Video game studio Activision will reportedly pull real-world disaster footage from its latest Call of Duty release, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, following outcry from victims’ families.
The new first-person shooter, set in the fictional city of Hajin, South Korea, follows soldiers as their country faces an attack from neighboring North Korea. During opening scenes, gamers see real video clips from a devastating Halloween crowd-crush disaster in Itaewon, Seoul, South Korea, in 2022.
More than 150 people were killed after more than 100,000 visited the area for some of the region’s first seasonal celebrations since lifting pandemic-era lockdown restrictions. Dense crowds soon congested alleyways, trapping and suffocating hundreds.
Controversial footage includes first responders performing life-saving maneuvers on crowd crush victims.
This past Thursday, October 29, marked four years since the tragedy.
‘Highly inappropriate and senseless’: Grieving families in Seoul criticize Call of Duty studio Activision
In a statement released on the tragedy’s four-year anniversary, victims’ families argued the controversial, emotional footage had no place in a game.
“We cannot help but be appalled that the chaotic and desperate scene, in which many citizens at the site performed CPR to save one another and victims lay on the freezing street, was used as it was to create a scene in a game,” families said in a joint statement.
“Using such an event as material for a game made for entertainment is in itself highly inappropriate and senseless.
“If the game developer has even a minimum of courtesy and empathy towards the victims, it should take corrective action without delay.”
Activision issues statement after Seoul disaster footage pulled from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4
Activision has since apologized, adding that it would remove the content in the game’s next update on November 12, which means unsuspecting gamers and grieving families in Seoul must wait another two weeks for the studio’s solution to take effect.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 studio Activision issued a statement to IGN amid backlash, saying that it used the real and graphic video to “establish the game’s fictional narrative,” though IGN contributor Wesley Yin-Poole says the studio “did not comment on the request[s] to remove it from the game.”
“In developing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, we approached the subject matter with care and respect,” a studio representative told IGN. “The game’s opening cinematic utilizes some real world news coverage to establish the game’s fictional narrative.
“It is not intended to reference or trivialize the Itaewon disaster or any other real-world tragedy in any way, shape or form.”
After the game’s launch on October 23, Call of Duty Chief Marketing Officer Tyler Bahl told BBC Newsbeat that audiences “have to understand this is entertainment.”
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