A former Fntastic employee recently came forward with statements saying that the game was never an MMO and that the founders disregarded feedback from the team, as if the past controversies weren’t enough. Read on to learn more.
The Day Before Saga With Even More Controversies
Former Fntastic Employee Says it was Never an MMO
Fntastic, The Day Before’s developer studio, recently shut down after its disastrous release. Just when I thought Fntastic couldn’t be in any more heat, an ex-developer has shed some light on the studio’s toxic workplace environment.
In an interview with Dualshockers, the ex-developer, who wished to remain anonymous, said that The Day Before was never intended to be an MMO and that it was meant to be "a mix of Rust, DayZ, and Escape from Tarkov." "No one from our team knows why they called it an MMO. It was always a third-person shooter with some co-op mechanics. Not one RPG mechanic was implemented — skills were an idea, and they were in the prototype stage, but nothing more." they added.
When Dualshockers asked why the game was marketed as an MMO even though it wasn’t, the ex-employee pointed out that the founders Eduard and Aisen Gotovstev did not communicate with the team enough. "No one could explain that. Maybe the CEOs knew something and didn’t tell us. Technically speaking, there were no RPG mechanics implemented. There was no possible way to put a lot of people in the world or make the world bigger. From the beginning, the idea was that servers would be under 100 people — that is not an MMO. No clans, no raids, closed hubs. It’s been that way for over two years," said the source.
Fntastic Founders Fired Those Who Disagreed With Them
The founders seemed to run Fntastic like a dictatorship, where the two "made every gameplay and design decision." According to the source, a lot of ideas, like in-game voice chat, were disregarded because the brothers wouldn’t approve of them. They continued: "Anyone who complained too much was kicked off the team. A lot of stupid ideas were implemented, removed and re-implemented because the brothers thought they knew better than us about what people wanted. A huge amount of time and work was wasted because jobs had to be done and re-done."
The source then explained that "Disagreeing with the founders' opinions, even if it seemed obvious, risked you being fired. When it came to heated disputes, contracts were usually terminated." Because of this, employees would often keep their opinions to themselves to avoid direct conflict, which may cost them their jobs.
The developer also confirmed that Gototsev’s leaked screenshot of The Day Before’s sales is accurate. The leaked screenshot indicates that the game sold around 200,000 copies and was refunded 90,000 times.
