Bereaved families in South Korea have called on the publisher of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 to strip real footage of the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush from the game, according to The Guardian. The clips run for only seconds and appear at the start of the title, where they are used to depict civilian deaths during a fictional invasion by North Korea.
One clip shows a person giving CPR to someone lying in the street amid confusion. Another shows bodies arranged in rows on the road and a casualty being taken away on a stretcher. Players in South Korea spotted the material after release, and local broadcasters have set it beside recordings made on the night of the disaster, The Guardian reports.
A council representing the bereaved families, together with a group of civic organisations, issued a joint statement on Wednesday asking for the footage to be taken out. They said they were shocked that the disorder and desperation of that night — when many ordinary people tried to revive one another and the dead were left on the cold ground — had been reproduced as it was for a game scene.
The publisher, Activision, told the Yonhap news agency that a small amount of genuine news material had been used in the opening cinematic as a device to carry the game's invented storyline. The company said it had no intention of referencing or making light of any real tragedy, the Itaewon disaster included, according to The Guardian.
The demand was made as South Korea marked the fourth anniversary of the crush on Thursday. A total of 158 people died in a narrow alley in Seoul's Itaewon nightlife district over the Halloween weekend in 2022. Two further people have since been counted as victims after dying from trauma linked to the disaster.
The Korean Game Users Association also spoke out, asking for an apology and for the footage to be swapped out.
Why it matters
The dispute puts a spotlight on how game studios handle real-world tragedy when they borrow from news material to give a fictional story weight. Modern Warfare 4 is set in a recognisable version of Korea, and the opening sequence is meant to establish the human cost of an invasion that never happened. For the families, the effect is different: images of their own loss, shown to a global audience as scene-setting.
The timing adds pressure. The game's release fell close to the anniversary, a period when bereaved relatives in South Korea gather publicly and when official commemorations take place. A request made in that week carries more weight than one made quietly at another time of year.
The case also tests how far publishers are willing to go in responding to complaints from the country a game depicts. Activision's statement did not include an apology or a commitment to change the game, and the families' request has not yet been answered with action.
A title already under political scrutiny
Modern Warfare 4 had drawn attention in South Korea before anyone noticed the footage. The story follows a South Korean marine private who fights back against a North Korean invasion through streets that players recognise. Conservative politicians had urged president Lee Jae Myung, who has taken a more conciliatory line towards Pyongyang, to play the game so he could grasp what they called the threat from the North, The Guardian reports.
That framing made the title a talking point well beyond gaming circles. Within days of launch it reached the top of South Korea's sales chart on Steam, the leading PC gaming platform. The commercial success and the political argument around the game now sit alongside the families' complaint, giving the controversy several fronts at once.
The footage itself is brief — seconds within a much longer cinematic — but the reaction shows that length is not the measure of impact. Broadcasters were able to place the game's clips next to original recordings, making the match plain to viewers who might otherwise have taken the scenes as staged.
For Activision, the question is whether a general statement of intent is enough. The company described the material as a narrative device and denied any wish to treat the tragedy lightly. The families and the users' association have asked for something more concrete: removal of the clips and an apology.
What to watch
Whether Activision removes or replaces the footage, and whether it issues the apology the Korean Game Users Association has requested, will determine how long this stays a story. The company has so far defended the use of the material without committing to a change.
