Roblox and Five Nights at Freddy’s both have an abnormal target audience of children and teens who gobble up horror like a box of Lucky Charms when mom isn’t home.
With masses of fan experiences and cosmetics already available, an official FNAF Roblox title should be a combination as sensational as chocolate and peanut butter, right? Sure! — if you have a peanut allergy.
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Survival Crew was an officially licensed Roblox experience developed by ‘Metaverse Team Frights.’ Just two hours after its beta officially launched on the platform, the experience was taken down, with series creator Scott Cawthon taking to Reddit to explain that the game was not meant for release.
“The fact that [Five Nights at Freddy’s: Survival Crew] released today is one of the most baffling, insane, things to ever happen in my ten years of working on FNAF,” Cawthon writes in a comment on the official Five Nights at Freddy’s Subreddit. “This game is in it’s [sic] infancy; temp assets; temp gameplay, unfinished everything.“
As for an explanation of why the experience was ever available, Cawthon writes, “Apparently, there was a huge misunderstanding when I approved a game, and it was interpreted as RELEASE THE GAME.” Later in the comment, Cawthon reiterates, “[Five Nights at Freddy’s Survival Crew] was a game in its testing phases and was in no way ready to be released to the public.“
Prior to Scott’s explanation, a developer for Five Nights at Freddy’s: Survival Crew posted the following message into the official Discord: “Thank you all for your feedback & for playing the game – we really value the feedback from the community! We’ll be taking it down for a few weeks to plan for our next beta test and come back better for round two. All purchased items will be available at that time again. More to come soon!“
Related: Every YouTuber in the Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie: All Confirmed FNAF Cameos
I joined the Discord server to learn more information on the developers’ plans going forward, only to be met with a stream of users posting images of a naked man, along with links to explicit animations, and the level of conversation expected from an unmoderated FNAF chat. Delightful.
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Survival Crew Gameplay
I also had the pleasure of playing Five Nights at Freddy’s: Survival Crew before its delisting. My longest game consisted heavily of a T-posing Freddy Fazbear spinning in circles while we set him on fire. As Cawthon mentioned, the game is undoubtedly in the early stages of development, with poor sound effects, questionable visuals, and messy gameplay.
When the experience worked, Survival Crew’s concept was similar to Dead by Daylight’s, with one player controlling an animatronic tasked with hunting down the other players and placing them in Springlock Suits.
Players who fail the Springlock minigame will switch sides and become animatronics themselves. To win, the ‘night crew’ must activate five panels. The night crew can also use consumables to better their odds against Freddy and his gang of identically modeled Spring Bonnies.
Like most Roblox experiences, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Survival Crew featured microtransactions purchasable with Robux, Roblox’s premium currency. Animatronic players only had access to Freddy, with Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and various cosmetic skins locked behind a paywall.
Given the circumstances, Survival Crew may officially launch with a different monetization system. However, players unfortunate enough to have splashed some cash on Survival Crew during its short lifespan are now missing their in-game goodies until the game goes live once again. If it does at all.
