When Cawthon announced that the horror franchise would be continued with an RPG, dubbed Five Nights At Freddy’s World, fans expressed confusion, but remained confident that the game would deliver. But after a disastrous launch and an ensuing debacle, Cawthon has made the decision to halt the sales of Five Nights At Freddy’s World.

When announced, fans were skeptical that the murderous tale of Freddy Fazzbear and his kill-happy animatronic pals would translate well into a cute RPG, but Cawthon promised the game would please Five Nights At Freddy’s rabid fans. While fans counted down the days until the game’s release, Cawthon continued the series tradition of surprise releases by posting the game under cover of night on January 21st.

Fans quickly pounced on the game, but excitement gave way to disappointment, as reports came flooding in that the game featured a plethora of game breaking bugs, poorly defined mechanics, and missing features essential to RPG’s (e.g. no character stats pages.) Cawthon was quick to own up to the subpar release, taking to Steam to admit that the early release of the game led to issues, stating:

Cawthon promised extensive changes, but the developer has decided that Five Nights At Freddy’s World’s issues were damning enough to pull the game from sale entirely, stating on the game’s Steam page:

Cawthon was quick to note that this isn’t the end for the game. Rather, he will continue to work on the title, and will release the fixed game “when it’s ready.” As penance for the game’s sudden delisting, Cawthon has promised that the game will be free in future release. Fans that had already purchased the game may contact Steam for a full refund, regardless of how many hours have been logged in the game.

With Cawthon planning a Five Nights At Freddy’s tie-in novel to flesh out the series notoriously murky story, it’s clear that the developer still has big plans for the franchise. But with the pulling of World, it remains to be seen where Cawthon goes from here. While this debacle will likely not dissuade Five Nights At Freddy’s “haters,” fans of the franchise live in hope that Cawthon will be able to turn the series around.

Source: Gamespot