Five Nights At Freddy’s Creator Sneaks Spin-Off In Free Game

The Five Nights At Freddy’s (FNAF) franchise has its fair share of fans and detractors, but there’s no denying its massive popularity. Its creator is known for being somewhat eccentric as well, repeatedly saying that he is done with the franchise only to release yet another game. This time, he is releasing a spin-off of the series by sneaking it into a free game on Steam.

The free game, in question, is called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator. It was initially marketed as a free, low-resolution pizzeria simulator where players would make pizza to serve pixelated customers. According to the game’s Steam page description, the game is a light game to play during the holidays. Gamers eventually found out that it was anything but.

“Presenting a fun Five Nights at Freddy's adventure with a lighter touch for the holidays, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator puts you in charge of developing your own restaurant! Design pizzas, feed kids, and get high scores!” the page description reads.

After playing through the game’s initial cutesy pizza place management segment, players are treated to what Digital Trends argues might as well be FNAF 6. This is a direct contradiction, yet again, to what the series creator Scott Cawthon had told fans back in June. At the time, Cawthon said that he was not working on a sixth installment of the main franchise and was instead doing a side project, Polygon reports.

“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.)” Cawthon said at the time. “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.”