I've had some people asking about the videos I made private, I've made them public again so if you're interested in the history of the "game" you can take a look here: ruclips.net/video/wE0Ypm-ZKJ4/видео.html
Stereotypical boiler plate PR nonsense they were spewing that these companies love to do by not showing any kind of accountability for what they did by plagiarizing works from other games and companies by calling it their own just like Pokimaine and her cookies by doing exactly the same in order to sell them at higher prices such a ripoff.
Anyone who did any bit of research on the game would have seen this scam coming miles away. This company is shady as all hell and they have had zero successes; often pull bait and switch tactics during their reveals only to reveal a completely different game. All they do is ineffectively jump on bandwagons and then outright abandon their games because they don't see immediate results. Hilarious that they decided to close their studio less than a week after the game's launch. Making games is difficult, especially if you are trying to stand out in an already crowded market. People are hungry for the "next big MMO" and this game not only promised to be that, but also promised the moon and the stars. A pity that this wasn't it, but guys, we all should know by now that a small indie team can't possibly pull off an MMO. All the warning signs were there and multiple people called them out on it. There are so many warning signs from Crowfall to Chronicles of Elyria that indie MMOs just don't work because the groundside infrastructure for these smaller studios just doesn't exist. It is why only the big studios can put out MMOs and why the ones that are in the marketplace for the last 10+ years like World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy 14, Star Wars The Old Republic and Elder Scrolls Online are still considered the top MMOs. Games like Destiny 2 whose developers call themselves MMOs are kidding themselves. I can't believe that people are so gullible in the Age of Information Technology, with such vast amounts of data available instantly at our fingertips for nearly every subject, but the stupidity of some people defending companies like this one no longer really surprises me because groupies and idiots exist in abundance.
Yeah, taken the cash and ran. The assets that they used was a massive red flag. At least steam is honouring the refunds up to 30 days I think? Don't quote me
By now I'm convinced those "debts to partners" are just other owned ( or related ) companies so they're just pushing numbers from one company-balance-sheet to another. I'd do that if I'd have planned a scam that big. ( it's kind of legal in many countries. )
It is very likely that they have things structured in such a way that they personally have, or trusts have, or personal LLCs have, promissory notes for services rendered that were set to come due right after the game was released. Money comes in as sales, money goes out as debt, money goes into their personal trusts, company has no money or assets now. Quick and simple.
It's the average gamer and content creators fault at this point They just keep buying this trash time and time again so obviously more is gonna be made Absolute brain dead is the average gamer, hence why they keep buying these trashy unfinished products
they will close down, reopen after a few months under a new name and the same folks will cheer and fall for the same scam again, at this point can we keep blaming the scammers for doing the same thing that they have made money from with out noticing that there are no victims only participants in the scam
Steam is giving refunds. People with more than 2 hours playtime (one with 14 hours) got their refund. Valve has also removed the ability to purchase it. So Valve does appear to be allowing refunds.
they shouldn't allow refunds at all Maybe then them utter brain dead morons might learn a damn thing and not keep throwing money at obvious trash If you bought this game, you deserve to not get your money back, it was so obvious a scam you deserve it
This whole fiasco surrounding this game actually shows quite clearly how stupid gamers are and how easy it is to deceive them. "The day before" is the proof
Correct this was common sense ! Now saying that I can see how casual gamers could have been none the wiser!!! But anyone who paid any attention it was beyond obvious , edit not sure how to say this but I could see people who just found it and didn't know better hope that makes sense
How rude. I was gifted a code but I'm here to share that Steam refunded all three of my friends who bought the game to play with me. Steam could actually be refunding everyone. I hope so.
@@Born2Game I read they are basically refunding everyone now. They also stopped selling the game. It still has a page, but you can't buy it. Steam isn't playing now.
Now IGN and Nvidia can sue them for slander lawsuit, false advertisement. Otherwise IGN and Nvidia loses integrity. I know from now on every backed IGN/Nvidia trailer is going to seem suspicious from the smaller companies. History was made today, the gaming development world has a huge crack in its armor. Similar scumbags like fntastic will start to capitalize using these disingenuous tactics to gain our trust.
I wish they could but they can't sue for possible future damages. Nvidia would have prove they've suffered direct monetary damage from it which is damn near impossible in this case. Also it's a Russian company operating out of Singapore making it virtually impossible.
I can't say I have much sympathy for their victims, but I do genuinely hope every one of them gets their money back. And REALLY hope Fntastic doesn't end up with a dime (or perhaps ruble, I guess?).
This is a huge black eye for the entire gaming community. This scam/rug-pull was years in the making. Whether planned outright or just a ‘crime of opportunity’, this sheds a light on how sketchy a lot of modern gaming’s business practices, and marketplace is. Everyone is hurt when this happens. The players/consumers, investors, employees, and all other small or independent studios, devs and young people with dreams and ambitions. Consumer confidence and basic business ethics is a big deal. We saw it in the early 2000’s during the Internet Tech boom and bust, in 2008 in the Housing/mortgage crash. Selling bad products on hopes and dreams and a nudge and a wink doesn’t work long term. Valve can help by coming down hard and refunding everything. Don’t give FNtastic a red cent of this ill-gotten booty. But investors, business leaders, the gaming media, big tech (Nvidia etc), really need to up their due diligence and hold studios feet to the fire if their gonna attach their name to something . This isn’t just ‘tricks are for kids’, it’s a multi billion dollar industry employing 100’s of thousands and affecting peoples lives and futures. Bullshit like this can’t be allowed to keep happening.
It was too good to be true and it’s sad because if they bothered they could have made a good game. They’ve made a mockery of gaming and I’m glad they’re gone now 👍
Not surprising at all. Suspicion of it being a scam has been all over the place for long enough. I believe players who have gamed for some years can tell it's a scam. The industry is a mess, luckily people will get refunded and learn a lesson.
I was past the alloted time to not receive a refund at 4 hours and Steam refunded me. I would like to give them a big shout out actually. I am hoping that they understand the scam that is going on here, and do not want any backlash from it's users. I could not tell you if they are refunding for any more hours past what I had, but for anyone who is over the 2 hours and you want your money back I would highly suggest submitting for one ASAP!
A big shout out for what? If this didn’t get a huge backlash you would have never gotten your money. It’s all part of the problem. You can really tell who has street smarts and who doesn’t.
@@stevenmartin3178 For reimbursing myself and hopefully everyone that requests one that has surpassed the timeframe of 2 hours or 14 days according to their guidelines. I get where you're coming from, 100%. I'm assuming half of my playtime was from letting my game sit idle, which is not an excuse. I simply purchased the early access to see what it was going to be like, and as I, and many others realized, it was awful. I had reason to believe that it was going to be bad, but out of pure boredom I just bought it and tried for myself is all. Thanks!
Many studios have closed after bad game launches ( volition saints row 2022) but after less than a week reekes of a scam or cash grab at the very least. Make a game with $5000 worth of unreal assets and charge $40 for it. Hope this doesn't become a trend and gamers reject future projects like this overwhelmingly.
For 11 years now, I haven't pre-order a single game nor bought a game at release. I hope after this, more people will follow suit. Theres only one way these devs and shady companies will stop their awful tactics and begin making good games, with your wallets. Please STOP pre-ordering games, STOP buying them at release
We (anyone who has ever opened an Unreal Engine game template or has seen the asset store just once) have tried to warn everyone. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, the latter never presented. I can't believe that despite all red flags and warnings, still an estimated 200k units were sold (even if half of that was refunded before it went down).
8yrs "developing" and dissolve the company 4 days after launch... like it was a surprise they never saw coming... this is the most blatant case of a scam. At some point the original game was scrapped and someone didn't want to waste the hype and threw together a copy and paste game for a quick buck.
This is also why Days Gone 2 should be made now as that game was one of my favourite for a survival/rpg style game. Spent hours riding that bike and just gathering and killing. Had fun completing every mission. I’m still hoping however that Capcom decide to make a Resident Evil style RPG in Racoon City where you can play as a member of S.T.A.R.S you can design and help survivors and keep your team alive in coop. It has so much scope with the mansion and you could even have a HIVE base underneath that stretches the map to other Resi game areas. It will never happen but just think if it did.
All of us gamers should learn from this now, especially when it comes to live service games and how that plug can be pulled at anytime on us. I just wish more people would have stuck to their guns and not bought the game in the first place after all the suspicious behaviour on they build up. I get that creators wanted to make content but eventually it's gonna backfire when it comes to a genuine indie developer because the hate is so lucrative.
I understand the reason for content creators buying the game for content purposes, but if none streamers bought it with all the red flags leading up to the game it's their own fault. The devs spent about a couple grand making a garbage game and probably got a way with a heavy pockets. They literally told everyone that after 5 years it was still in early development and that the game could be closed down at anytime before it was released and people still ran out and got it... At some point you can't blame the scammer for getting scammed. Only upside now is hopefully a actual game company can take this idea and make a game with this concept that people really want either that or the mod community.
EVERY SINGLE THING you see in that game is a purchased Asset , you can change names of businesses etc with the Assets, even the UI and Lootting system were purchased Assets. Everything in this game could be made completed as it is shown in a week with one to two people.
Its a fact, gamers love getting ripped off. Why would these companies stop if we continue to reward them with our money. Good for you if you got a refund, but honestly no one should've bought it in the first place.
I kinda hope they can't get a refund , people need to learn a lesson !! Cause they seem to keep repeating the same mistske, and this so BEYOND OBVIOUS!!!!
All those fans defending this dev team likely feel stupid right now. It's amazing how some people blindly support and defend shady practices from game devs.
A few people who didn't work on a game, got volunteered devs, copied advertising from better games are taking tens of millions of dollars and dipping. That's so frustrating and you better believe more people are going to try this in the future so now indie devs are going to be scrutinized a lot more.
Sues who though? A dissolved company or two guys eating caviar in Russia? Best feasible result is Steam refunds everyone so they don't actually get any sales profit. Who knows how much they scammed from investors, but with any luck, they'll be some guys named Ivan and Sergio with a poor interpretation of the word "morals".
I honestly got tired of zombie games after playing Dying Light 2 and KF2 before that. When I saw the ads and videos of The Day Before my “meh” alarm went into overdrive.
I really have no pity for anyone who bought this let alone pre-ordered, also steam IS giving refunds well past 2 hours and i'm fairly certain steam also holds money for 30 something days which means the developers aint getting jack.
Anyone who's had an economics class in school should know that a company doesn't liquidate their entire studio to pay off investors. That's not how it works, not 4 days after a relatively successful release date. Investors don't give a studio just enough money to barely get the game finished to where they need to make the money back in a week and or close down and delete every shred of information on the company including their LinkedIn page😂. Valve shouldn't allow online only games to be early access or at least make it so they have to refund the money 100% if they shut down the servers and make it unplayable. Valve should hold the revenue from the game for a period of time to make sure they don't put out a scam game and run off with the money. It would give people a chance to check out the quality of the game. The day before incident is completely unacceptable. Valve needs to do something about this.
I am legitimately surprised anybody fell for it. It was blatantly a scam. If people want survival just play Cataclysm. Multiplayer too? Project Zomboid.
By now people should know already that any game that advertise itself as 'first/third person', 'survival', 'MMO' and 'crafting' are most definitely scam. The reason why that is the case is because all those genres together is extremely expensive and not sustainable for small studios. I recall an article that stated World of Warcraft, prior to Cataclysm, costed Blizzard over 5 million dollars a month in server expenses alone. You need a lot of money to run the game at a loss for several months before you can get enough players to make it profitable.
After Gollum and Kong they thought we can get away with this. Surely steam should have some quality control on whats sold on its store that is not early access.
5:55 - WHYYY the heck would you private them?!?! 🤦🏾♂️ The lot of us didn't know your channel existed up until now, dude! The last thing we want to know of you is you pulling a FNTASTIC with your content. The lot of us unfamiliar to you would want to watch them to get your two cents on the whole thing, you know!
I was also wondering why those videos are Private! I only discovered this channel because of the TDB rugpull that happened today, and would love to know more about the background of this channel's coverage.
I made them private because I was done with the game and didn’t want it anywhere near my channel at the time of making them private. I’ve made them public again in case anybody wants to know more about the dodgy history of the “game”. I’ve pinned the full playlist to the top of the comments 👍
This is completely awful. I mean I don’t understand with all the hype for your game you wounding just be so motivated to, I don’t know, make an actually fantastic game (no pun intended). Disgusting, that this didn’t even take a week and I’m so sick of seeing these companies throw everything away for money.
No money was taken by the developers as Valve still holds those money. Valve sends money to developers at the end of each calender month, so thankfully FNtastic will not benefit from trying to scam people out of money.
Just for the EU. We have a "Fernabsatzgesetz" or "distance selling law". Right to withdraw your agreement on a contract within 14 days on any online-purchase without a need to say why.
In the steam community hub it stated this around 8:57pm tonight: Dear Community, We would like to provide with an update. We are sorry for the fact that the game didn’t meet the expectations of the majority of the players. Today we are working with Steam to open up refunds for any players who choose to make a refund. We’ll give further updates in the nearest future.
Develop a game with someone else's assets, drop a trailer showing how good this game is going to be. Make up an alleged copyright strike, take down all previous game trailers, go quiet for a period of time, then release game at 40. bucks. Pocket 3.2 million for a game that looked nothing like the trailers or having the gameplay promised, then say game failed as it didn't make any profits. Close studio and walk away with 3.2 million. Not bad for a few years work especially since most of the developers were unpaid volunteers. In the end a few people have a few million, and everyone else is screwed over.
I was scrolling through TikTok earlier and saw a guy streaming it and was actively defending the game and saying everyones negativity is what ruined the game….
Really NO. Steam have the money from the games sold the day before. they only pay out monthly. Between yesterday and sunday , 50% had already refunded the game. After the closure of Fntastic, there will be significantly more. At the end of the month there will hardly be anything left, Steam also gets 30%.
quick edit so everyone knows: steam has opened the refunds for anyone, even after the 2 hour playtime. fun thing is. they wont get the funds for the sales that are refunded. as steam holds the money for 30 days before turning it over, just to make sure the refunds can be paid for. however, the saddest part is that there are people that wont get a refund, those funds will go to the "devs". also the investors wont shut down a company within a couple days of the launch, thats not financially viable at all. they closed it themselves, taking the money and doing a runner. this is a 12 year old first game project and they slapped it together the day before reveal.
There is possibility that no money would go to devs. If steam,as someone stated, is taking 15% for refunds then with ammount of refunds all remaining money could be used up by steam as paying for refund.
@@laigron7884 steam hold the money for 30 days to assure that the refunds can be paid for. so there is a high likelihood that since steam has taken down the game, everyone will get a refund anyway even if they dont request one. meaning they wont get any funds for it.
Great video Born…..thankyou for saying it straight and calling out these scam bastards…..I’m sick to death of developers…..usually the big ones….just going out for a cash grab with some half arse game with false advertising…..hope to hell this lot get held accountable…..:..on the opposite side of the coin thank fuck for games like Baldurs gate 3 and vampire survivors…..games made with actual love from the developers themselves…..especially in this cash grab day and age.
Thank you mate, you’re welcome and I totally agree when you say thank fuck for games like Vampire Survivors (can’t comment on Baldur’s Gate 3 because I never really played it) 👍
If you see any Laurian studio vids….the creators of BG3…..you can see they’ve made the game with a lot of passion….just like Vampire Survivors……and bg3 is a complete game…..no micro trans or add ons…..and packed with shit tons of content……so much so it’s pissing AAA developers off with their boring games…….i was so disappointed with Starfield…..was fun at first but just got bland v quickly.
I'm so glad I didn't bother getting this game, especially when I took the time to look into how shady the devs are. Besides, I'm tired of zombies. Another reason why I didn't bother getting it.
I doubt they will ever be successfully sued. By closing the studio, which was likely a LLC (or Limited Liability Company) and moving all funds out of it by 'paying debts' there is no money left in the LLC so nothing to collect.
No sir you and me both knew what was going on !!! I am really blown away by the people still defending this .. one guy says its going to be like cyberpunk he will be grinding and when the game gets better and people come back he will be so far ahead !!! I dont understand whats wrong with people !!! Now he could have been joking but i have seen way to many people defending it so who knows .
I told you why their servers were soo hard to get into. To make sure you wasted your TWO HOUR RETURN WINDOW. This game has always been an asset flip. The way the devs acted before the game released showed it was going to be one, then the game released in Early Access to make people think it was still being worked on. Ya, right.
Bill, nobody has taken into consideration that the fact that the industry if you look carefully. as promotions that is going to have a detrimental effect on all of not only the sales of future games, but also other software houses in the former future when it comes to sales. From a demographic point of view, these other companies are going to have a hard time because of this company. it stand the reason because people will be reluctant to purchase games until they’re released and even then it will have a departmental effect on the whole industry. It’s not just the game there’s a bigger issue here at stage. You will find the other software companies will eventually including the industry as a whole will look at this and think that this has to be cleared. Software houses, the reputable ones will demand some form of legislation be put in place without a shadow of a doubt, not only full the consumers, but also for them in the fourth silver future.. bye for now. Take care.
Luckily, there's a chance they'll never see a dime from the game because Steam holds onto the funds for 30 days or more. On top of that, Steam is allowing refunds beyond the 2 hour mark, but you'll need to submit a support ticket instead.
A lot of people say that they should be sued. I'd take it 1 step further and say their should be a full scale investigation into this, and if they find that they made this "game" with the intention to scam, they should be arrested.
Why is no channel highlighting that trying to get into a server counted towards play time. I spent over 2hrs at the server select and this counted towards my play time. This couldn't get a refund. When I could play I was stuck falling through the floor......
I swear they lasted 3 days, any company would know if they were going bankrupt before that or during Also forgot to say I heard you can get a refund with 2+ hours if you put the reason "false advertising"
A absolutely believe they got as much money as they can from this. Not only from people who purchased the game. But investors and publishers. Most definitely already at another country with brand new identities and passports.
They made nothing, would be lucky to come out even after paying off companies, investors and all the refunds. They have broken steam terms and conditions and every copy will be refunded
Apology is in order. I was the guy that called you out for being too critical in the videos. I may have made A commitment in one of those posts that I should honor.
I saw their financial breakdown. They sold around 201k units. 91k were refunded. According to them, they made nothing as all income goes towards debt. 😅😅
let me correct homie rn 1 steam is giving refunds !!!!! REQUEST THEM RIGHT NOW NO MATTER HOW MANY HOURS YOU HAVE !!!!!! 2 THEY ARE SOOOO FCKD they violated steams terms launching a game they where relying on steam financing to continue to support so your refund is practically 100% 3 they made no money as steam doesnt pay the dev until about a month after a sale is made so if you get it refunded theres nothing for them to run with. 4 they are 1000% going to be sued by valve and the EU with the US is kinda a coin toss.
If the developers gave half a shit about the game, the best thing they could've done is open the game code and put it on the internet for the nodding community to fix. It's not that it's a terrible game, theres a solid base here. The problem is it took 5 years to push this turd out, they copy pastad so many trailers together mimicking 10 different games, lied completely about the entire theme of the game, all the mechanics inside the game, and released the game so broken and expected us all to pretend like it wasn't a broken dumpster fire. It's unacceptable behavior st the very best, and it's blasphemy bordering on evil morals at the worst. They never cared about this game being playable let alone good, and all of their actions have proved it. We need bend studios to come through and make a days gone 2 on ue5 so these fucks can see what a real open world zombie game looks like.
What do you mean? This is the most innovative open world survival mmo zombie survival game with tons of in depth features lmao I smell a class action lawsuit coming.
They didnt take our money and run. Got a full refund with 30 hours. Steam holds all money for a month, they wont make a dime from steam. They will accept anyone that refunds
Steam holds payments for about 45 days. So if enogh people reports it they may give refunds to everyone to save face because this also makes Steam look bad. Open a support ticket if you have to and tey to get your refunds! They don't get the money they made till January end of month. Hopefully Steam can freeze it till disputes are settled. I advise everyone that hasn't got refunds and try to contact Steam support to try and appeal the refund due to the Studio shutting down and scamming players. It might not do much but if enough people do it something might happen even if Steam just withholds their payment until any lawsuits are settled.
3:30 Your math isn't mathing...The number that has been leaked is about 201000 copies of which more than 91000 copies has been refunded. That leaves 110000 copies sold * £30 = £3.3mio; Valve takes their pound of flesh (30% I believe), leaving £2.31mio - substantial less than the £19+ mio claimed here ... and furthermore, it seems like the refund numbers are steadily growing as Valve to some extend are ignoring the "2 hour" rule.
As someone who's been gaming since the '70s I never understood how they started to get people to fall for that trap of pre-orders. It blows me away how every generation gets more gullible.
STEAM needs to do something...even though Steam will honor refunds under some circumstances.. at this point.. Steam should refund everyone, and either the loss or bill Fantasic.
The two frontmen for the company made that one bizarre promo video standing in a snow field, of all places. So their faces are known. I can only hope these two sumbishes are recognized by the next person they try to con, and they get their comeuppance.
I've had some people asking about the videos I made private, I've made them public again so if you're interested in the history of the "game" you can take a look here: ruclips.net/video/wE0Ypm-ZKJ4/видео.html
steam is holding all sales for 30 days. they cannot run unless a refund is not requested.
Stereotypical boiler plate PR nonsense they were spewing that these companies love to do by not showing any kind of accountability for what they did by plagiarizing works from other games and companies by calling it their own just like Pokimaine and her cookies by doing exactly the same in order to sell them at higher prices such a ripoff.
Guaranteed those devs are in Thailand with some ladi bois spending these poor suckers cash
WHAT IF MAKE A GAME CALL THE DAY BEFORE TOMORROW(TODAY).
Anyone who did any bit of research on the game would have seen this scam coming miles away. This company is shady as all hell and they have had zero successes; often pull bait and switch tactics during their reveals only to reveal a completely different game. All they do is ineffectively jump on bandwagons and then outright abandon their games because they don't see immediate results. Hilarious that they decided to close their studio less than a week after the game's launch.
Making games is difficult, especially if you are trying to stand out in an already crowded market. People are hungry for the "next big MMO" and this game not only promised to be that, but also promised the moon and the stars. A pity that this wasn't it, but guys, we all should know by now that a small indie team can't possibly pull off an MMO. All the warning signs were there and multiple people called them out on it. There are so many warning signs from Crowfall to Chronicles of Elyria that indie MMOs just don't work because the groundside infrastructure for these smaller studios just doesn't exist. It is why only the big studios can put out MMOs and why the ones that are in the marketplace for the last 10+ years like World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy 14, Star Wars The Old Republic and Elder Scrolls Online are still considered the top MMOs. Games like Destiny 2 whose developers call themselves MMOs are kidding themselves.
I can't believe that people are so gullible in the Age of Information Technology, with such vast amounts of data available instantly at our fingertips for nearly every subject, but the stupidity of some people defending companies like this one no longer really surprises me because groupies and idiots exist in abundance.
unfortunately, this was just a proof of concept for other scam devs. This will happen with every other game now.
For real though… if they took your money you deserved it.
well spoke sir@@matthewpinion7966
I’m convinced the Average person is dumb, and then 50% of those people are functionally retarded now.
To be fair, destiny 2 has at least been running for almost 10 years now but yeah I agree with everything else you said.
Do you really think they're paying off debts with their partners? I think they've booked flights to take a lovely vacation in another country 🤔
With any luck, that Russian passport won't be any good.
Yeah, taken the cash and ran. The assets that they used was a massive red flag. At least steam is honouring the refunds up to 30 days I think? Don't quote me
Nah man they'll be back with the milk just you wait and see.
By now I'm convinced those "debts to partners" are just other owned ( or related ) companies so they're just pushing numbers from one company-balance-sheet to another. I'd do that if I'd have planned a scam that big. ( it's kind of legal in many countries. )
It is very likely that they have things structured in such a way that they personally have, or trusts have, or personal LLCs have, promissory notes for services rendered that were set to come due right after the game was released. Money comes in as sales, money goes out as debt, money goes into their personal trusts, company has no money or assets now. Quick and simple.
Nvidia and IGN are responsible for this as well. Letting those fake trailers pass as real and promoting it is insane.
Nvidia is probably never going to lend out their name to something similar ever again
These cases will only continue to get worse if nobody takes responsibility for their actions.
yup. this was a proof of concept for other scam devs.
"Nobody takes responsibility for their actions" including smart consumerism. People doing their due diligence before throwing money at someone.
It's the average gamer and content creators fault at this point
They just keep buying this trash time and time again so obviously more is gonna be made
Absolute brain dead is the average gamer, hence why they keep buying these trashy unfinished products
they will close down, reopen after a few months under a new name and the same folks will cheer and fall for the same scam again, at this point can we keep blaming the scammers for doing the same thing that they have made money from with out noticing that there are no victims only participants in the scam
@@tomr3422 It's always very difficult to convince someone they've been scammed after all. That's how gambling and lottery tickets are a thing.
Steam is giving refunds. People with more than 2 hours playtime (one with 14 hours) got their refund. Valve has also removed the ability to purchase it. So Valve does appear to be allowing refunds.
I got mine after 3 1/2 hours gameplay.
they shouldn't allow refunds at all
Maybe then them utter brain dead morons might learn a damn thing and not keep throwing money at obvious trash
If you bought this game, you deserve to not get your money back, it was so obvious a scam you deserve it
got mine after 12 hours so i think they are just giving everyone the money back hopefully
yea the 2 hour thing is a recommendation... Steam has always allowed refunds on games long after 2 hours.....
21hrs gameplay and Refunded Yesterday
They need to be sued and people need to report them to law enforcement because needs to be criminally investigated for fraud.
They're not in the USA afaik
Good Luck they in ruSSia
They're a Russian company working out of Singapore, nothing's going to happen. It's a shame, but dems the breaks.
lesson learned… never purchase/preorder early access game from unknown developer
@@g_pazzini *known scammers
This whole fiasco surrounding this game actually shows quite clearly how stupid gamers are and how easy it is to deceive them. "The day before" is the proof
Correct this was common sense ! Now saying that I can see how casual gamers could have been none the wiser!!! But anyone who paid any attention it was beyond obvious , edit not sure how to say this but I could see people who just found it and didn't know better hope that makes sense
Yeah not a surprise tbh. If your stupid enough to buy this shit you deserve what you get.
Gamers consist of 80% minors and the rest are lonely incels desperate of mmo action to drown their sorrow
Gotta say mate..you called this out as a scam from day one and even said they would abandon the game.. good job buddy 👍
Thank you mate 👍
You could say he called it... The Day Before...
How rude. I was gifted a code but I'm here to share that Steam refunded all three of my friends who bought the game to play with me. Steam could actually be refunding everyone. I hope so.
I really hope they refund everyone 🤞
yeah i played for 9hrs. was told no on a refund yesterday but today they gave me my money back.
@@spoopatroopa8005 I’m glad they sorted out a refund for you 👍
@@Born2Game I read they are basically refunding everyone now. They also stopped selling the game. It still has a page, but you can't buy it. Steam isn't playing now.
@@spoopatroopa8005 with all due respect, what did you find in the game worth nine hours of your time?
Now IGN and Nvidia can sue them for slander lawsuit, false advertisement. Otherwise IGN and Nvidia loses integrity. I know from now on every backed IGN/Nvidia trailer is going to seem suspicious from the smaller companies. History was made today, the gaming development world has a huge crack in its armor. Similar scumbags like fntastic will start to capitalize using these disingenuous tactics to gain our trust.
I wish they could but they can't sue for possible future damages. Nvidia would have prove they've suffered direct monetary damage from it which is damn near impossible in this case. Also it's a Russian company operating out of Singapore making it virtually impossible.
All the red flags were there. Loads of RUclipsrs were talking about how these guys are scammers. Everyone who got finessed deserves it 100%.
Completely agree
I can't say I have much sympathy for their victims, but I do genuinely hope every one of them gets their money back. And REALLY hope Fntastic doesn't end up with a dime (or perhaps ruble, I guess?).
This is a huge black eye for the entire gaming community. This scam/rug-pull was years in the making. Whether planned outright or just a ‘crime of opportunity’, this sheds a light on how sketchy a lot of modern gaming’s business practices, and marketplace is.
Everyone is hurt when this happens. The players/consumers, investors, employees, and all other small or independent studios, devs and young people with dreams and ambitions.
Consumer confidence and basic business ethics is a big deal. We saw it in the early 2000’s during the Internet Tech boom and bust, in 2008 in the Housing/mortgage crash. Selling bad products on hopes and dreams and a nudge and a wink doesn’t work long term.
Valve can help by coming down hard and refunding everything. Don’t give FNtastic a red cent of this ill-gotten booty. But investors, business leaders, the gaming media, big tech (Nvidia etc), really need to up their due diligence and hold studios feet to the fire if their gonna attach their name to something .
This isn’t just ‘tricks are for kids’, it’s a multi billion dollar industry employing 100’s of thousands and affecting peoples lives and futures. Bullshit like this can’t be allowed to keep happening.
More like a gunshot wound from a .50 cal
Here we go!!! The Day Before scam arc complete. You called it early dude.
It was too good to be true and it’s sad because if they bothered they could have made a good game. They’ve made a mockery of gaming and I’m glad they’re gone now 👍
Got into countless arguments warning people and look who was right. Awfully quiet lately.
Not surprising at all. Suspicion of it being a scam has been all over the place for long enough. I believe players who have gamed for some years can tell it's a scam. The industry is a mess, luckily people will get refunded and learn a lesson.
I was past the alloted time to not receive a refund at 4 hours and Steam refunded me. I would like to give them a big shout out actually. I am hoping that they understand the scam that is going on here, and do not want any backlash from it's users. I could not tell you if they are refunding for any more hours past what I had, but for anyone who is over the 2 hours and you want your money back I would highly suggest submitting for one ASAP!
A big shout out for what? If this didn’t get a huge backlash you would have never gotten your money. It’s all part of the problem. You can really tell who has street smarts and who doesn’t.
@@stevenmartin3178 For reimbursing myself and hopefully everyone that requests one that has surpassed the timeframe of 2 hours or 14 days according to their guidelines. I get where you're coming from, 100%. I'm assuming half of my playtime was from letting my game sit idle, which is not an excuse. I simply purchased the early access to see what it was going to be like, and as I, and many others realized, it was awful. I had reason to believe that it was going to be bad, but out of pure boredom I just bought it and tried for myself is all. Thanks!
Criminal charges should be filed.
Both of those weirdos need to be thrown in prison.
Many studios have closed after bad game launches ( volition saints row 2022) but after less than a week reekes of a scam or cash grab at the very least. Make a game with $5000 worth of unreal assets and charge $40 for it. Hope this doesn't become a trend and gamers reject future projects like this overwhelmingly.
The developers names need to be exposed and documented so they can no longer work in the gaming industry.
Steam holds the money for 30 days before releasing it. So they won’t make much if anything.
For 11 years now, I haven't pre-order a single game nor bought a game at release. I hope after this, more people will follow suit. Theres only one way these devs and shady companies will stop their awful tactics and begin making good games, with your wallets. Please STOP pre-ordering games, STOP buying them at release
We (anyone who has ever opened an Unreal Engine game template or has seen the asset store just once) have tried to warn everyone.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, the latter never presented.
I can't believe that despite all red flags and warnings, still an estimated 200k units were sold (even if half of that was refunded before it went down).
8yrs "developing" and dissolve the company 4 days after launch... like it was a surprise they never saw coming... this is the most blatant case of a scam. At some point the original game was scrapped and someone didn't want to waste the hype and threw together a copy and paste game for a quick buck.
I would love to see a Legal Eagle video regarding the legalities of what happened and if the developers can actually be sued or not
This is also why Days Gone 2 should be made now as that game was one of my favourite for a survival/rpg style game. Spent hours riding that bike and just gathering and killing. Had fun completing every mission.
I’m still hoping however that Capcom decide to make a Resident Evil style RPG in Racoon City where you can play as a member of S.T.A.R.S you can design and help survivors and keep your team alive in coop. It has so much scope with the mansion and you could even have a HIVE base underneath that stretches the map to other Resi game areas.
It will never happen but just think if it did.
All of us gamers should learn from this now, especially when it comes to live service games and how that plug can be pulled at anytime on us.
I just wish more people would have stuck to their guns and not bought the game in the first place after all the suspicious behaviour on they build up. I get that creators wanted to make content but eventually it's gonna backfire when it comes to a genuine indie developer because the hate is so lucrative.
Now if this same energy could be applied to cod. Maybe we could finally see some change.
You won't. It happens every year.
Steam is allowing refunds for this game, regardless of playtime. The developers themselves announced as much.
I understand the reason for content creators buying the game for content purposes, but if none streamers bought it with all the red flags leading up to the game it's their own fault. The devs spent about a couple grand making a garbage game and probably got a way with a heavy pockets. They literally told everyone that after 5 years it was still in early development and that the game could be closed down at anytime before it was released and people still ran out and got it... At some point you can't blame the scammer for getting scammed. Only upside now is hopefully a actual game company can take this idea and make a game with this concept that people really want either that or the mod community.
Content creators get no pass. Anyone giving these clowns money are no better than the scammers because they're enablers.
Play stupid games win stupid prizes
EVERY SINGLE THING you see in that game is a purchased Asset , you can change names of businesses etc with the Assets, even the UI and Lootting system were purchased Assets. Everything in this game could be made completed as it is shown in a week with one to two people.
Its a fact, gamers love getting ripped off. Why would these companies stop if we continue to reward them with our money. Good for you if you got a refund, but honestly no one should've bought it in the first place.
I kinda hope they can't get a refund , people need to learn a lesson !! Cause they seem to keep repeating the same mistske, and this so BEYOND OBVIOUS!!!!
All those fans defending this dev team likely feel stupid right now. It's amazing how some people blindly support and defend shady practices from game devs.
I know it truly blows my mind !!! I don't get it!!
Some are still defending them, which gives hilariously naive, amongst other things which i can't say on RUclips 😂😂
A few people who didn't work on a game, got volunteered devs, copied advertising from better games are taking tens of millions of dollars and dipping. That's so frustrating and you better believe more people are going to try this in the future so now indie devs are going to be scrutinized a lot more.
problem is, they broke Steams TOS and their early access agreement, and I hope GabeN sues them into oblivion
Sues who though? A dissolved company or two guys eating caviar in Russia? Best feasible result is Steam refunds everyone so they don't actually get any sales profit. Who knows how much they scammed from investors, but with any luck, they'll be some guys named Ivan and Sergio with a poor interpretation of the word "morals".
I honestly got tired of zombie games after playing Dying Light 2 and KF2 before that. When I saw the ads and videos of The Day Before my “meh” alarm went into overdrive.
Amazing that they spent 50k to make an ad in time square NYC, just to pack up in 4 days 😂😂😂
They did what
I really have no pity for anyone who bought this let alone pre-ordered, also steam IS giving refunds well past 2 hours and i'm fairly certain steam also holds money for 30 something days which means the developers aint getting jack.
Anyone who's had an economics class in school should know that a company doesn't liquidate their entire studio to pay off investors. That's not how it works, not 4 days after a relatively successful release date. Investors don't give a studio just enough money to barely get the game finished to where they need to make the money back in a week and or close down and delete every shred of information on the company including their LinkedIn page😂. Valve shouldn't allow online only games to be early access or at least make it so they have to refund the money 100% if they shut down the servers and make it unplayable. Valve should hold the revenue from the game for a period of time to make sure they don't put out a scam game and run off with the money. It would give people a chance to check out the quality of the game. The day before incident is completely unacceptable. Valve needs to do something about this.
They are just working on the next title in the series, it's called "4 Days After"
XD
I gave them like 2-3 months before they rug pull, oh boy I underestimated how shameless they can get
I am legitimately surprised anybody fell for it. It was blatantly a scam. If people want survival just play Cataclysm. Multiplayer too? Project Zomboid.
By now people should know already that any game that advertise itself as 'first/third person', 'survival', 'MMO' and 'crafting' are most definitely scam. The reason why that is the case is because all those genres together is extremely expensive and not sustainable for small studios. I recall an article that stated World of Warcraft, prior to Cataclysm, costed Blizzard over 5 million dollars a month in server expenses alone. You need a lot of money to run the game at a loss for several months before you can get enough players to make it profitable.
Yeah, there's word that Steam has been issuing refunds to people with 13 or 14 hours of 'playtime' in this scam.
After Gollum and Kong they thought we can get away with this.
Surely steam should have some quality control on whats sold on its store that is not early access.
5:55 - WHYYY the heck would you private them?!?! 🤦🏾♂️
The lot of us didn't know your channel existed up until now, dude! The last thing we want to know of you is you pulling a FNTASTIC with your content. The lot of us unfamiliar to you would want to watch them to get your two cents on the whole thing, you know!
I was also wondering why those videos are Private!
I only discovered this channel because of the TDB rugpull that happened today, and would love to know more about the background of this channel's coverage.
I made them private because I was done with the game and didn’t want it anywhere near my channel at the time of making them private. I’ve made them public again in case anybody wants to know more about the dodgy history of the “game”. I’ve pinned the full playlist to the top of the comments 👍
This is completely awful. I mean I don’t understand with all the hype for your game you wounding just be so motivated to, I don’t know, make an actually fantastic game (no pun intended). Disgusting, that this didn’t even take a week and I’m so sick of seeing these companies throw everything away for money.
No money was taken by the developers as Valve still holds those money.
Valve sends money to developers at the end of each calender month, so thankfully FNtastic will not benefit from trying to scam people out of money.
Just for the EU. We have a "Fernabsatzgesetz" or "distance selling law". Right to withdraw your agreement on a contract within 14 days on any online-purchase without a need to say why.
In the steam community hub it stated this around 8:57pm tonight: Dear Community,
We would like to provide with an update.
We are sorry for the fact that the game didn’t meet the expectations of the majority of the players.
Today we are working with Steam to open up refunds for any players who choose to make a refund.
We’ll give further updates in the nearest future.
Develop a game with someone else's assets, drop a trailer showing how good this game is going to be. Make up an alleged copyright strike, take down all previous game trailers, go quiet for a period of time, then release game at 40. bucks. Pocket 3.2 million for a game that looked nothing like the trailers or having the gameplay promised, then say game failed as it didn't make any profits. Close studio and walk away with 3.2 million. Not bad for a few years work especially since most of the developers were unpaid volunteers. In the end a few people have a few million, and everyone else is screwed over.
I was scrolling through TikTok earlier and saw a guy streaming it and was actively defending the game and saying everyones negativity is what ruined the game….
Really NO. Steam have the money from the games sold the day before. they only pay out monthly. Between yesterday and sunday , 50% had already refunded the game. After the closure of Fntastic, there will be significantly more. At the end of the month there will hardly be anything left, Steam also gets 30%.
their discord is done now. i was just starting to have fun destroying it
Is there literally no legal recourse for even steam? Or is it not even worth it for them to pursue?
I’m not sure if it’s worth it for Steam
Also US law only applies in the US, so maybe it's too much hassle to hire international lawyers and all that
The gas station looks exactly like the ones on Days Gone. Thank god I didn't buy this game.
quick edit so everyone knows: steam has opened the refunds for anyone, even after the 2 hour playtime.
fun thing is. they wont get the funds for the sales that are refunded. as steam holds the money for 30 days before turning it over, just to make sure the refunds can be paid for. however, the saddest part is that there are people that wont get a refund, those funds will go to the "devs". also the investors wont shut down a company within a couple days of the launch, thats not financially viable at all. they closed it themselves, taking the money and doing a runner.
this is a 12 year old first game project and they slapped it together the day before reveal.
There is possibility that no money would go to devs. If steam,as someone stated, is taking 15% for refunds then with ammount of refunds all remaining money could be used up by steam as paying for refund.
@@laigron7884 steam hold the money for 30 days to assure that the refunds can be paid for. so there is a high likelihood that since steam has taken down the game, everyone will get a refund anyway even if they dont request one. meaning they wont get any funds for it.
Great video Born…..thankyou for saying it straight and calling out these scam bastards…..I’m sick to death of developers…..usually the big ones….just going out for a cash grab with some half arse game with false advertising…..hope to hell this lot get held accountable…..:..on the opposite side of the coin thank fuck for games like Baldurs gate 3 and vampire survivors…..games made with actual love from the developers themselves…..especially in this cash grab day and age.
Thank you mate, you’re welcome and I totally agree when you say thank fuck for games like Vampire Survivors (can’t comment on Baldur’s Gate 3 because I never really played it) 👍
If you see any Laurian studio vids….the creators of BG3…..you can see they’ve made the game with a lot of passion….just like Vampire Survivors……and bg3 is a complete game…..no micro trans or add ons…..and packed with shit tons of content……so much so it’s pissing AAA developers off with their boring games…….i was so disappointed with Starfield…..was fun at first but just got bland v quickly.
They are likely working on their next scam. Let that sink in
I'm so glad I didn't bother getting this game, especially when I took the time to look into how shady the devs are. Besides, I'm tired of zombies. Another reason why I didn't bother getting it.
SMH 🤦🏾♂️ what the hell … they need to give everyone there money 💰 back!!!
I doubt they will ever be successfully sued. By closing the studio, which was likely a LLC (or Limited Liability Company) and moving all funds out of it by 'paying debts' there is no money left in the LLC so nothing to collect.
No sir you and me both knew what was going on !!! I am really blown away by the people still defending this .. one guy says its going to be like cyberpunk he will be grinding and when the game gets better and people come back he will be so far ahead !!! I dont understand whats wrong with people !!! Now he could have been joking but i have seen way to many people defending it so who knows .
Everyone is entitled to a refund no matter what game time they've put into it
No.
@@DirtCheapFU yes
You can still get a refund. Steam is giving out refunds to people even with 20+ hours if you submit a ticket
I told you why their servers were soo hard to get into. To make sure you wasted your TWO HOUR RETURN WINDOW. This game has always been an asset flip. The way the devs acted before the game released showed it was going to be one, then the game released in Early Access to make people think it was still being worked on. Ya, right.
lesson learned… never purchase/preorder early access game from unknown developer
Bill, nobody has taken into consideration that the fact that the industry if you look carefully. as promotions that is going to have a detrimental effect on all of not only the sales of future games, but also other software houses in the former future when it comes to sales. From a demographic point of view, these other companies are going to have a hard time because of this company. it stand the reason because people will be reluctant to purchase games until they’re released and even then it will have a departmental effect on the whole industry. It’s not just the game there’s a bigger issue here at stage. You will find the other software companies will eventually including the industry as a whole will look at this and think that this has to be cleared. Software houses, the reputable ones will demand some form of legislation be put in place without a shadow of a doubt, not only full the consumers, but also for them in the fourth silver future.. bye for now. Take care.
Luckily, there's a chance they'll never see a dime from the game because Steam holds onto the funds for 30 days or more. On top of that, Steam is allowing refunds beyond the 2 hour mark, but you'll need to submit a support ticket instead.
80,000+ Sales X $70 each is $2,600,000 MILLION DOLLARS off an open Asset flip that cost maybe $20 Grand...
Fntastic changed their name to eight points, and they're going to try it again.
They won’t get away with it because if I see a game being released under that development studio I’ll make a video straight away letting people know
They sold about 200K copies, and about 90K people refunded.
source?
A lot of people say that they should be sued. I'd take it 1 step further and say their should be a full scale investigation into this, and if they find that they made this "game" with the intention to scam, they should be arrested.
Why is no channel highlighting that trying to get into a server counted towards play time. I spent over 2hrs at the server select and this counted towards my play time. This couldn't get a refund. When I could play I was stuck falling through the floor......
I swear they lasted 3 days, any company would know if they were going bankrupt before that or during
Also forgot to say I heard you can get a refund with 2+ hours if you put the reason "false advertising"
Hey I got my refund 10 minutes after playing. Getting a spoon after looting a file cabinet… that’s a scam for sure.
I don't understand how ANYONE buys games on release day. No matter the developers or publishers you have to wait and see if it's worth it.
I got a refund with ten hours of game play. REFUND with scam in notes
Typical scammer modus operandi.
They know how to get around law, whatever happens is not illegal. But definitely disgusting
A absolutely believe they got as much money as they can from this. Not only from people who purchased the game.
But investors and publishers.
Most definitely already at another country with brand new identities and passports.
They made nothing, would be lucky to come out even after paying off companies, investors and all the refunds. They have broken steam terms and conditions and every copy will be refunded
Valve is going to have a BIG lawsuit on their hands if they dont make an exception for for this game.
Apology is in order.
I was the guy that called you out for being too critical in the videos. I may have made
A commitment in one of those posts that I should honor.
I appreciate the apology 🙏
Steam is refunding everyone who requests one. I've played 4.5 hours, and the refunding request was successful.
Just don't be impatient and buy games so quickly. They didn't get any money from myself or my mates.
Probably a 72 hour hold on funds deposited into an account in the Cayman Islands
They are giving full refunds on steam... I had 6 hours and still got a refund.
I saw their financial breakdown.
They sold around 201k units. 91k were refunded. According to them, they made nothing as all income goes towards debt. 😅😅
let me correct homie rn 1 steam is giving refunds !!!!! REQUEST THEM RIGHT NOW NO MATTER HOW MANY HOURS YOU HAVE !!!!!! 2 THEY ARE SOOOO FCKD they violated steams terms launching a game they where relying on steam financing to continue to support so your refund is practically 100% 3 they made no money as steam doesnt pay the dev until about a month after a sale is made so if you get it refunded theres nothing for them to run with. 4 they are 1000% going to be sued by valve and the EU with the US is kinda a coin toss.
This played out exactly how i thought it would only 3 days earlier than i expected...
If the developers gave half a shit about the game, the best thing they could've done is open the game code and put it on the internet for the nodding community to fix.
It's not that it's a terrible game, theres a solid base here. The problem is it took 5 years to push this turd out, they copy pastad so many trailers together mimicking 10 different games, lied completely about the entire theme of the game, all the mechanics inside the game, and released the game so broken and expected us all to pretend like it wasn't a broken dumpster fire.
It's unacceptable behavior st the very best, and it's blasphemy bordering on evil morals at the worst.
They never cared about this game being playable let alone good, and all of their actions have proved it.
We need bend studios to come through and make a days gone 2 on ue5 so these fucks can see what a real open world zombie game looks like.
What do you mean? This is the most innovative open world survival mmo zombie survival game with tons of in depth features lmao I smell a class action lawsuit coming.
I knew this game was a scam lol, glad I never bought it. Looked boring anyway.
They didnt take our money and run. Got a full refund with 30 hours. Steam holds all money for a month, they wont make a dime from steam. They will accept anyone that refunds
Steam holds payments for about 45 days. So if enogh people reports it they may give refunds to everyone to save face because this also makes Steam look bad. Open a support ticket if you have to and tey to get your refunds!
They don't get the money they made till January end of month. Hopefully Steam can freeze it till disputes are settled. I advise everyone that hasn't got refunds and try to contact Steam support to try and appeal the refund due to the Studio shutting down and scamming players. It might not do much but if enough people do it something might happen even if Steam just withholds their payment until any lawsuits are settled.
3:30 Your math isn't mathing...The number that has been leaked is about 201000 copies of which more than 91000 copies has been refunded. That leaves 110000 copies sold * £30 = £3.3mio; Valve takes their pound of flesh (30% I believe), leaving £2.31mio - substantial less than the £19+ mio claimed here ... and furthermore, it seems like the refund numbers are steadily growing as Valve to some extend are ignoring the "2 hour" rule.
this game is the definiion of why YOU DON'T PREORDER GAMES RIGHT AWAY WITH A FEW TRAILERS
As someone who's been gaming since the '70s I never understood how they started to get people to fall for that trap of pre-orders. It blows me away how every generation gets more gullible.
Why the hell are people trying to play this game. They have been saying this game is a scam for like a year. Come on people!!!
STEAM needs to do something...even though Steam will honor refunds under some circumstances.. at this point.. Steam should refund everyone, and either the loss or bill Fantasic.
Debts to their partners, what debts... They were slaving over volunteers, these people are despicable scammers.
The two frontmen for the company made that one bizarre promo video standing in a snow field, of all places. So their faces are known.
I can only hope these two sumbishes are recognized by the next person they try to con, and they get their comeuppance.