Game News

Call of Duty to cut Itaewon crush footage: Korean press led with grief, game sites with the fix

Activision has apologised for using real footage of the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush in Seoul in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and says it will remove it in an update on 12 November. Eurogamer first reported the backlash on 29 October, after the bereaved families' association and the Citizens Countermeasure Meeting asked for the footage to be taken out.

Kotaku said the game's intro uses videos from the incident to set the tone for its fictional war. The Korea Herald reported that Activision sent its apology to the Korean broadcaster MBC.

“We offer our deepest condolences and sincere apologies to the bereaved families, victims and everyone…” — Activision, via The Korea Herald

Yonhap carried the apology from Seoul on 30 October. BBC News led with the families, who said they were appalled to see the footage. GameSpot noted that this year marks the fourth anniversary, and The Korea Herald separately reported that police will deploy about 7,800 officers nationwide for crowd safety this Halloween weekend. Polygon summarised the apology and the November removal.

How each outlet framed it

• Yonhap and The Korea Herald — the apology as Korean news, with the anniversary and Halloween safety measures.
• BBC News — the families' reaction.
• Eurogamer and Kotaku — how the footage is used in the game.
• GameSpot and Polygon — the fix: what is removed and when.

Where the numbers differ: Kotaku said the crush killed 160 people; GameSpot wrote of 160 casualties among about 100,000 people in the area.