The creator of Five Nights at Freddy's has pulled an official Roblox game based on the indie horror smash hit, calling its release “a huge blunder”.
Fans noticed Five Nights at Freddy’s: Survival Crew, developed by Metaverse Team Frights, pop up within Roblox and, as you’d expect, pounced upon it.
"Welcome aboard as Fazbear Security’s newest team member. You and your crew will be on night duty at all Fazbear Entertainment’s properties," reads the official blurb. "We don’t anticipate you having any trouble (then again, we never did before either and look what happened…). But if something seems out of place, you can always use the handy charging stations located throughout our properties to overload the electrical systems and shock any wayward animatronics back into compliance. Can we count on you to keep things quiet until morning?"
However, fans quickly realised it was an unfinished mess and even broken in parts. Amid an emerging backlash, Cawthon took to Reddit to explain what had happened. “What a screwed up day,” he began. “Yes, there is an official Roblox game being worked on; I'm actually a big Roblox fan and play it a lot with my kids. But the fact that this was released today is one of the most baffling, insane, things to ever happen in my 10 years of working on Five Nights at Freddy's.
“This is a game in its infancy; temp assets; temp gameplay, unfinished everything. The fact that it got dropped today suddenly on the public just blows my mind.”
Cawthon went on to insist the release of Five Nights at Freddy’s: Survival Crew was the result of a “huge misunderstanding” caused when he approved a skin. “Apparently there was a huge misunderstanding when I approved a skin, and it was interpreted as release the game,” he said.
Cawthon pulled the game as soon as he noticed it had gone live, he said, but of course not before the internet had noticed. “I obviously took the game down immediately,” he said. “So despite how difficult it might be to overlook this... well, no, I don't think this can be overlooked. It was a huge blunder.”
Cawthon promised to fix the launch for 2024, insisting the current build is not ready for release. “Again, I hope everyone can at least believe me when I say that this was a game in its testing phases and was in no way ready to be released to the public. I, myself, have never even played it yet. So again, catastrophic misunderstanding, and I apologize. Will fix.”
It’s a bizarre situation that has resulted in some head scratching from the FNAF community and requests to cut down on the microtransactions.
It’s been a big year for FNAF, with the hugely successful Five Nights at Freddy’s movie shining an even brighter light on the brand. Its creators have even discussed a sequel.
Image credit: Roblox / Scott Cawthon
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
