Fntastic studio, which developed The Day Before, raised $2.5 million in 2022. Of these, $150,000 went to the salaries of the two founders
The Yahoo editor was trying to find Fntastic's office in Singapore. I didn't find it. But I unearthed the financial documents of the company.
Against the background of the news about the closure of Fntastic, Yahoo Gaming editor Aloysius Low decided to check the information, find out if the studio, officially located in Singapore, is really closing, and talk with employees preparing to leave.
At first, he decided that the office was located at the company's legal address, registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulation Authority of Singapore (ACRA).
Upon arrival, Aloysius discovered an open space. The manager of the latter told the editor that the company uses the specified address only as a virtual office. Fntastic employees are most likely not to be found here.
Then the editor used Google Maps to check the original address indicated in the registration documents. But instead of a studio, there was a consulting firm at the address.
Having failed to find either the studio or the people at any of the specified addresses, Aloysius raised the company's financial documentation for the past year (it is publicly available on the ACRA website). According to her:
- last year's revenue was $2.5 million;
- expenses — $1.3 million;
- net profit — $0.6 million.
The editor also discovered that the founders of the company, the Gotovtsev brothers, were paid $ 150,000. The company also invested heavily in travel expenses (travel expenses) — $ 231 thousand.
The values are given in Singapore dollars
Aloysius did not find any expenses for the maintenance of employees in the documents. But in the form of an urgent loan, I received an additional $ 362 thousand.
At the end of the year, the company had about a million dollars in its account. The latter, according to the editor, refutes the company's statement, according to which the team no longer has the funds to continue working.
Moreover, Aloysius believes that the Gotovtsev brothers will use the remaining funds to launch a new studio and develop other titles. In his opinion, this is indicated by the change of the studio's name (from Fntastic back to Eight Points) in the profile of one of the previous games — The Wild Eight (but now this is nothing more than a hypothesis).
Recall that yesterday it became known that literally one day Fntastic fired about 50 Russian employees who developed The Day Before.