes it look like Fntastic changed their name. However, it doesn't look like Fntastic had anything to do with the decision. Of course, doesn't mean they won't change their name or pop up again.

[@charlesfuzak]

Why in the world would they change their name to distance themselves from TDB and then link it to a game people knew they were involved with? I swear people don't use common sense.

[@Lenariet]

That's fake news. HypeTrain, the publisher of The Wild Eight, told Eurogamer that they changed the name of the dev on that game to distance themselves from Fntastic. The latter sold off the game to the former years ago, they aren't the dev for that game any longer and haven't suddenly gone back to it. Also take note that Radiant One and Propnight still list Fntastic as dev. Why would Fntastic only change the name on The Wild Eight if it were them? This is simply misinformation.

[@doublinx2]

​@@WolfsGamingBlog this really needs to be a top level comment and pinned

[@grumpyoldwizard]

"We took all your money and we're not giving it back", is what they meant.

[@samuellee257]

At this point... I dont think Gollum can be the worst game of the year since so many games are trying to go even lower. It is insane!

[@Adam-FR]

I was just in shock it came out. 😂 But being the Yong Yea veteran I am, I learned about this dev enough to predict this was not going to make it one way or another. I didn't buy it. Thanks Yong! 👍

[@starry842]

Apologies that come with refunds are how this should ALWAYS go. I believe it's sincere when they give the money back. It may be a low bar, but I can list some studios that didn't clear it just this year.

[@thefiresworddragon927]

Blizzard, Bethesda, Activision, EA…

[@joshc007]

"The days after shit happens" should of been the name.

[@Boss_Fight_Wiki_muki_twitch]

Those massive NPC heads makes it look like a horror game, it almost looks intentional

[@zahreel3103]

The signs were all there. Did it matter? Nope. Plenty of people still wasted their money on this farce. Fanboys and people looking for clout represent one of the major problems in the gaming industry.

[@jasonhannah7483]

And it's funny 😅

[@KiuhKobold]

The best part about these bad game releases is getting more content to watch about their failure. Who knows, maybe the next chapter for Fntastic is Chapter 11 bankruptcy? Can't wait to see these scammers dig themselves deeper. Also lets not forget, they basically had slave work with their "willing volunteers"

[@osirisatot19]

Yeah I think they were counting on being able to rip people off with an asset flip game, and then them getting picked up and noticed was really bad for them because it got too many eyes on it. If no one noticed they could have snuck in under the radar and probably gotten away with it.

[@markmathisen3908]

"If it hadn't been for you meddling kids I'd have gotten away with it, too!" 😂😅

[@mkdmc]

man I have been waiting for you specifically to cover this

[@toxicdermyillunary4103]

This game is so meta they call it The Day Before. Releasing the day before they died.

[@DarkstarArchangel]

This game should be called 'The Day Before Cancellation'.

[@Klishar122]

Slight correction: when Yong says “copyright” at the beginning, what he should have said was “trademark issue.” Because the developers didn’t secure the trademark to “The Day Before” after they announced the game and it was picked up by a calendar app.

[@jrmizzgaminglounge]

Hope you feel better soon, Yong!

[@chingchaching24]

As a kid I learned that when a game seems too good to be true , it's not going to live up to expectations. One of the first games I got hyped for long ago was APB (All Points Bulletin), which looked like an online GTA.

[@TommiMakkinen]

Wasn't so much as a "dumpster fire" but more of a "dumpster inferno"... Or a "dumpsterpocalypse"

[@arthurleggywulf]

I would say "dumpocalypse" but that sounds like a term for a sewage plant blowing up..

[@mediumvillain]

When youre like "a cutscene, an in-game cutscene", no its not just an in-game cutscene, those are actually people spawning into the game's OPENING SCENE and falling through the floor or spawning behind the wall.

[@pastaplatoon6184]

"The day before" is when they made the game.

[@ahmedisam2533]

Damn this is indeed the best and worst year in gaming

[@ExUSSailor]

It was a classic "pump & dump". Hype it up real big, sell it, then, close up shop real quick, and, disappear with the money.

[@vallejomach6721]

Disappear with what money? Steam does not pay devs instantly...you get paid by Valve 30 days AFTER the end of a calendar month. So if your game releases on the first of the month you are basically two months until you see any money. They will receive almost nothing from Steam by the time all the refunds have been processed. The only money they are likely to have gained is from Nvidia who put the game straight onto their Geforece Now platforma nd presumably stumped up cash for that to happen...and most of that's probably already been spent on getting the game to market.

[@jjones1032]

Been waiting for your take on this story!

[@Doomerang01]

Just one correction: Hypetrain themselves changed the developer name for Wild 8 as they were sold the rights to the game by Fntastic in 2017. They did it to try and distance themselves from Fntastic who they had kept labeled as the devs for some reason, but in this one particular case it was NOT Fntastic who did a name change. That's why it only happened with Wild8 and not the other Fntastic games. It doesn't explain why they decided to use Fntastic's old developer name instead of put themselves as the developer though. This was confirmed in a Eurogamer article that was updated with the information. Hypetrain themselves are a legitimate company as they publish real games like Void Train. They were just idiotic and should have just changed the developer to themselves as soon as they acquired the game rights rather than not do anything about it for 6 years. Also, Fntastic implicitly lied about the money thing in their shutdown statement. They were clearly acting like they weren't a scam because they didn't take any money from anyone, but they DID take money from sponsors like Nvidia. It would still be a scam even if they refunded every single person who bought the game because of this.

[@Radman1889]

Literal last weeks of the year and companies and games are speedrunning to be worst game of the year. Quite a feat

[@thefiresworddragon927]

Honestly, now I have the conspiracy theory thought in my mind that devs like that are doing this to try and ruin the thoughts of the majority of people in the world. I have so often seen people describe some years as "being horrible and terrible", whilst completely ignoring everything good in that year. Someone said in a video on a game released this year, and said a rough paraphrased quote "one of the few things good this year". One of the few? Where did Hi Fi Rush shadow releasing and becoming an instant competitor for GOTY, IN JANUARY, Armoured Core 6, Baldur's Gate 3, Tears of the Kingdom, Spider-Man 2, Pikmin 1, 2 and 4 coming to Switch, Super Mario RPG remaster, Metroid Prime Remastered, announcement of Paper Mario TTYD remaster (which if it's the classic combat, means Paper Mario is finally back after all these years since Sticker Shat), where did all those go? Last I checked, Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 failing was not a negative thing, it was a good thing because Blizzard got vibe checked (look up Overwatch 2 on Steam, it's rated worse than Flatout 3, which is… one of the games of all time). Two and a half horrible game releases (as I don't even consider The Day Before a video game), do not outweigh about a dozen or so positive things

[@CarlGonzaga867]

The Day Before: We screwed all the players world wide Warcraft Reforged: Hold my beer

[@rud3b0ygaming]

"I'm sorry we didn't meet your expectations" has got to be one of the worst apologies lmao 😂😂😂. They tried to pull the rug on people and they are still taking a victim stance. Thanks for the coverage as per Yong! 👊🏿

[@distractedFreek]

Years of blood, sweat, and tears...typing into the search bar of an asset store, and AI prompts. Clearly a difficult set of tasks.

[@0taku912]

This year we got some crazy good games but at the same time we got some horrendously bad games. Perfectly balanced as all things should be.

[@bobbenson6825]

Take care of yourself, I hope you feel better. I was looking forward to your take on this. I have a sick feeling there will be more con jobs in gaming going forward. I mean, Fyre Festival is becoming a role model, or so it seems.

[@daiakunin]

Get well soon Yong! I'm getting overa cold too

[@rasmie8858]

The fact that gamers even fell for this sorry excuse of a scam should be studied The alarms were blaring but somehow gamers still chose to blindly believe

[@karthiksubramanian2279]

Exactly...i am surprised there were some people who bought this and defending this...😂

[@AndrewDavie-er3ug]

Imagine that a game is so bad even the in game character become self aware and fall into nothing.

[@xblowsmokex]

proud of you for fighting those cults

[@hazyaspect]

"It didn't meet the expectations." And who set those expectations hmmm?...

[@TheWildManEnkidu]

I thought he said 'I am currently fighting a cult' in the opening. I was like bruh! What? Who is after you?

[@maccamachine]

Well not surprising scammers at their finest

[@buckn5]

I am surprised you never covered the completionist situation at least a single time in a video.

[@rokkraljkolesa9317]

Yong's more of a gaming news guy, Jirard being tangentially related as someone who plays games on camera, really

[@magma_fire_bagwan]

Wait what happened?

[@NeoStorm247]

@@magma_fire_bagwan The charity he's been running and promoting for years was revealed to have never donated any of the money people gave them, they just sat on it all this time, lying all the while that it was being donated as people had intended.

[@rokkraljkolesa9317]

@@magma_fire_bagwan tl;dw: his charity has not been sending money to charities as advertised, holding on to it instead Mutahar aka SomeOrdinaryGamer and Karl Jobst made several videos when they found that there was something fishy with them

[@magma_fire_bagwan]

@@NeoStorm247 Yikes D:

[@meme13100]

Love the outfit you chose. Looking great yong. Thanks for the update on fantastic.

[@kleberson777]

I love this quote They Released "The Day Before" and Closed "The Day After"

[@novaboy1174]

I'm enjoying the drama more than the actual game. Keep the drama going!

[@WH250398]

Anyone remember "Abandoned" for Ps5? Lol

[@ladypseudo6096]

Aw. Hope you feel better.

[@Derotrox]

I wish someone would make video explaining how these fake trailers become reality. I mean someone is playing this, arent they? Assets (working cars), environments (mall), mechanics (vaulting) are there, yet somehow none of that makes it into the game? How come? I get visual downgrades, but how is it that entire gameplay elements ONLY appear in fake trailers? Its just baffling to me that such trailers seem to be an entire side project, that has nothing to do with the game and also takes years to prepare and finish. If someone could make an eductaional video on this topic, I think it would be a great public service for the future.

[@franciscobutte]

The Pay Before (the disaster)

[@Banguelas]

This was a long time coming. Anybody paying attention could see it coming way before the “Day Before” (see what I did there?).

[@InnerRise]

15:28 CornField can't catch a break! I love what it's become! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@jjimenezjj]

The video I've been (im)patiently waiting for...

[@2greenify]

I don't care if assets are bought or reused, as long the game is good.

[@Sveten_]

As far as preorders go I kind of wonder if Steam put a safeguard in place due to all the controversy surrounding the game.

[@MightyRathalos90]

There were no preorders and steam holds money for minimum 30 days. Been that way for years.

[@axllaw427]

Gollum: "We thinks we are the worst game of 2023!" Skull Island Rise of Kong: "Hold my bananas!" Day Before: "Allow me to introduce myself..."

[@arthurleggywulf]

If we somehow manage one more just before the new year this might be the greatest worst year in gaming possibly ever. It'll be incredible.

[@ArcticVXR1]

They should so a sequel and call it "4 days after"

[@gabrieloviedocasanas4977]

Apparently, most of the higher ups just rebranded the company from "Fantastic" to "8-balls" or something literally a day after their supposedly bankrupt, so is clear they regret nothing and will try to pull this shit again one day, and worse of all there are people defending this putrid mess after everything...

[@Lenariet]

That's fake news. HypeTrain, the publisher of The Wild Eight, told Eurogamer that they changed the name of the dev on that game to distance themselves from Fntastic. The latter sold off the game to the former years ago, they aren't the devs for that game any longer and haven't suddenly gone back to it. Also take note that Radiant One and Propnight still list Fntastic as dev. Why would Fntastic only change the name on The Wild Eight if it were them? This is simply misinformation.

[@norbertbukki5620]

Don't get surprised if The Day Before gets the same "treatment" as The Wild Eight! That got it's owner switched from Fntastic to Eight Points. As far as I am aware, Eight Points WAS Fntastic's EARLY studio name! So get ready for a possible ROUND 2! 😂

[@PsyrenXY]

"Its like a procedurally generated Starfield planet, except even worse somehow." Goddamn, the savagery

[@MalarkeySixTwo]

YESSSSS BEEN WAITING FOR THIS