Scott Cawthon, the sole developer of the rabidly popular Five Nights at Freddy’s series, has been known to be an extremely reclusive guy, giving few interviews and releasing his games without much warning. However, he’s recently shown himself to be a very generous person, having donated $249,999 to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
The donation was made through a funding marathon by Twitch streamer Dawko. The marathon was part of Play Live, a joint initiative between Twitch and St. Jude in which streamers sign up with the program and stream their gameplay while encouraging donations to the hospital. Streamers who also happen to be students can earn community service hours through this, as well as neat rewards like a St. Jude Play Live T-shirt.
The proceeds from the donations would go towards St. Jude’s efforts to treat children afflicted with serious diseases and other health problems. Located in Tennessee, the hospital has a very high survival rates for its patients, many of whom suffer from cancer. As it treats its patients free of charge, it relies entirely on donations to stay open.
Dawko was one such participant of Play Live, with a goal to raise $15,000, when Cawthon dropped the quarter-million donation. Needless to say, he was quite pleased about it:
One can’t help but note a bit of irony in Cawthon’s donation to a children’s hospital, considering that Five Nights at Freddy’s revolves around a bunch of homicidal animatronic furries who are inhabited by the souls of murdered children. At any rate, the franchise reportedly makes over $20,000 day on iOS purchases alone, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the man is able to spare a quarter million dollars just like that.