Scott Cawthon, the creator of the Five Nights at Freddy's series, is no stranger to sudden and rather unexpected moves. Just to put things into perspective, he's already managed to complete and launch a game months ahead of its official release date, design and publish a bizarre RPG spin-off without ever telling anyone until launch, and the list goes on.
As such, it might not come as the biggest surprise to hear that Scott has now canceled Five Nights at Freddy's 6, a game he has been teasing and dropping hints about for around a month now. What might come as a surprise, however, is that he's going to be taking some time off to work on a more relaxing game, perhaps even a pizzeria tycoon! Here's the full quote from the announcement:
"For the last month or so I’ve been dropping hints about a new game; and it’s true that I’d been working on one (call it FNaF 6 if you’d like.) But after forcing myself to keep working on it day after day, I realized something- I just don’t want to work on this. With each game's release, I think the expectations get higher and higher for the next, and rightfully so. Each game SHOULD be better than the last! But that pressure starts to mount, and I fear that I've been neglecting other things in my life for the sake of trying to keep up with those mounting expectations.
So, after giving this a lot of thought; I’ve decided that I’m going to stop working on it. I’m not going to reveal anything else about what the game was, and I’ve asked other people involved to never divulge anything either. It’s just not going to be talked about.
Does this mean that I’m going to stop working on games altogether? No, that’s not what it means at all. It just means that I want to get back to what made game-making enjoyable in the first place. It also doesn’t mean that I’m abandoning FNaF. In fact, the first game that I'd like to make would be something for you guys. Remember Foxy Fighters from Update 2? I loved working on that game. It was a lot of fun, and it took a lot of the pressure off me knowing that it was just for the fans of the games. That’s the kind of project that I'd like to work on again. Maybe I’ll try my hand at a pizzeria tycoon game, who knows. The point is that it would be something for fun, and something for the fans. :)
There are some big things in the works elsewhere. The movie is in amazing hands with Blumhouse. I’m also still working to get a VR title out at some point (because that would be awesome). And of course I can’t leave everyone hanging with the cliffhanger at the end of the second book. ;) But as far as the games are concerned, I think this is where I step back. I actually have a lot of catching up to do myself when it comes to fan-games. I still need to play FNaC 3, TJOC, Popgoes, ONaF, and some others too. I’m way behind!
I hope you can respect and understand my decision. I want to spend more time with my family, and get back to what made me enjoy making games in the first place.
I’ll give you all more updates as things happen! :) As always, I appreciate your support."
So if you're a fan of the FNaF series, worry not as there are still some interesting things coming in the near future. There is still the official movie, which is apparently "in amazing hands", as well as a currently unnamed VR game. It hasn't been confirmed if the VR game is going to be related to FNaF, but given how the entire series is designed it makes a whole load of sense to bring it to VR as well. Either way, its going to be interesting to see what Scott comes up with next.