After watching the chilling series Squid Game, I was taken aback when I heard about the unveiling of Squid Game: Unleashed earlier this month. Boss Fight over at Netflix Games has transformed the brutal challenges of the show into wild multiplayer adventures. This time around, the gore is more cartoonish, and unlike the perilous end faced by the Squid Game characters, players in this video game can keep coming back to perfect their virtual survival strategies.
From Squid Game: Unleashed to the forthcoming Call of Duty crossover and even Mr. Beast’s YouTube recreation of the Squid Game concept, each attempt at translating the show into a game seems to miss its core message. We’ve seen this sort of thing before. Remember the visceral impact of the 1999 novel Battle Royale, which painted a grim picture of a fascist regime sending children into deadly faux conscription? It eventually morphed into the popular battle royale video game phenomenon we recognize today in games like PUBG and Fortnite. The raw narrative and chilling social commentary of Battle Royale got lost along the way, leaving behind engaging gameplay and collaborations with stars like Snoop Dogg.
This trend in gaming adaptations is perhaps why seeing Squid Game: Unleashed wasn’t so surprising after all. In a recent conversation, the game’s director, Bill Jackson, revealed that this style of adaptation was exactly what players wanted. Instead of creating a Telltale Games-style narrative experience that stays true to the show’s intense storytelling, fans clamored for a chance to compete in the games themselves.
“We reached out to players and Netflix members to see what they wanted from our game offerings,” Jackson shared with me. “The overwhelming response was Squid Game. When we asked what they wanted to do in such a game, the answer was clear: players wanted to be contestants. And if that means failing and dying brutally—that’s part of the experience they craved. This feedback shaped our mission, and we aimed to deliver on those expectations. You play as a contestant in a stylized version of the show.”
Squid Game: Unleashed stands apart from its source material precisely because it’s a game. Jackson explained, “As a contestant, the stakes are high if you don’t win. But it’s a video game, after all. You can always try again. That’s the essence of it.”
During my chat with Jackson, I brought up how Battle Royale influenced video games, and he pointed out its lasting impact across different media. “Whether it’s movies like Death Race or classics like Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon, these setups are part of the storytelling tradition. In video games, they offer an intrinsic competitive framework where failure means being out and letting others advance. It’s a core pattern both in gaming and within us.”
Strange as it might be, this is exactly what people are drawn to. It’s not some corporate mandate at Netflix to strip away the social commentary from Squid Game, but rather the players themselves—everyday folks—who are eager to test their mettle in these games, albeit in the safe confines of a virtual environment where they can live to try again and still boast about their achievements.
However, this doesn’t mean players dismiss the deeper message of Squid Game or that they’re mindless thrill-seekers. I believe, like Jackson remarked, that this urge to compete reflects an inherent part of human nature. It might be eerily unsettling, but that’s why these adaptations are emerging in this playful format. They’re meeting the demand we’ve voiced.
