It’s Netflix’s most-watched show ever and now the streaming giant is hoping a new video game based on the dystopian hit ‘Squid Game’ will also break records.
Squid Game: Unleashed, released today, marks Netflix’s biggest foray into the world of online gaming, offering up to 32 players the opportunity to compete against each other in competitions based around fan favorites like Red Light, Green Light.
Like the hit series – which returns for its second season on December 26 – the video game takes classic children’s games and puts a bloody twist on them with the tagline: “You win some, you die some.”
Bill Jackson, Creative Director at Boss Fight, Netflix’s games studio, said: ‘Fans have been asking for a game since Squid Game first became a global phenomenon in 2021.
“The fandom around the show is so passionate and everyone wants to know how they would perform in the games if they had the chance to play themselves.”
While Netflix already dominates global TV streaming, the company is now aiming to take a bite out of the $455 billion global gaming market.
And while several successful TV shows have been spawned from popular games – such as The Last of Us and Fallout – this is the first time a game has been produced alongside a TV show.
The first season of Squid Game – a South Korean series about contestants who fight to the death for a cash prize – has been watched by 330 million people with a total of more than 2.8 billion viewing hours.
Squid Game: Unleashed, released today, marks Netflix’s biggest foray into the world of online gaming, allowing up to 32 players to compete against each other in competitions based on fan favorites
As the show returns for its second season on December 26, the video game takes classic children’s games and puts a bloody twist on them with the tagline: “You win some, you die some.”
A Netflix source said: “This is the first time a game has been developed hand-in-hand with a show. The idea is to keep audiences within the Netflix ecosystem rather than sending them to different places to play and watch.
‘The show’s producers and writers worked directly with the game developers as the show was created and filmed.
“The game allows fans to delve deeper into the Squid Game universe. As new episodes are released, the games from the show will also be available in the video game.
“Fans can watch the show and then go to the game where their avatar can enter the same twisted universe, play identical games and die the same horrible deaths as the characters on the show.”
Netflix is so determined to make the video game a hit that it has made the game available to everyone for free, even if you don’t have a subscription to the streaming giant.
Created by Hwang Dong-hyuk, Squid Game premiered in 2021 and sparked global interest in all things related to the show.
Vans slip-on sneakers, worn by the main character, saw sales increase by 8,000 percent.