After watching Squid Game and feeling a profound sense of unease, I was genuinely taken aback when Squid Game: Unleashed was announced earlier this month. Netflix Games, with Boss Fight at the helm, is bringing the show’s intense and often harrowing challenges to life in a multiplayer video game format. While there’s still some gore, it’s softened by a cartoonish style. Unlike the show, where a character’s death is the end of the line, players in this game can respawn, allowing them multiple attempts to master these digital versions of the show’s deadly contests.
From this new game to the upcoming Squid Game crossover with Call of Duty, and even YouTuber Mr. Beast’s real-life recreation, it feels like each new adaptation somewhat misses the essence of what Squid Game was really about. But we’ve seen this before. Take Battle Royale—originally a novel from 1999 that offered a critique of a totalitarian regime subjecting its youth to a fatal game under the guise of military conscription. This concept was stripped of its deeper meaning when it became a pop culture phenomenon in games like PUBG and Fortnite, which is more about fun and less about the grim narrative—with Snoop Dogg even making an appearance in Fortnite.
So, it’s not entirely surprising to see Squid Game: Unleashed and similar offshoots. According to Bill Jackson, the game’s director, this approach is precisely what players wanted. Instead of a narrative-driven game in the style of Telltale Games, set within Squid Game’s dystopian landscape, players expressed a desire to dive into the games themselves.
“We reached out to our players, asking them what they’d like from Netflix’s game offerings,” Jackson shared with me. “The overwhelming response was ‘Squid Game.’ And when we inquired further about what they wanted to experience, the major consensus was, ‘I want to be a contestant, to play those games, and I’m fine with failing and dying if that’s part of the experience.’ From the onset, it was clear, so we worked towards delivering that. Our goal was to let players step into the role of a contestant in a stylized take on the show.”
Squid Game: Unleashed stands apart from its source material simply due to the nature of gaming. As Jackson explained, “The core idea is you are a contestant facing harsh penalties if you don’t succeed. But hey, it’s a video game. Fail? Try again. That’s the loop we wanted.”
When I steered our conversation to Battle Royale and its influence across media, Jackson pointed out how this narrative archetype has permeated various forms. From movies like Death Race to Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon, this theme keeps cropping up. In video games, it’s particularly resonant: “You’re in a competition, and if you don’t succeed, you’re out while others advance. It’s fundamental to gaming.”
Though it might seem odd, there’s a wide audience for it. It’s not some top executive at Netflix erasing the social commentary from Squid Game to make it more palatable. It’s regular gamers who want to immerse themselves in these challenges, to test their skills in a safe digital space where failure doesn’t carry real-world consequences but still offers bragging rights.
That doesn’t mean fans overlook the show’s deeper messages, nor does it imply they’re shallow. As Jackson remarked, this desire reflects something innate within us. It’s a bit unsettling, true, but it explains why these adaptations keep emerging in this format. After all, it’s what we asked for.
