10 Video Games That Punished You For Buying Them

Though it stopped short of calling itself "Don't Buy This," The Day Before may as well have been called Red Flag Simulator, given the multitude of pre-release indications that the open-world extraction shooter wouldn't meet expectations.

While it earned a wealth of buzz online after being revealed in early 2021, there was much skepticism from the general games press and players alike that the small dev team would be able to deliver on the promises of its post-apocalyptic MMO ambitions.

With numerous release delays and developer Fntastic's vagueness about precisely what the game was, some even speculated that The Day Before was an outright scam.

Well, it did turn out to be a real game when it finally released in early access last December, but was summarily panned for its basic gameplay and overabundance of bugs. Basically, the developer bit off way more than they could chew, and within four days of release, The Day Before was removed from sale with Fntastic closing up shop.

Thankfully, everyone who bought the game was automatically refunded on Steam, ensuring that its legacy is to basically serve as a slap on the wrist to the many who insist on blindly pre-ordering games.

If you'd lost your money, though, you really would've only had yourself to blame given how obviously the game was going to fail.