As the hype built before its release, a video game called The Day Before became the most wish-listed title on the world’s largest gaming platform, Steam. But yesterday, just days after its release, and an avalanche of bad reviews, Fntastic - the game studio that created the US$39 ($62) multiplayershoot-em-up - said it was closing its doors. ‘The Day Before’s publisher and bankroller, Takapuna-based MyTona, is now working with Steam on refunds.
In the video gaming world, it was one of the most anticipated events of 2023.
After five years in development, The Day Before, a multiplayer survival game set in a post-apocalyptic future in a city overrun by zombies, was finally released on December 7.
Within hours, 38,104 people were playing the game at once on Steam servers - indicating it was a hit, as you might expect, given its most wish-listed status on the giant gaming platform.
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But then the negative reviews started to flood in. Performance was buggy and erratic. But worse, players said The Day Before’s world was much more limited than the one advertised in two glossy trailers released on YouTube. The first 15,000 reviews delivered an average 18 out of 100.
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The number of concurrent players nosedived, and the game was pulled from Steam on December 11.
And just a day later, Fntastic, the video game studio that created The Day Before, announced it was closing its doors. Eduard Gotovtsev, who cofounded the Yakutsk, Russia-based firm with his brother Aisen Gotovtsev, initially took to X to ask players for patience, but then deleted his profile.
“Today we announce the closure of Fntastic studio,” the firm said in a statement posted to its website.
“Unfortunately, The Day Before has failed financially, and we lack the funds to continue. All income received is being used to pay off debts to our partners.”
Yakutsk to Takapuna
But although Fntastic went to ground, the gaming company that published the title, MyTona, fronted up yesterday posting to X that it would work with Steam to refund those who had forked over US$39 ($63) for The Day Before. (In a statement on its website, Fntastic said it had not received any money from Steam by the time it shut down.)
The post said that as well as publishing The Day Before (that is, being responsible for its sales, marketing and distribution), MyTona was an investor in Fntastic.
MyTona has offices and staff dotted around the world. The two brothers who founded the firm, Alexey and Afanasey Ushnisky, both originally from Yakutsk, popped up in Takapuna on Auckland’s North Shore during the pandemic, registering their business in NZ in July 2021.
The Ushniskys could not be immediately reached for comment, but an October 2023 Companies Office update has the firm still in Takapuna, and the brothers living in two separate properties in Greenhithe in Auckland’s northwest, with rateable valuations of $2.75 million and $2.77m respectively.
MyTona founders Alexey Ushnisky and Afanasey Ushnisky. The pair, originally from the Russian city of Yakutsk, set up shop in Takapuna during the pandemic.
Before The Day Before, MyTona was best-known for more modest-scale games for tablets and phones.
On social media, Fntastic copped wall-to-wall abuse, with one player saying “Unbelievable that you guys hyped this game up so much and this is the end result. You guys are an absolute disgrace to the video game industry.” Many said that, in their opinion, it was a scam. Another called the game “A steaming pile of s**t.” On the plus side, one reported that their refund had been processed.
‘Should be called out’
Dean Hall, founder of one of New Zealand’s largest video gaming studios, RocketWerkz, went on social media last night to lacerate The Day Before’s makers.
Hall said he had held his tongue during previous industry debacles, “[But] I believe now that this kind of behaviour from developers should be called out. We had a rocky launch for Icarus [RocketWerkz’s stab at a big-budget game] and we got mixed reviews as a result. Good. We deserved it. And we worked hard to turn that around.”
Hall continued, “Our industry is in crisis with most games getting barely any wishlists. Mismanagement destroys customer confidence, and they conflate genuine mistakes from hardworking and honest developers with dishonest or negligent projects.”
'I believe now that this kind of behaviour from developers should be called out' says Rocketwerkz chief executive Dean Hall. Photo / Michael Craig
The Day Before was just one of a string of releases that had left gamers feeling ripped off, Hall said.
“Every one of these projects makes it harder and harder for me to look at the PVP [player vs player] open-world genre again, because we cannot afford any mistakes or be cast in the same light of those with no honour.”
In follow-up comments to the Herald, Hall said, “I normally will never publicly critique another developer. But it really bothers me, and hurts the ability for us to one day return to that genre.”
How much blown?
How much money would have been blown on The Day Before?
“People tend to underestimate how hard it is to make games,” Hall told the Herald.
“To make such a game properly would cost at least US$15m, probably, more like US$20m. Given their use of ‘volunteers’ and the lack of cohesive content and gameplay, I really don’t think they spent more than $1m, and that lack of funding it really shows.”
In June last year, Fntastic defended its use of volunteer labour in a statement posted to its website, saying its “volunteers” were a mix of unpaid part-timers and paid fulltimers. The statement, reported by PC Gamer and others, has now been deleted.
“The complicating factor is they did a whole bunch of reboots along the way. Think of that like shooting scenes for a movie, then deciding to reshoot the whole movie,” Hall added.
“For the sake of comparison, at the height of Icarus’ development, we were spending US$1m per month.”
Is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black?
Icarus - which sees up to eight players trying to survive as human settlers on an alien world - got mixed reviews when it first launched in December 2021. Critics and earlier players praised its high production values and expansive world, but also complained it was under-baked and buggy.
The founder said Icarus - which has been on special at times but has a standard price of US$34.95 - has now sold 1.25 million units.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
