Five Nights at Freddy’s fans who are accustomed to playing on consoles will want to look out for a port of a popular game coming in June.
Highlights
- Five Nights At Freddy's: Help Wanted 2 is coming to PS5 on June 20, offering a new experience with 40 minigames and revamped character design.
- Non-VR players can now enjoy the game, which features point-and-click controls and revamped controls on PS5.
- The move towards accessibility is expected to boost the game's player numbers and popularity, continuing the success of the FNAF series.
Five Nights At Freddy's: Help Wanted 2, after its initial launch as a VR-only title, is finally making its way to the PlayStation 5, with a release date set for June 20. What's more, players who already own the PlayStation VR 2 version of the latest game in the Five Nights At Freddy's series are getting the PS5 port for free.
The original Five Nights At Freddy's: Help Wanted launched back in 2019, and although it followed many familiar FNAF themes, like placing the player in the role of a Fazbear Entertainment employee on their first day on the job, it also diverted from the series' classic trapped-in-a-room survival horror roots by having the player complete a series of minigames. While the original Help Wanted followed a format and theme r to the earlier games in the blow-up indie horror series, Help Wanted 2 instead takes place in the lore's timeline between the free-roaming Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach and its DLC expansion Ruin, pitting the player against 40 minigames featuring the updated characters from those games, like Roxanne Wolf and Montgomery Gator, as well as adversaries from Sister Location, like Circus Baby and Ballora.
The news of the June 20 release date was made official on PlayStation Blog on April 18 by Ray McCaffrey, the chief development officer at the game's developer, Steel Wool Studios. In his blog post, McCaffrey praised the PlayStation 5 port of the game for its implementation of "point-and-click controls for speedier service, happier customers, and less danger." He noted that the development team has taken great care to make sure that all 40 minigames contained in Help Wanted 2 still play as intended, even without the use of a VR headset and motion controls, paying particular respect to the revamped first-person-shooter controls on Captain Foxy’s Log Ride.
Opening Up Help Wanted 2 To More Players
This is a big moment for non-VR-using FNAF fans, as it marks the first time Help Wanted 2 will be playable without a headset. Help Wanted 2 initially launched for the PlayStation VR 2 and through Steam on December 14, 2023, and it's received a great reception. The game sits at a 94% positive review rating on Steam, with 90% of recent reviews listing it as positive. In his blog post, McCaffrey expressed hope that expanding Help Wanted 2 to a non-VR audience would boost player numbers and only serve to increase the game's popularity, which should, in turn, help more players understand FNAF's complicated lore.
This move should be a step forward in accessibility for the FNAF series. The original Help Wanted received a good reception from fans when it made the jump to PlayStation 4, so it's likely Help Wanted 2 will see a similar response once it heads to the PS5 this summer.
Franchise Five Nights at Freddy's Platform(s) PC Games , PS5 Released December 14, 2023 Developer(s) Steel Wool Studios Publisher(s) Scott Games Genre(s) Horror See at Playstation Store
