Bereaved families in South Korea demand removal of Seoul crush footage from Call of Duty

Bereaved families in South Korea have demanded that the makers of Call of Duty remove footage of the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush from the latest instalment of the game.

The demand came in a joint statement issued on Wednesday by a council of bereaved families and a coalition of civic groups. Korea Times The Korean Game Users Association has also called for an apology and for the footage to be replaced.

The clips appear in the opening moments of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which follows a South Korean marine private fighting a North Korean invasion. In the game, the real footage stands in for civilian casualties during that fictional invasion. The footage includes Getty news broadcast images of paramedics performing CPR during the 2022 crush. The Guardian The clip at the centre of the complaint lasts about three seconds. Korea Herald

The crush took place in a narrow alley in Itaewon, a nightlife district in central Seoul, during the Halloween weekend of 2022. A total of 158 people were killed. Two further deaths were later recognised as victims of trauma from the disaster.

Players in South Korea identified the Itaewon clip after the game was released. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 went on to top South Korea's sales chart on Steam, the online platform for buying and playing games, within days of its release.

Activision, the game's publisher, told the Yonhap news agency that actual news footage in the opening cinematic had been used to convey the fictional story. The company said it had no intention of mentioning or treating lightly real tragic events, including the Itaewon disaster. Yonhap reporting, via The Guardian

The crush has been the subject of official scrutiny before. In 2024, South Korea's parliament approved a bill for a new inquiry into the disaster, according to Reuters.