Five Nights at Freddy’s is no stranger to stealth launches. After the first game in the series launched in 2014, four more were quick to follow within the next two years. It’s popularity even earned the series a movie deal. More than a year since the last mainline entry, a new spinoff called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator was released for free Tuesday.
Based on its description on the Steam store, this spinoff is a “fun Five Nights at Freddy’s adventure with a lighter touch for the holidays.” Unlike previous entries, this simulator puts players in charge of developing their own pizza restaurant. Players earn high scores by designing pizzas and feeding them to kids.
At first glance, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator features a simple and low-res look resembling a classic Atari game. Appearances can be deceiving, however, and it doesn’t take long for things to go off the rails. What started out as a restaurant-management sim might as well be called Five Nights at Freddy’s 6.
According to Polygon, series creator Scott Cawthon first signaled the release of Pizzeria Simulator in June, after he announced that he had stopped working on a sixth mainline entry of Five Nights at Freddy’s.
“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,” said Cawthon. “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.”
Many fans assumed the statement was some sort of publicity stunt or prank, but a follow-up post on Steam clarified his comment. “Yes, I need a break,” he said. “No, it’s not a troll. (Would I ever troll you guys?”
As fans are aware of, this isn’t the first time the series has received a spinoff. In January 2016, the series was adapted as an RPG titled FNaF World. Characters from the first four games could fight enemies and progress by unlocking certain perks and items. After some post-launch backlash, the game was taken down only to release a few weeks later for free.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.