After being captivated and somewhat unsettled by Squid Game, I was caught off guard by the announcement of Squid Game: Unleashed earlier this month. Netflix Games and Boss Fight have transformed the show’s intense challenges into frenetic multiplayer matchups. Sure, there’s still some violence, but it’s now more of a cartoonish nature. Unlike the characters in the series who faced grim finality, participants in this game are given endless tries, replaying these once-lethal games in a safer, virtual setting until they succeed.
From Squid Game: Unleashed to the highly anticipated Call of Duty crossover with Squid Game, and even Mr. Beast’s real-life recreation, every attempt at turning Squid Game into a game seems to somewhat stray from the show’s core message. However, this isn’t exactly a novel occurrence. Looking back, the book Battle Royale from 1999, with its harsh social critique, evolved into games like Fortnite and PUBG. Originally an intense story of a regime enlisting children in fatal games, the message has been diluted into a fun, celebrity-filled shooter in its game adaptations.
This phenomenon is why I probably shouldn’t have been surprised by Squid Game: Unleashed and similar ventures. In a conversation with the game’s director, Bill Jackson, he explained that adapting Squid Game in this manner is precisely what players wanted. It seems people preferred diving into the game’s challenges themselves rather than experiencing a story-heavy game preserving the original show’s thematic depth. Players were eager to test their mettle in the games.
“We questioned our community, asking what they desired from Netflix-made games,” Jackson shared with me. “Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming answer was Squid Game. When we dug deeper, their response was clear: they wanted to compete as contestants, face potential virtual demise, and see how they’d fare. That’s what drove us — capturing the thrill of being part of the show.”
Squid Game: Unleashed inevitably differs from its source due to the gaming medium. Jackson noted, “You’re a contestant with brutal stakes, but as a game, it lets you try again and again. That’s the core loop.”
During our chat, I also probed Jackson about Battle Royale’s impact on gaming. He observed that this narrative has cropped up in many forms, citing examples ranging from Death Race to Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon. “It’s a framework ingrained in games: enter a competition, face elimination, and fight to advance. This format is deeply etched into gaming, and arguably, into us.”
As peculiar as it may appear, people enjoy this experience. It’s not a top-down mandate to strip Squid Game of its commentary — it’s the players who relish stepping into these games, albeit safely and virtually, fueling the surge in such adaptations.
This doesn’t imply that fans overlook Squid Game’s core message or are simply shallow. There’s a fundamental curiosity and drive within us all, as Jackson pointed out. It may be slightly eerie, but it explains why these types of adaptations keep appearing. We are the ones who asked for them.
