Bereaved families in South Korea are demanding that the makers of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 remove real footage of the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush from the game, which uses it to depict casualties in a fictional North Korean invasion.
The clips, a few seconds long, appear early in the game's campaign. One shows a person performing CPR on a victim lying in the street, and another shows bodies laid out in the road, some covered by tarps, and a victim being carried away on a stretcher. The game does not reference the 2022 disaster.
"We are appalled that the chaotic and desperate scenes, in which countless citizens performed CPR to save one another and victims lay on the cold street, were used exactly as they were to create a scene in a game," the bereaved families' council and a coalition of civic groups said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
The groups said people who took part in the rescue or witnessed the crush still live with trauma, and that hateful comments about the victims have been spreading online in connection with the game's premise. The 10.29 Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Families Association said using such an incident in a game made for entertainment is highly inappropriate, according to Korean outlet SBS News.
The Korean Game Users Association has called for an apology and for the footage to be replaced. Players in South Korea identified the clip after the game's release, and Korean broadcasters have compared it side by side with footage filmed on the night of the disaster.
Activision, the game's publisher, said the opening cinematic uses some real-world news coverage to establish its 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," the company said, according to The Guardian. The Korea Times reported the company did not say whether it would alter or remove the footage in a future update.
The crowd surge happened on Oct. 29, 2022, in an alley in Seoul's Itaewon nightlife district during Halloween weekend. Nearly 200 people were injured. South Korea marked the fourth anniversary on Thursday.
A national commission is continuing to investigate the disaster. Modern Warfare 4, developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision, launched last week and follows a South Korean marine private fighting a North Korean invasion through recognizable Korean streets.
The outcry has had no apparent effect on the game's commercial and critical performance, according to CBC. It holds an average score of 85 to 87 on Metacritic, depending on the platform. Xbox head Asha Sharma called it "one of the most celebrated Call of Duty games in its 24-year history" on X. Individual sales are unknown, and some games sites reported lower concurrent player counts than in earlier launch weeks. The Guardian reported the game topped South Korea's Steam sales chart within days of release.
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