Five Nights at Freddy's 6 Cancelled by Developer Scott Cawthon

Scott Cawthon, creator of the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, has decided to take a break from the series. In a group announcement on Steam Community, he revealed that he was indeed working on another FNAF game, but has decided to pull the plug on the project. The reasons is simple – the mounting expectations are getting to him, and he needs a break and do something else. After devoting so many years to the series, it’s no wonder he’s got franchise fatigue.

The Five Nights at Freddy’s community has been getting small hints from Scott Cawthon that a new game might be in the works. However, before any proper information came out, Cawthon wrote a post on Steam announcing that he’ll be pulling the plug on the whole idea, at least for the time being. He writes:

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.

This, of course, doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Scott Cawthon. In the post, he goes on to explain that he’ll keep making games; he just needs to take a break from FNAF, at least for now. For those that thought they can finally breathe a sigh of relief that FNAF is gone, you’re getting ahead of yourself. Scott mentions his interest in making different spinoffs in various genres, perhaps even a “pizza tycoon” game. Moreover, just because Cawthon won’t be working on the games doesn’t mean that Five Nights at Freddy’s is losing any steam as a franchise:

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.

Whether you like it or not, the convoluted saga of serial child murders and killer animatronics is here to stay, folks.