New details about Fntastic’s finances have emerged. Here are the key findings from a report examining The Day Before developer’s financial records.
Yahoo’s contributing editor Aloysius Low decided to personally visit Fntastic’s office in Singapore following the announcment of the studio’s closure.
He first checked the address listed on the country’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) only to find a co-op working space and was told by a manager that the company used it as a virtual office space.
Then Low found the original address listed in Fntastic’s filings, but it was also the wrong location because it belonged a management consulting firm.
Since the search for the studio’s office was unsuccessful, the jouranlist decided to check its financial documentation. Fntastic Pte Ltd, registered in Singapore, has two directors, brothers Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev. Here is what he found in the company’s filings for 2022:
- Fntastic made S$3.46 million ($2.6 million) in revenue last year;
- Cost of sales amounted to S$1.86 ($1.4 million);
- The company’s net profit was S$839k ($633k).
Interestingly, the two largest expense items listed in the P&L statement are traveling expenses ($232k) and Gotovtsev brothers’ salary ($150k).
It is worth noting the company’s financial report has no information about the salary of its employees, but there are proceeds from a term loan in the amount of S$481k ($362k).
In addition, Fntastic had S$1.46 million ($1.1 million) in cash on its balance sheet at the end of 2022, which, according to Low, may debunk the studio’s statement that it “lacks the funds to continue.”
Founded in 2015, Fntastic was originally based in Yakutsk, Russia. Before announcing The Day Before in 2021, the studio released three games: story-driven adventure with mystical elements Radiant One, multiplayer action horror game Dead Dozen, and survival sim The Wild Eight. The latter was published by Hype Train Digital, which recently changed the game’s developer on Steam from Fntastic to Eight Points.
In December 2021, the studio released online horor title Propnight (similar to Dead by Daylight), which was published by Mytona (originally a Yakutsk-based mobile developer, now headquartered in New Zealand). Mytona also served as the publisher of The Day Before and financed its development.
Although Fntastic legally became a Singapore-based developer, most of its employees were still located in Russia. This is evidenced by dozens of resumes of people who were laid off after The Day Before’s disastorous launch and the studio’s closure.