Activision Pulls Real Itaewon Crowd Crush Footage From ‘Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4′ After Outcry From Victims’ Families

Activision will remove real news footage of the deadly 2022 Itaewon crowd crush from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 after families of the victims said they were “appalled” to see it repurposed in the game.

The footage appears in an opening scene of the campaign, where it depicts the aftermath of a fictional North Korean invasion of South Korea. It is the latest headache for the game, which launched without open matchmaking in multiplayer following its Oct. 23 release.

The clips, taken from real news coverage of the disaster, show people being carried away on stretchers, body bags lying in the street and bystanders attempting to resuscitate victims.

The crush occurred on Oct. 29, 2022, when more than 100,000 people packed into the narrow alleys of Seoul’s Itaewon district to celebrate Halloween. The crowd became so dense that people couldn’t move, and some couldn’t breathe. Almost 160 people were killed.

In a statement released Thursday, the fourth anniversary of the tragedy, the victims’ families said that many rescuers and witnesses have lived with trauma ever since.

“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 to create a scene in a game,” the families said.

“Using such an event as material for a game made for entertainment is in itself highly inappropriate and senseless.”

Activision acknowledged that it had used real news coverage of the disaster “to establish the game’s fictional narrative,” but said it had “not intended to reference or trivialize the Itaewon disaster or any other real-world tragedy in any way, shape or form.”

In a statement on Friday, the publisher apologized to the bereaved families and victims, offered its condolences and confirmed the footage would be removed in the game’s next update, scheduled for Nov. 12.

The 10.29 Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Families Association welcomed the decision, but said it had not received a direct apology from Activision.

Modern Warfare 4, the final entry in the rebooted Modern Warfare series, had already drawn criticism for its premise: a North Korean invasion of South Korea that casts players as a young South Korean soldier, Private Park.

The two Koreas remain technically at war. Fighting in the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953, but no peace treaty was ever signed, and the threat of renewed conflict remains a real concern in the region.

At the game’s launch, Call of Duty chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl told BBC Newsbeat, “We have to understand this is entertainment.”