Scott Cawthon has had the kind of success with the Five Nights at Freddy’s series that most small developers don’t even dare let themselves dream about. While not strictly mobile titles, the jump scare-generating survival horror games have done phenomenally …
Scott Cawthon has had the kind of success with the Five Nights at Freddy’s series that most small developers don’t even dare let themselves dream about. While not strictly mobile titles, the jump scare-generating survival horror games have done phenomenally well on both iOS and Android, arguably becoming the top non-F2P franchise of the last few years.
Now they might be done. As noted by App Trigger, Cawthon made an announcement on the Five Night’s at Freddy’s 5 Steam page with an update on Five Nights at Freddy’s 6.
The TL;DR version? There isn’t going to be an FNAF6.
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.
So that’s that, at least for now. Cawthon remains one of the most fascinating creators in the gaming industry, due in part to his talent and savvy but also in the way he shuns traditional and social media yet remains transparent with his fans. If he’s not feeling inspired by working on another FNAF title, it’s hard to blame him for wanting to do something else, especially since he’s likely leaving a lot of money on the table by doing so.
Plus, it’s not like the Five Nights at Freddy’s games we’ve already got are going anywhere. As of the time of this post, four of them were among the top 100 paid apps on iOS, so they’ve stood the test of time in mobile games terms and should be scaring gamers for years to come. And of course, we’ll all be watching to see what Cawthon does next.
