No matter how you look at it – whether you believe it was all a big scam or a case of a developer overpromising and severely under-delivering – there's little debate that The Day Before was one of the worst gaming disasters of 2023.
Developers Fntastic were already drowning in controversy ahead of the game's release, and just four days after it launched in "early access" on Steam, Fntastic folded and the game was removed from the platform's marketplace, making it inaccessible to anyone who hadn't already paid for it.
Thankfully, Fntastic and publishers Mytona have at least sounded willing to offer refunds to anyone who pre-ordered the game, but it appears some players want more than their $40 back.
Though the game has been taken off the market, it is still playable for anyone with a key to open the game. On the black market, The Day Before is now going for absurd prices as a result of this.
According to GG.Deals, a site that tracks deals for games on Steam, keys to The Day Before are selling for $233 at the lowest price with a high-end price set at a whopping $427.
For comparison, that is more expensive than the infamously pricey but widely beloved Pokémon DS titles like Black / White 2 and around the same price as the cheapest option on eBay for the much sought-after video game rarity Rule of Rose or a PlayStation 5.
Evidently, scalpers believe players may want to see the Day Before disaster for themselves and are willing to pay exorbitant fees to do so. However, they'll need to act fast, as the team just announced they will be fully taking The Day Before off Steam, making it literally lost media, on January 22nd.
This will likely only further drive perverse interest in The Day Before, as the game will literally cease to exist in one month.
The chance to experience such an all-time disaster will probably get scalpers even more money when the time comes, though it should go without saying that there are certainly wiser things to spend upwards of $400 for than a widely panned buggy mess.