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Netflix is breaking its own rules to bring Squid Game to a wider audience ahead of its second season
New mobile game Squid Game: Unleashed will be available to non-subscribers for free before the show returns December 26
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If you’re reading this site, it’s very unlikely that a smart, pop-culturally aware person like yourself wouldn’t already be familiar with Netflix’s Squid Game, the South Korean dystopian thriller that became an international phenomenon back in 2021. You’e also very likely aware that the show is about to return for its much-anticipated second season on December 26 — but for those who are less in the know than you, Netflix is willing to break its own rules to help people understand.
Ahead of the December 26 season premiere, Netflix will release Squid Game: Unleashed, a mobile game based on the show that the company is describing as “the definitive Squid Game video game.” (I’m not entirely convinced there’s been a lot of competition for that title, but we’ll go with it.) While the idea of Netflix getting involved in mobile games isn’t new — they’ve been in that space since November 2021, and have more than 100 available to subscribers at time of writing — Squid Game: Unleashed is breaking new ground for the company by breaking one of the company’s rules: for the first time, the game will be available to non-Netflix subscribers at launch for a limited period.
The reason for this move may be explained by the first sentence from this statement by Netflix Games president Alain Tascan: “Squid Game is Netflix’s most watched series ever, and we want everyone around the world to be able to take part in its return by making Unleashed available to everyone, which is a first for Netflix Games. Squid Game: Unleashed is all about playing with (or against) your friends in the iconic games from the series like Glass Bridge and Red Light Green Light, so we’re inviting everyone into the chaos this holiday season.”
What better way to promote your new show that by sowing seeds of division between family members in the holiday period? The game launches December 17 (you can preregister here), and will be free for an as-yet-undefined period — although Variety notes that Netflix has confirmed that period will last at least through the launch of the second season of the show on December 26. After that…? Well, if Squid Game the show teaches you anything, it’s that nothing in life comes without a cost for long…
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