Five Nights at Freddy's (also shortened as Five Nights, and abbreviated as FNaF) is an independent survival horror franchise created by Scott Cawthon that first started as a video game released on Wednesday; 8th of August, 2014.
The franchise currently consists of a total of 17 video games (10 main games, 3 spin-offs, and 4 troll games), a total of 28 books (3 novel books, 12 anthology books, 4 graphic novels, 5 guidebooks, 2 activity books, and 2 coloring books), as well as the horror attraction, Snapchat lenses, the upcoming movie, and an ongoing batch of merchandise.
Video Games
The first entry in the series was the original Five Nights at Freddy's, which was released on July 24th, 2014. On November 11th, 2014, a second game, Five Nights at Freddy's 2, was released onto Steam. On March 2nd, 2015, a third game, Five Nights at Freddy's 3, was released onto Steam. A fourth game, Five Nights at Freddy's 4, was released on July 23rd, 2015, and also a Halloween update was released on October 30th, 2015. A fifth game, Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location was released on October 7th, 2016, and a free update containing the Custom Night (with new in-game challenge mode and new cutscenes) became available on December 1st, 2016. The sixth game was released on December 4th, 2017 for free under the guise of Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator. A spin-off title, Ultimate Custom Night, was released on June 27th, 2018.
A VR game entitled Five Nights at Freddy's VR: Help Wanted became available on May 28th, 2019. The game features 40 mini-games based upon previous installments along with some never before seen content. A Halloween themed DLC called Curse of Dreadbear was released on October 23rd, 2019. The AR game entitled Five Nights at Freddy's AR: Special Delivery was released on November 25th, 2019. The game has been receiving monthly delivery events since launch. Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach is currently in the works and was initially supposed to be released on December 25th, 2020, however due to the game being a bigger project than planned and due to the COVID-19 Pandemic causing delays, the game was postponed to early 2021. It was later delayed to late 2021.
A separated spin-off role-playing game, entitled FNaF World, was released on January 21st, 2016 formally at Steam before taking the game down due to negative reception, and re-released on Game Jolt on February 8th, 2016, along with a second update later releasing on May 13rd, 2016. The game itself takes place in its own universe and does not have anything to do with the core series, but still a part of the official franchise. Another spin-off taking place in its own universe, titled Freddy in Space 2, was released on December 3rd, 2019. A beat-'em-up spin-off, Security Breach: Fury's Rage, was released on April 28th, 2021.
On February 15th, 2015, Scott stated that he was hacked and someone uploaded Five Nights at Freddy's 3 to Game Jolt for free, though it turned out that he wasn't hacked and it was just a troll game based on his older game There is No Pause Button! On October 28th, 2015, a hacker going by the name "lolz_hax" had hacked Scott and uploaded FNaF World on Game Jolt, which was just a Halloween themed troll game based on Fighter Mage Bard. On October 6th, 2016, Scott uploaded a mature version of Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location on Game Jolt stating that he wanted to make the game more appropriate for younger audiences, but it was just another troll game based on Sit 'N Survive. On June 21st, 2018, Scott released a demo for Ultimate Custom Night on Game Jolt, however, it was a troll game based on Doofas.
Books
On December 17th, 2015, a novel, The Silver Eyes, based on the story was released onto Amazon. The novel's plot is considered canon but take place in the alternate universe, different to the game series itself. Few different translated books (such as Portuguese and Spanish) are published. A young-adult 3-book series is being made, with the help of Scholastic. The first book, The Silver Eyes, was released in October 2016. The second book, The Twisted Ones, was released on June 27th, 2017. The third book, The Fourth Closet, was released in June 26th, 2018. The trilogy is currently being adapted into graphic novels. The first graphic novel was released on December 26th, 2019, the second graphic novel was released on February 2nd, 2021 and the third graphic novel is set to release on December 28th, 2021.
On November 12, 2018, Scott Cawthon announced a new line of Scholastic books related to the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise; Fazbear Frights. A total of eleven books each containing three different short horror stories, with characters and plot lines taken directly from the game series while some of them are not. Out of the eleven books, ten have already been released, Into The Pit was released on December 26th, 2019, Fetch was released on March 3rd, 2020, 1:35AM was released on May 5th, 2020, Step Closer was released on July 7th, 2020, Bunny Call was released on September 1st, 2020, Blackbird was released on December 29th, 2020, The Cliffs was released on March 2nd, 2021, Gumdrop Angel was released on May 4th, 2021, The Puppet Carver was released on July 6th, 2021, Friendly Face was released on September 7th, 2021, and Prankster will be released on November 2nd, 2021. A bonus book, Felix the Shark, will be released on December 7th, 2021. Graphic novels for the Fazbear Frights series are currently in development, although the order of certain stories is set to be changed. The first graphic novel is set to release on August 2nd, 2022.
The first guidebook for the series, The Freddy Files, was released on August 29th, 2017. The book reveals information and evidence about the characters, locations, gameplay, etcetera, and even a preview on the last page where it features an animatronic Scrap Baby from Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator. The book also features a number of common fan-theories. A newer version, titled The Freddy Files: Updated Edition, was published on June 25th, 2019. It also included a teaser image that could have been foreshadowing Glitchtrap. Another version, Five Nights at Freddy's: The Ultimate Guide, is set to release on November 2nd, 2021. Another guidebook, Security Breach Files, is set to release on August 2nd, 2022. A separate guidebook, Five Nights at Freddy's Character Encyclopedia, is set to release.
An activity logbook for the series, Five Nights at Freddy's: Survival Logbook, was released on December 26th, 2017. Another activity book, The Official Five Nights at Freddy's How to Draw, is releasing on January 4th, 2022.
A coloring book, Art with Edge, Five Nights at Freddy's, was released on November 17th, 2018 by Crayola. A second coloring book by Scholastic, The Official Five Nights at Freddy's Coloring Book, was released on January 5th, 2021.
The Fazbear Fanverse Initiative
The Fazbear Fanverse Initiative, also known simply as the Fazbear Fanverse, is a collaboration by Scott Cawthon and creators of popular Five Nights at Freddy's fan games, first announced on August 21, 2020.
This project is, in Cawthon's own words, "a giant collaboration involving several fangame creators who have made some of the most popular fangames over the years here in the community. It's a project that's designed to invest into those franchises, give back to the developers, and hopefully bring new entries to those franchises as well!".
General Information
Official Date:August 18, 2014 (Though it has been claimed that it was officially released August 8th and removed on an unknown date, later being put on Steam again August 18th)
Company: Scottgames, Clickteam, Steel Wool Games, Illumix, Maximum Games
Creator/Developers: Scott Cawthon
Genre: Mascot Horror, Point and Click Horror (Original Games), Free-Roam Horror (Newer games), VR Horror (For the VR games specifically), RPG (For FNAF World)
The series sports many superhuman characters in strength and speed due to a large majority of the cast being animatronics. FNAF World is far more powerful with the end game cast dealing with a cosmic level threat. The verse has some abilities such as Life Manipulation, Possession, Illusion Creation, Reality Warping, etcetera.
