Netflix Breaks Tradition with New Release Strategy for Squid Game: Unleashed

For the first time since entering the mobile gaming market, Netflix will make a title available to non-subscribers for free. At least for a limited time, everyone will be able to try Squid Game: Unleashed, which is released days before the start of the second season.

The announcement was made at The Game Awards. Geoff Keighley's award show has long since become a platform for new releases, with numerous companies, expansions, new games, trailers and other news revealing how Netflix does it. Squid Game: Unleashed is coming December 17, 2024. Less than two weeks later, the second season of the successful series will start, which took the world by storm in 2021 and also led to numerous social discussions because Squid Game very quickly became a topic of conversation in schools.

"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," said Alain Tascan, President, Games at Netflix. "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."

The fact that Netflix is making the second Squid Game mobile game available, at least temporarily, to non-subscribers free of charge and ads is a first for Netflix, but also a logical marketing move. Hardly any other Netflix IP is likely to be known so widely beyond the boundaries of Netflix customers. Accordingly, it is conceivable that Netflix could also use the game to get customers excited about the series, who in turn would then become subscribers to the streaming service.

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