Following the disastrous launch of The Day Before last week and the subsequent closure of its developer, Fntastic, a former developer of the game claims that, despite its marketing, the game was never intended to be an MMO.

The details:

Speaking with Dualshockers, an anonymous Fntastic employee revealed that the game was never intended to be an MMO but rather a third-person shooter inspired by "a mix of Rust, DayZ, and Escape from Tarkov'' with "some co-op mechanics."
The developer elaborated, claiming that "not one RPG mechanic was implemented" and that the concept of skills was still in the "prototype stage." They went on to say that there was "no possible way to put a lot of people in the world or make the world bigger," with the idea of servers with less than 100 players and no clans or raids typical of MMOs being set in stone for over two years.
Following its release, the game not being an MMO was a major talking point, as previous trailers and marketing material suggested the game would be an open-world title. The source stated that "no one could explain" why it was marketed that way, but considering Fntastic founders Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev controlled development to the point where disagreeing with them would get you fired, it's likely that there was a miscommunication with the marketing team.
The Day Before is no longer for sale, and publisher Mytona is now providing refunds to all players. According to a leaked memo from Eduard Gotovtsev, the game sold around 200,000 units, but over 90,000 were refunded.

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The Day Before was "never an MMO," claims former developer