'The Day Before' developer has blamed a "hate campaign" created by "bloggers" for the game's failure.
Last month, the title, which was developed by Fntastic, was released to thunderous rage from critics and fans. The game received so much backlash, that the servers and the company were forced to shut down, after the developer lost their financial backers. Now, Fntastic has taken to social media to defend itself, and blame "bloggers" for the situation.
In a post to X (formally Twitter) the studio wrote: "Certain bloggers made huge money by creating false content with huge titles from the very beginning to gain views and followers, exploiting the lack of information about the game’s development.
"Their actions triggered a gold rush among content creators due to the game’s pre-release popularity.
“The negative bias instilled by certain bloggers making money on hate affected perceptions of the game. Look at unbiased gameplay like Dr. Disrespect’s stream at release. Despite the initial bugs and server issues, he liked the game, which we fixed later, and the game received improved reviews over the weekend. Unfortunately, the hate campaign had already inflicted significant damage.”
The studio added that after sales of the game were halted, Fntastic claimed to have received messages from "many people" who were keen to play it.
They wrote: "We also heard that petitions were created to continue development, and on the black market, the game’s price exceeded $200, and some even began to make their own mods."