Battle Royale: How a Violent Japanese Film Became a Gaming Phenomenon

Many know that the modern gaming sensation is based on a 2000 Japanese film, Battle Royale. This video goes further to explain how the pathway the movie took to make its impact, and the social context in which it was created.


We will trace how the movie influenced PUBG, which catapulted the genre to popularity with games like Fortnite and Apex Legends. Then, I will show how various social aspects of the 1990s in Japan, in which the original book and movie were released, resulted in features that we tend to see in battle royale games.


0:00 Introduction
0:27 History of battle royale games and the influences of the film
1:36 Non-gaming influences
2:29 The influences on the original Battle Royale book and film
3:07 The anxious social context of Japan in the late 1990s
5:06 The original influences contextualized today
5:41 Concluding thoughts


Script and works cited:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e...