Five Nights at Freddy’s Core Collection gets physical today on Xbox One, Series X|S, PS4 and Switch

We can barely bring ourselves to complete a single Five Night at Freddy’s game, but – heaven help us – we’re getting five of them on one disk for Xbox One, Series X|S and PS4, and on a cartridge for the Nintendo Switch.

It’s amazing to consider that the five games featured here, from Five Nights at Freddy’s to Sister Location, were all released in the space of two years. Blame Scott Cawthon, the prodigious developer behind the series. That rate of release might make you think that the FNaF series (as it’s often shortened to by fans) is ropey or shovelware, but it’s really not. Our resident reviewer Paul Renshaw recently trucked through Five Nights at Freddy’s, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 and Five Nights at Freddy’s 4, and only one of them dipped below a 4/5. 

If you’ve not been exposed to them before, then we’d hazard to call them a ‘treat’, but they’re accomplished little horror games that know how to ramp up the tension. They mostly focus on a fictional Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant, casting you as a mechanic or other worker, and then subject you to attacks from animatronic furries. You’ll soon learn to distrust the various cuddly toys and statues that litter the Chuck E. Cheese pastiches, as any one of them could come to life in the night. 

You don’t have many weapons at your disposal, so hiding is your only real option. Luckily, you have access to CCTV and other surveillance, so you can watch for impending attacks. It’s also the source of a lot of horror, as watching robotic bears creep up on you in grainy footage is the fuel of nightmares. 

Playing on Xbox gives you a couple of exclusive features, including Achievements (obviously), but also cheat codes that can dial up or down the carnage, according to your capacity for scares.

All of the games on Five Nights at Freddy’s Core Collection are available on the Xbox Store, while only the first four can be played with Game Pass, as the fifth game – Sister Location – was omitted for unknown reasons. The physical release, however, does allow you to keep this indie series on your shelf forevermore, ready for when you want that fix of animatronic horror.

Five Nights at Freddy’s Core Collection is out now physically on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. It’s also releasing physically on PS4 and Switch. Your best bet from there out would be to pick up the Core Collection from the likes of Amazon. 

Game Description:

• Two years of Freddy – The core collection includes the first five mainline titles in the fnaf universe that started it all: five nights at freddy’s, five nights at freddy’s 2, five nights at freddy’s 3, five nights at freddy’s 4, and five nights at freddy’s: sister location.
• Celebrate with new friends – meet a colorful cast of robotic companions that are ready to Welcome you to the fazbear family including Bonnie, chica, Foxy and Freddy fazbear himself.
• Hide and seek – survive the night by monitoring the suspicious activity of the haunted animations that come alive at night. They can run, but you can hide.
• Console-exclusive features – A new achievement and trophy system as well as optional cheats that give new reasons to revisit fazbear Entertainment