'This was our first big experience, sh*t happens': The Day Before's CEO is MIA, its Discord server has disintegrated, and its YouTube Channel has gone dark

Man facing camera
(Image credit: FNTASTIC)

Trainwrecks aren't exactly rare in the gaming industry, but it's rare that they're this spectacular. After a suspiciously-polished trailer, The Day Before quickly became one of Steam's most wishlisted games

Then delays, more delays, major red flags featuring "volunteer" workers, a much shoddier 10-minute gameplay video (which you can't watch anymore) and finally a debut on December 7. One preempted by the studio Fntastic begging players to not accuse them of "scamming" people. One pile-up of car-crash Steam reviews and studio closure later, and The Day Before was pulled from Steam, December 11. In response to a baffled fan, Fntastic replied:

(Image credit: @FntasticHQ on Twitter/X.)

I'll just let that sit there without comment. I've given a very abridged history, but in case you want the full run-down my fellow Staff Writer Morgan Park has put together an explainer post. While following this unfolding story yesterday, my US colleagues also watched the game's Discord server collapse into ashes. 

"I've never seen a Discord server disintegrate in real time," Morgan notes before sharing a vaguely apocalyptic screenshot of a voice chat with over 311 people in it on the left, a bot getting bullied with slash commands in the centre, and a vanished member list to the right.

(Image credit: Morgan Park (PC Gamer) / Discord)

The studio's YouTube channel also has no videos on it. I'm not even confident it'll still exist in the coming days. The cherry on the top of this nightmare sundae? Fntastic's CEO is MIA. As spotted by Second Wind's Nick Calandra, Fntastic CEO Eduard Gotovtsev has deleted his Twitter account and muted his LinkedIn profile.

(Image credit: @nickjcal on Twitter/X.)

(Image credit: @nickjcal on Twitter/X.)

The Day Before's early access period lasted four days. Now, it's being scrubbed clean from the internet in the world's clumsiest vanishing act. Nobody sets out to make a bad game—but the speed at which this particular one took a nosedive is stunning in the literal sense of the word. From a top-wishlisted game to 'errr, nevermind', I'll be fascinated by what details emerge from game's post-mortem.

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

With contributions from
Read more
Level Zero: Extraction image - woman in an HEV suit looking at a holographic image being projected by her presumably very expensive wristwatch
Just two weeks after launch, 'extraction survival horror' game Level Zero: Extraction ends development: 'It's no longer feasible for our relatively small teams to sustain the game'
A spaceship jets away from the camera, into an asteroid field illuminated by a distant blue sun.
Vanished for a year, early access dev returns to announce a crisis taught them 'videogames ain't it' and end development on 'singleplayer EVE' they've been making since 2017
Alan Wake, a writer in a snazzy black suit, gives his all during The Herald of Darkness music video from Alan Wake 2.
The biggest gaming controversies of 2024
A person is abducted by a UFO.
A UFO true believer made a grand strategy space game with input from alien abductees, but now claims shadowy forces have shut it down with a bomb threat
Palworld Pal hammering on rocks with a pickaxe
'He was trying his best'—Palworld had a lone server guy trying to keep the game afloat during its 2 million player launch
Characters in The Bazaar, a Hero-Builder game by Tempo, stand confidently with their weapons of choice raised.
Early backers of game decry 'bait and switch' after it backtracks on monetisation promises, dev chooses to stir the pot: 'Seeing Reddit lose it today lets me breathe a huge sigh of relief'
Latest in Action
Monster Hunter Wilds palico
The next Monster Hunter Wilds update is set to launch on March 10 and will ensure that when you chop off monster parts, the right monster parts get chopped off
Monster Hunter Wilds weird Palico outfits - Artian
Capcom cooked up some extremely cursed Palico outfits in Monster Hunter Wilds
GTA 5 Enhanced
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced is a bitter-sweet return to Rockstar's money-making machine
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 celebrates 7 years of rat bashing with a new versus map and double XP for all players, but its hotly anticipated weapon pack 'won't be coming out this year'
A hunter with his Switch Axe in sword mode in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Man builds Monster Hunter switch axe, complete with working flamethrower, because why not
Styx: Blades of Greed screenshot showing Styx viewing an underground mansion from a distance
My favourite AA stealth series starring a loathsome centuries-old goblin is getting a new instalment
Latest in News
A catgirl with long white hair and ears
At least it's not NFTs this time: The new Wizardry RPG is a gacha game
Staring eyes in a face covered in oil
Death Stranding 2's PS5 release date is in June, let's hope it doesn't take eight months to hit PC this time
An evil-looking demon with red eyes and horns
You can theoretically beat Doom: The Dark Ages without using a gun, but 'You'd have a hard time, that's for sure,' says the game's director
Official Doom Guy art superimposed over Vault 666 Fallout-themed background.
Fallout-themed Doom mod Vault 666 has multiple endings, an OP Dogmeat companion, and a Ron Perlman-impersonating narrator so good, I was worried it was AI-generated at first
The Doomslayer in armor
Doom: The Dark Ages won't end with the Slayer in a coffin waiting for the start of Doom 2016: 'That would mean that we couldn't tell any more medieval stories'
Path of Exile 2 showing the Warbringer ascendancy class bludgeoning his way through a pack of hyenas
Path of Exile 2 speedrunner dominates official race with the game's 'worst' class