Lately, Scott Cawthon, the creator of the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, has been teasing what looked like a new game in the series. During the week of E3, Cawthon updated fnafworld.com with an image of Baby’s eyes with the title Iamstillhere.jpg. Later, he changed his main website, scottgames.com, to an image of just static, teasing that an announcement was on the way. Well, recently, Cawthon made such an announcement on his official Steam page, but it’s probably not the announcement many fans wanted.
Cawthon explains in the Steam post that he has in fact been working on a new game, working title Five Nights at Freddy’s 6, but that due to mounting pressures and the fact that he has been “neglecting other things in my life for the sake of trying to keep up with those mounting expectations,” he is cancelling the game. He makes clear that he is not putting the game off, he is cancelling it. He then goes on to clarify that this does not mean that he is giving up on making games or even giving up on making FNaF games. He does say, however, that the next game he wants to make would be something lighthearted that he makes for fun just for the fans, something like Foxy Fighters, the side-scrolling, Star Fox parody shooter game that was part of the FNaF World Update 2. He also says that this game would be free.
Cawthon goes on to mention all the others projects he has in the works, including the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie, an unspecified VR title and a third novel (the second FNaF novel, entitled The Twisted Ones, was released recently and ends on a cliffhanger). He also states that he wants to catch up on some FNaF fan games, such as Five Nights at Candy’s 3, The Joy of Creation, Popgoes and One Night at Flumpty’s, among others. He says that he is going to “step back” from making games and spend more time with his family.
Now, if you’re a fan of Five Nights at Freddy’s, you know that trolling the fanbase is something Cawthon is known for. Just before the release of Sister Location last year, Cawthon posted on his Steam page that the game was too dark and disturbing, so he was releasing a more family-friendly version instead and would release the original, dark version in segments over a period of time. He then proceeded to “release” the first installment of the “original” Sister Location, which was actually just a slightly different version of Cawthon’s pre-FNaF game Sit ‘N Survive. In other words, the whole thing was a joke, and the ONLY version of Sister Location came out on its intended release date. Before that even, Cawthon joked about Sister Location being cancelled altogether. His website was updated with an image that read, “CANCELLED Due to leaks.” Turns out, if you brightened the image, you would get more text that explained that an in-game location, planned to be a theme park, had development cancelled due to gas leaks. Everyone thought the game was cancelled for a second there. Which was exactly Cawthon’s intention.
Additionally, anyone who has played FNaF World knows that this recent statement wouldn’t be the first time Cawthon has exaggerated about the toll Five Nights at Freddy’s success has taken on his personal life. For those who don’t know, Cawthon himself was a boss in the game and he complained about having to live up to fans’ expectations. While I’m sure this is a legitimate concern, it didn’t stop him from making Sister Location after FNaF World.
So is the “cancellation” of Five Nights at Freddy’s 6 also just an elaborate hoax? Or is it real this time? In an update of the statement, Cawthon says, “No, it’s not a troll. (Would I ever troll you guys?).” But should we believe him at this point? I suppose only time will tell, since we all know Cawthon himself won’t tell.
