I tried visiting The Day Before developer Fntastic’s offices in Singapore, and this is what I found

UPDATE: Story has been updated to reflect new information about Fntastic's funding, as well as new information about the work passes for the Gotovsev brothers.

By now, most gamers would've heard of the recent disaster in the video game industry, so bad that Steam, the publishing platform, refunded all who purchased The Day Before without question.

Having heard the news that Singapore-headquartered game developer Fntastic was shutting down just days after launching its "zombie survival MMO", I decided to pay a visit to their office to see if there were any truth to the rumours swirling online about the company's operations.

I expected to see a typical game dev studio, except with empty desks and perhaps game developers looking dejected as they pondered their life choices. I also expected to see a funky office with posters of the game’s artwork around.

What I saw at Fntastic's office in Balestier

The truth, however, is a lot more mundane. Having found their business address via Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), I popped by their office, which was located inside a mixed retail space in Balestier, an area in the central region of Singapore.

I tried looking for the company’s name at the tenant directory, only to discover it was a co-op working space. Since that was the case, I figured there was no harm to head up to look around.

I had also planned to check in with the other tenants should staff from Fntastic not be around. Alas, I was greeted by the co-op’s cheerful centre manager, who told me that Fntastic merely used the co-op’s address as a virtual office space.

That possibly rules out having staff here who were working on the game.

I also looked up their original address based on their filings via Google Maps, which puts them in Peninsula Plaza. However a quick check online in the building’s online directory showed no such tenant. Instead, the original address belongs to a management consultancy.

Fntastic's finances, according to filings

Based on the original filing for the company’s incorporation, Fntastic Pte Ltd has two directors, Eduard Gotovsev and his brother, Aisen Gotovsev. Eduard is known as the CEO of the company, and recently disabled his Twitter/X account while limiting his LinkedIn page after the fiasco with The Day Before started.

According to the filing, they both put in S$50,000 each as capital. I was unable to ascertain if this total of S$100,000 was a minimum required for work or residency purposes.

A check with the Ministry of Manpower and the MOM Work Pass site using publicly available information showed that both brothers are here on a standard Employment Pass. Their passes are set to expire on 27 June 2026.

Yahoo understands that Fntastic did not receive grants for their projects in Singapore.

Fntastic filed S$3.4m in 2022 revenue, paid both directors S$200,000, spent S$308,000 for travel

Lastly, according to Fntastic’s financial filings for 2022, the company made S$3.4 million in revenue, while also spending S$1.6 million for cost of sales. After taxes and expenses, Fntastic was left with around S$840,000.

This included paying both directors a total of S$200,000, and a massive expense of around S$308,000 for travel expenses. The business doesn’t appear to have paid for any staff based in Singapore. Fntastic was also able to secure funding S$481,000 via a term loan.

Accordingly to supposed leaked Discord screenshots from Reddit, The Day Before had sold 201,000 copies, with around 91,000 refunded. Thats still around 110,000 copies sold, or around US$4.3 million. However, it is likely Fntastic will not be seeing this due to Steam's refund policies (and the fact that they have pledged to refund everyone).

Still the company did have around S$3.4 million in revenue, which may have come from Russian publisher Mytona. Fntastic's statements allude as much, stating that "the game is fully funded by Mytona, one of the largest mobile publishers in the world, who checked the game's build at every milestone per our contract."

Furthermore, the company’s balance sheet showed it had US$1.4 million cash in bank, even with the loan it took. This may also debunk the company's statement that the business “lacks the funds to continue”.

It is also unclear what debts the business has aside from the term loan. It should still have enough cash to repay the loan (if like, according to the filings, it has no staff locally to pay off).

It remains to be seen if either or both Gotovsev brothers will use the remaining cash to start a new business and launch new “games”. It does look like that they’ve already started changing the studio’s name on Steam back to Eight Points, a name which was used previously.

Aloysius Low is an ex-CNET editor with more than 15 years of experience. He's really into cats and is currently reviewing products at canbuyornot.com