Families of victims of the Seoul crowd crush demand removal of tragedy footage from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

Real footage of the tragedy in a fictional storyline

Families of the victims of the crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon district have approached Activision with a demand to remove footage shot on the night of the tragedy from the new game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. This is reported by BBC News.In the game's opening scene, released last week, video recordings of rescue operations from 2022 were used to depict the aftermath of a fictional North Korean attack on South Korea. On October 29, 2022, during the crowd crush, nearly 160 people died when more than 100,000 people gathered to celebrate Halloween in a nighttime district of Seoul, and narrow streets became so densely packed that people could neither move nor breathe.

The position of the families and the company's response

A statement from the relatives, published on the fourth anniversary of the tragedy, reads: 'We cannot help but be shocked that the chaotic and desperate scene, in which many citizens on the spot performed CPR on each other while victims lay on the icy street, was used as is to create a scene in the game.' According to them, using such an event in an entertainment game is 'highly inappropriate and meaningless,' and if the developer has 'even the slightest respect and compassion for the victims,' they must take immediate action. Activision confirmed the use of recordings from that night but stated that it 'did not intend to refer to the disaster in Itaewon or any other real tragedy in any form,' and that the opening trailer 'uses some real news materials to establish the game's fictional narrative.' According to the BBC, the company has not responded to the request to edit the scene.

The game was criticized even before its release

Modern Warfare 4 faced criticism even before its launch: the plot is built around a North Korean invasion of South Korea, although formally the two countries have been in a state of war since 1953 — hostilities were halted then, but a peace treaty was never signed. At the game's launch, Call of Duty's Chief Marketing Officer Tyler Ball told Newsbeat: 'We must understand that this is entertainment.' The BBC also notes that the game's release was previously announced in materials discussing its controversial Korean storyline and competition with the GTA series.

Image source, Activision