This post is fairly lengthy, so a TL;DR will be included at the bottom. This post is also all just speculation, so keep that in mind as you read it.

"Five Nights at Candy's" is a pretty well known series in this community. With it being one of the first fan games to be made, along with being a part of the "Fazbear Fanverse Initiative", it's made quite the name for itself. But, in the universe of the series itself, I'd say Candy's isn't very well known.

You see, throughout the three released games in its series, we've never heard mention of other locations. Sure, there was the "Rat & Cat Theater", but besides that, it's only been the location we were introduced to in the first game and its remaster. No other establishments have ever been mentioned, so I'd say it's safe to assume there never were any others.

Now here comes the topic of this post: could FNaC 4 be about how Rowboatics tried to turn Candy's into a franchise, in a similar vein to Freddy's?

For starters, let's talk about who owns "Candy's Burgers & Fries". We can assume that "Rat & Cat Theater" were owned by the three actors there, as a small business. Two of the actors died and went on to possess the characters, while the third went on to being an actor, up until they presumably got arrested after Mary told the truth about what happened.

So, it can't be any of them who owns Candy's. We could assume that Candy's also ended up being run by a small group of people like in the theater. But, I think it's probably Rowboatics Corp themselves who ended up taking over. They manufactured every single character for the place, after all.

After initially creating Candy's, it seems like it took awhile for the place to really hit it off. And it finally did when Freddy's closed down again in 1987. With Candy's being the only place around at the time, everyone clamored to go there. Rowboatics probably saw an opportunity and tried to act upon it.

Now, here's where we get into the stuff we've seen for the fourth game. The first thing to bring up is the poster of "Forgotten" Candy in the remaster. This poster can be seen in Cam 13, the room where The Rat is located. This same poster can also be seen on FNaC 4's game page in a teaser, that also shows a shadow of an animatronic.

The poster is very similar to the kinds in your typical pizzeria, like Freddy's. Clearly, this was made to be used in such a place, yet it's kept in an dreary looking area instead. Why is that? Probably because the location it was meant for never got made. And maybe it was never made because of problems with the animatronics.

The first proper glimpse we got of FNaC 4 was from a short video. In it was text that looked to be directed at someone newly hired at Rowboatics Corp. The text said that this person was hired for a series of jobs. The text was also pretty strict, saying how they would follow rules without question, and not to mess with things, especially the animatronics.

This person doesn't seem to have a job relating to the animatronics, with them probably being tasked with upkeeping other aspects of the place. Rowboatics probably is to busy perfecting their animatronics to spend time looking after other stuff, hence this guy being hired and possibly others.

It really sounds like the company is protective of their animatronics. And the teaser in FNaC: R I feel further confirms this. A man is talking in that teaser about "Forgotten" Candy, presumably someone higher up at Rowboatics Corp. They mention how they must be perfect, and that nothing is working.

It appears Rowboatics Corp were struggling to make these characters work. How hard could it be though, considering they succeeded with making other animatronics? Well, here's where I'm going to get a little side tracked. Because I'm going to bring up "POPGOES Evergreen". Don't worry, it ties back to what this post is about.

"POPGOES Evergreen" is a part of the "Five Nights at Candy's" universe. Despite these two series being set far apart from one another, I bring up POPGOES, because I want to talk about the animatronics in it. While we haven't gotten much about what they can do, I'm going to assume that their capabilities in the original "POPGOES" will apply to them in the reboot. That being that they basically act as the staff for the pizzeria. No employees are needed because they do everything. They cook, perform, probably clean up too.

Such capabilities would be pretty useful in a pizzeria, wouldn't it? We've kind of seen animatronics this advanced before, with FNaF 2 having "facial recognition" and even Five Nights at Candy's having the Penguins deliver food to people. But, those aren't as impressive as animatronics making the food themselves.

So, what if Rowboatics Corp tried making animatronics as advanced as that? From what we've seen of "Forgotten" Candy, they look pretty advanced compared to the other characters in the Candy's games. But with such advanced technology, comes problems with it. And it's clear that there are problems, considering how the guy in the teaser I previously mentioned said it's not working, "it" referring to "Forgotten" Candy.

Rowboatics Corp is making these highly advanced characters, to try and turn Candy's into a bigger business. They want to make it perfect, to make something that people will adore. But, things aren't working out for them. They're getting desperate, and eventually, they get their hands dirty. With a game dedicated to them, clearly they did something pretty sketchy. They keep trying at this project of theirs, but eventually it all falls apart in 1993.

Why that year specifically? That's the year they went bankrupt, the year when their factory closed down, because of another fatal incident. And this incident didn't happen at Candy's, it happened at the factory itself, as stated in FNaC 2's newspaper. And as far as I know, we have gotten no mention of any kind about what this incident was.

And as a quick bonus, I bet that Fritz, the owner of Popgoes Pizzeria, wound up with the schematics for the robotics "Rowboatics Corp" tried and failed to make. Fritz succeeded though, creating Popgoes and the gang. This idea may seem like it comes from nowhere, but in the original "POPGOES" lore, Fritz actually got Popgoes' design from Rowboatics. So, who's to say a similar idea can't happen in Evergreen? Kane, obviously. But you get what I mean.

That about wraps it up, I believe. I think this is a pretty strong guess at what the game will be about. Though, I will admit that a big flaw with it is the whole "forget" theme Emil keeps pushing. I still don't really know what it means, whether it relates to the protagonist or the animatronics or a combination.

If anyone has their own thoughts on that, or just this post in general, let me know in the comments!

TL;DR

After the sudden influx of customers at Candy's in 1987, Rowboatics Corp, the owners, decide to expand Candy's into a franchise. They work on highly advanced animatronics to use, but run into problems. After trying and failing, they eventually begin doing something sketchy. Eventually, in 1993, their attempts at perfection results in a fatal incident at the factory, permanently closing it, and causing Rowboatics Corp to go bankrupt.

Later down the line, Fritz Glade, owner of Popgoes Pizzeria, gets his hands on the schematics for the robotics "Rowboatics Corp" tried to make. He succeeds, and creates Popgoes and co.