Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit was originally going to be a novelty 16-bit SNES-style cartridge game before slowly venturing out into a full-fledged modern PC and console game. Many of the early 16-bit sprites and animations can still be found in the game files.

Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit was originally supposed to release on August 8, 2024, the day of the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise's 10th anniversary. However, an error caused the game to be released one day early in Japan. As such, it was decided to release the game worldwide a day early as well, with the series' official Twitter account noting "It actually feels very fitting for a FNaF game to release EARLY!".

On January 23, 2024, the game was accidentally announced by Scholastic, and later that day, a page for the game was found on Mega Cat Studios' website, which had screenshots and an unlisted trailer for the game. In response to the leaks, Scott Cawthon stated in a Reddit comment:


Then on January 25, Mega Cat Studios confirmed, with Cawthon's approval, that they were in fact making the game.

Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit is a video game adaptation of the first story in Fazbear Frights #1. Notably, the game, book, and story all have the title "Into the Pit".