Participants would have to survive on the Russian island on the Ob river for up to nine months, and although there were going to be as many as 2,000 cameras on the island, they wouldn’t be able to track the participants’ every move. Yevgeny Pyatkovsky claimed that “We will not intervene into relations between participants nor monitor their sexual life either, and our cameras will not be able to follow every move in every corner of the island.”

There were also no rules regarding sexual activity. And per The Siberian Times, Pyatkovsky insisted that “If a woman falls pregnant — and manages to carry the baby — that’s fine with us.” However, no one was technically forced to stay on the island. There would be a “panic button” with a satellite connection, and those who wanted to leave the game could reportedly be “quickly rescued.” However, Pyatkovsky promised that the show was going to be “absolutely extreme, there are no exceptions.” There would be no doctors on-site, and only in extreme cases would a helicopter come to take someone to the doctor — if they were willing to forfeit the game.

Viewers of the Korean Netflix series Squid Game (오징어 게임) may note that “Game2: Winter” sounds disconcertingly similar. In “Squid Game,” contestants sign a contract where they agree that they will not stop playing, that if they refuse to play they will be eliminated, and that the games may be terminated by a majority vote.

With the signed waiver and the lack of rules prohibiting violence, it’s easy to see the resemblance between the two games. “Game2: Winter” is also reminiscent of Battle Royale, a Japanese novel, manga, and film where school students are taken to an island and told they have to murder one another to see who will survive. “Squid Game” had yet to come out at the time, and while many compared “Game2: Winter” to “The Hunger Games,” Pyatkovsky had a different comparison in mind, likening his contest to the television show “Lost,” The Siberian Times reports.

But in “Squid Game,” the stakes are a little higher. Rather than playing for just under $2 million, which would be shared amongst the survivors, the participants in “Squid Game” are playing for roughly $38 million, according to Slate. And in “Squid Game,” it doesn’t appear as though there’s room for more than one winner.

Unsurprisingly, many of the participants who signed up to compete in “Game2: Winter were less than thrilled to find out that the whole project was a fake. The Siberian Times writes that Yana Ivanova, one potential participant, suggested that “the project continues with just one participant — Yevgeny. Let’s drop him somewhere in the taiga, stick a GoPro [camera] on his head, and put a tracker in his a** to find his body later. It will be a great selling video.”

Many felt like they had been cheated. Mats Goldberg, a potential participant from Sweden, said that they were “made to look like a fool in such an arrogant way by Russian millionaire Yevgeny Pyatkovsky.” They also called upon Pyatkovsky to reveal what the market research was for, but Pyatkovsky has yet to offer any information.

Although Pyatkovsky promised to refund everyone who paid to participate in the game, it’s not clear if those refunds were ever actually issued, writes The Hollywood Reporter.