MOB Games, developer of Poppy Playtime, has created an ARG to tease more information about Poppy Playtime Ch. 3 and the multiplayer spinoff game, Project: Playtime. With the release of the ARG, players have been working to solve the puzzles to find out more about the sinister work going on in Playtime Co.'s factory, beginning with a letter dated with the year 1991. The IP address included in the letter belonged to an FTP server, and finding the username and password to access the files on the server became the first step of solving MOB Games' puzzle.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Poppy Playtime.]
Sheeprampage on YouTube has put together the information that's been found for the ARG so far, including an employee VHS tape revealing that Poppy Playtime's Huggy Wuggy has cameras in his eyes - a fact that the employee felt the higher-ups needed to address. However, unlocking this media file took time and effort from the Poppy Playtime community in order to find the clues needed to access the FTP server. While the IP address was included in the first letter, another letter dated a month after the first and posted by a Playtime Co. Twitter account gave the clues for the username and password.
Finding The Login For Poppy Playtime's ARG
Players found the username by spotting a new name in the letters that haven't appeared in Poppy Playtime prior to the ARG: Rowan Stoll. Rowan is the author of the first letter and possibly the second, being in the Information Technology department, so it makes sense that he would be relevant to the login information. The second letter emphasizes employee monitoring and the company's rights to delete employee files and communications, which is fitting when Poppy Playtime's dark lore is considered.
Finding the password for the login was a little more complex, requiring players to solve a cipher. Players found that the password lay in the capital letters on the left-hand margin of the second letter, which then needed to be replaced with the letter that is 11 letters prior in the alphabet. The result is a Latin phrase that translates to "The die is cast," and it isn't the first time Latin is used in a Poppy Playtime teaser. In this case, "the die is cast" could refer to the experiments. Therefore, players had the complete login to the FTP server with the spaces replaced by underscores and all letters made lowercase to make the password "alea_iacta_est."
Poppy Playtime ARG - What Files Were Stored In the FTP Server
The only file that can be accessed without more passwords is the VHS tape of - presumably - Rowan Stoll talking about nanny cams being in the eyes of Poppy Playtime's mascot, Huggy Wuggy. However, Sheeprampage made another video detailing the next section of the ARG. Players found that letters are reflected off of Rowan's glasses during the tape, giving the word "aequitas" which is Latin for "equity," and that could be related to Playtime Co.'s assets or a hint that players will receive more information about the company's financial status and downfall in the future. This new Latin term allows players to view the first set of GIFs on the FTP server, which show new locations.
MOB Games released two more folders after players solved that password, and then the Playtime Co. Twitter account posted another image and happened to only be following the accounts of Stella Greyber, Leith Pierre, and Eddie Ritterman, who all had numbers hidden in either profile pictures or banner images. A prominent figure in Playtime Co., one theory is that Stella became Kissy Missy in Poppy Playtime. Her Twitter account is the only one of the three that doesn't have a banner image and has only a gray "p" for a profile picture, which can seem a bit unusual compared to her colleagues' colorful account images. The numbers from left to right were replaced with letters whose positions in the alphabet matched, and writing hidden in the latest Playtime Co. image revealed the order of the resulting words to give "A invenerunt infernum" ,which translates to "They found hell", and likely refers to the experiments they conducted.
The Second Set Of Files For The Poppy Playtime ARG
Players found the password for the second video after much trial and error to discover the answer was "A_invenerunt_infernum_05/28/91", with the date at the end being found with the initials that gave the word order in the Playtime Co. Twitter image, which is the date that is marked on the second VHS file. The unlocked video leads into Poppy Playtime's ARG's next section by showing Rowan Stoll trying to take back what he said while a voice in the background provides the password for the GIF included in the second set of files. Rowan Stoll is much more nervous in the second video, and seems that he knows that he's in trouble with the company, which leads to him writing the letter that is dated a few months after the video.
The voice in the background of Rowan's second video gives the password for the locked GIF, which players found had to be tweaked and entered as "Birth_place_11/28/67." The GIF shows another new location that seems to be related to toy assembly. This gives players another location tease, presumably for Poppy Playtime Ch. 3 and not Project: Playtime.
Poppy Playtime's ARG - What It May Tell Us About Chapter 3 & Project: Playtime
The Poppy Playtime ARG gives players plenty of material for speculation, such as Rowan Stoll's role in showing that security must be lacking if he was able to stumble upon secrets he shouldn't have, and this lack of control over information could have played a role in Playtime Co.'s downfall. Perhaps the most ominous piece of the ARG is the mention of Stella, Leith, and Eddie being connected to finding hell in some manner, and some players might remember that there is a sign in Poppy Playtime that reads "Stairway to Hell", which implies that the hell they found was within the Playtime Co. factory. Players may be on their way to find further details as they descend deeper beneath the factory in Chapter 3, which could be connected to this part of the ARG.
This is as much information as players have found about Poppy Playtime and the toy factory from the ARG so far, and the developers have hinted at it continuing beyond this point as a more long-term puzzle. It seems unlikely that Rowan Stoll will be featured in the next video given how nervous he was in the second one, but what happened to him after could be explored in Project: Playtime which was teased using his letter. Once the next hint for the ARG is released, plenty of players will be ready to dig deeper into the dark secrets of Poppy Playtime.
Sources: Sheeprampage/YouTube (2), Playtime Co./Twitter