The sci-fi/horror/drama series Stranger Things has become one of Netflix's greatest hits over the last five years, building its distinctly creepy flavor into an entire franchise. With the fourth season in development for a 2022 release, fans of Stranger Things have the opportunity to go back over the franchise's many spin-offs to tide them over, but fans of video game may not be so lucky. The series has had an interesting relationship with video games over the years, as its iconic cast has made as many appearances in crossovers with existing titles as they have in original titles.
Netflix is planning to expand its gaming efforts, which might explain why Stranger Things has become so deeply intertwined in video games over the years. However, there might also be a simpler explanation: arcade gaming was a thriving industry in the 1980s, and the rise of home computers eventually led to the rise of home consoles. Stranger Things is a franchise that adores the trappings of 80s media, and that includes retro video games.
A Brief History of Stranger Things Video Games
The first official Stranger Things video games were released in 2017 as part of the marketing for season two. They were Stranger Things: The Game, a top-down retro adventure game that served as a bridge between season one and season one; and Stranger Things: The VR Experience, which was a virtual tour of Hawkins, Indiana. Both games were released for free, possibly because their primary purpose was to drum up excitement for the upcoming season.
After that was meant to be an untitled Stranger Things game in 2018, but that was canceled when Telltale Games collapsed. Netflix has announced its intentions to still get this Stranger Things title made, but little has been heard of it since. Stranger Things 3: The Game was another retro title released in 2019, this time a co-op beat-em-up, that loosely adapted the events of the third season. Meanwhile, 2021's Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales is a narrative-driven mobile puzzle game. One of the few things all of these games have in common is they're all available for free, though some require a Netflix membership. The same cannot be said of Stranger Things' many crossover appearances.
Bringing Other Games to the Upside Down
Perhaps the most famous video game crossover Stranger Things has so far is the Stranger Things-themed DLC in Dead by Daylight. For a while, players could take on the role of the predatory Demogorgon and stalk the show's cast through the Hawkins National Laboratory map. Although this DLC was a fan favorite, it is expected to be removed from the game in the next few weeks, similar to Face Your Fears' Stranger Things crossover content before it. Face Your Fears had to remove its Stranger Things collaboration because the license expired, which may also be the culprit here.
This could explain why most of the other games that Stranger Things has crossed over with, including Fortnite, Rocket League, The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross, and Smite have all taken the form of limited-time events. Most of these games are already formatted to allow for brief crossover events, after which new players can no longer access the associated content. The crossover characters and skins are generally kept in the game for players who acquired them, much like Dead by Daylight's Stranger Things characters will stay in the game after the DLC chapter is removed, but new players are no longer able to unlock them. It remains to be seen whether future Stranger Things crossovers will continue in this vein, or if the eventual release of a full-fledged commercial Stranger Things game will upset the pattern.
Stranger Things season four is expected to debut sometime in 2022 on Netflix.