Call of Duty game slammed for using Seoul crush footage

Summarised from 3 outlets · Updated 29 Oct, 09:32 · Archive

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has drawn complaints from bereaved families after using real footage of the 2022 Seoul crowd crush that killed 158 people.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has provoked outcry in South Korea after featuring real footage of the 2022 Seoul crowd crush. The clips, which last around three seconds, appear in the opening moments of the game. One shows paramedics performing CPR on a victim collapsed in the street; another shows rows of bodies laid out in the road and a victim being carried away on a stretcher.

A total of 158 people were killed in a narrow alley in Seoul's Itaewon nightlife district during the Halloween weekend in 2022. Two more have since been recognised as victims from trauma caused by the disaster. The game uses the footage to depict a scenario of civilian casualties during a fictional North Korean invasion.

Bereaved families' council and a coalition of civic groups have demanded the footage be removed in a joint statement, saying they were 'appalled' that 'chaotic and desperate scenes' where citizens performed CPR to save one another were used 'exactly as they were to create a scene in a game'. They said people who took part in the rescue or witnessed the crush were still living with trauma, while hateful comments about the victims were spreading online in connection with the game's premise.

How it is being reported

• Victims appalled as deadly crush footage included in Call of DutyModern Warfare 4 uses video from the Itaewon crush to show the aftermath of an imagined North Korean attack.BBC News · 29 Oct, 12:01
• New Call of Duty game sparks outrage for including real footage of Seoul crowd crush that killed 158 peopleThe clips, which last around three seconds, feature at the start of the latest instalment of the popular game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.Daily Mail · 29 Oct, 09:22
• Outcry after Call of Duty maker uses real footage of deadly Seoul crowd crush in new video gameBereaved families have urged the publisher of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 to remove a clip from the game that shows a figure performing CPR and bodies lying in the street Bereaved families in South Korea have demanded that the makers of Call of Duty remove harrowing footage of the deadly 2022 Seoul crowd crush from the latest instalment of the video game. The clips , which are seconds-long, appear in the opening moments of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 , and are used to represent a scenario of civilian casualties during a fictional North Korean invasion. Continue reading...Guardian World · 29 Oct, 04:41

In this story: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 · Activision · Seoul · Itaewon · South Korea

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