SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
There is a new video game out called Unhinged. In this interactive horror experience, you play as a character named Ava, who wakes up to find the power's gone out in her building. She can't get out, and a serial killer may be in her apartment.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SADIE SINK: (As Claire) Oh, hey, while you're in there, grab my sweater.
ZOE KRAVITZ: (As Ava) In where?
SINK: (As Claire) Your room. I see you in there.
KRAVITZ: (As Ava) Claire, I'm not in my room.
DETROW: Using your phone, you make your way through the darkness, answering calls and texts from friends and shining it like a flashlight on the screen. You're faced with choices that could change the narrative and the outcome. And what's especially interesting about this new game, and why we're talking about it, is that it's on Netflix. It is the latest example of what the streaming company refers to as interactive storytelling. But the world of video games is crowded, and the industry is experiencing real challenges. So what role can streamers like Netflix play in its future? Sean Krankel is the head of interactive storytelling at Netflix and joins us now. Welcome.
SEAN KRANKEL: Thank you. Happy to be here.
DETROW: Let's start with the game itself. Where did this idea come from for Unhinged?
KRANKEL: Yeah. The game - I mean, we've actually been kicking around the general idea for this for a little over two years. But it originally started more with the kind of novel input of using a flashlight and wanting to tell a story that could do that. Because the game - ultimately, what it does is, you know, you use your phone, but it's not a phone game, right? You play it on your TV, and your phone functions like a real phone would. And so when you turn on your flashlight on your phone, you peer into the darkness. When your phone rings, you're actually getting phone calls in it. And so that was sort of the impetus for it. And then we wrapped a lot of the story around the potential that could come from those mechanics.
DETROW: When we first heard about this idea, I think a lot of our minds - and we're probably not alone - went back to - a while back now - 2018, that interactive "Black Mirror" episode that Netflix did. How...
KRANKEL: Yeah.
DETROW: ...Much has the platform's technology advanced between then and now for this type of stuff?
KRANKEL: Yeah. I think, you know - so the studio that built this game is a studio called Night School that became a part of Netflix in 2021, and it's a studio that I founded and have, you know, continued to work very closely with. But we joined kind of right after "Bandersnatch," which was the "Black Mirror" episode. And I think that the technology, the big thing that continues to get pushed forward is what we can do with cloud TV-based technology.
So what happened in "Bandersnatch" was very much, at a mechanical level, pretty rudimentary, but the storytelling was very advanced. But under the hood, it was sort of like binary choices on screen of what you were allowed to do to how to branch the story. The big breakthrough is really, like, using your phone as a controller and all the access that you have to new inputs with that, right? 'Cause your phone has a microphone, and it has a speaker, and it has an accelerometer. That, I think, is really the big, new potential for how can we do storytelling that, on a per story basis, can really change how you interact with it.
DETROW: So there's the technical aspect of this and the gaming aspect of this. There's also the broader strategic aspect of this for Netflix. Why do this? I have Netflix, and I watch it for one thing. I've got a Switch, and I look to it for video games. Why try to blur that line and make Netflix a gaming platform?
KRANKEL: Yeah. I think if we were to try to go toe-to-toe with the other - you know, the console manufacturers or PC gaming, it would probably be a mistake. I think that the bigger push here is to go, if folks are already on Netflix coming for TV shows, for film, for other types of entertainment, and if Netflix is an entertainment subscription, then why not provide other types of things that are sort of adjacent to those experiences? And so it's more, like, how can we add interactivity to storytelling in a way that is approachable?
DETROW: Sean, I'm curious. You're talking about accessibility. Like, are you trying to target people who aren't necessarily gamers, as well?
KRANKEL: Yeah. I think, you know, a big part of it is just expanding to people who don't know that they're gamers yet, right? Like, I think that everybody has some probable interactive experience that they'd want to try out, but they just don't really know it yet. You know, even just finding games in this day and age is very difficult. And so if somebody's on Netflix, we can serve them up, you know, an option that might make sense. I think it's more about just introducing people to experiences that they might like as opposed to converting the elusive nongamer into a gamer. I think a lot of folks probably are gamers and they don't even know it.
DETROW: Is there a risk to doing this at an incredibly volatile moment in gaming? We saw the thousands of layoffs at Xbox just recently, for example, all sorts of studios are closing. It's a rough moment.
KRANKEL: Yeah. I mean, it's a super-rough moment for the industry, and it is definitely turbulent. I think that all of this is risky, including this title - it was very risky. I've been very happy, and I think the team has, with the sort of, you know, the response to the title so far. But I like those risks and leaning into it. I like us trying something new and hopefully injecting something new into the industry. And so I think it would almost be more risky to just try to maintain the status quo. Because like you mentioned, it's a turbulent time in the industry right now.
DETROW: That is Sean Krankel, the general manager of interactive storytelling at Netflix. Thank you so much.
KRANKEL: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
