Real footage of a South Korean tragedy sits inside the opening cinematic of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and the publisher is now pulling it. A patch on 12 November will take the clips out, Activision has told Korean media.
The sequence plays like a news broadcast about a fictional North Korean invasion of the South. It has since emerged that some of the footage was not staged but came from the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush in Seoul, which killed around 160 people. Groups representing the victims’ families demanded its removal.
Seoul wants sanctions
Interior and safety minister Yun Ho-jung called the use of the footage “secondary harm” at a press briefing and said appropriate sanctions should be imposed. Turning a tragedy into material for entertainment or business, he said, is something to refrain from as a matter of human ethics. Which agency acts, and whether that means a fine or restricted access to the game, is for the relevant authorities to decide.
Activision’s first answer to Eurogamer defended the cinematic as real-world news coverage used to set up a fictional story. Its later Korean-language statement, translated by Inven Global, went further: it said it bows its head “in deep sympathy and apology” to the bereaved families, and that the clips will be “completely removed”.
The game is available on Steam and other platforms. Until the 12 November update is installed, the original opening remains in the game.
