Call of Duty MW4 Itaewon Footage Apology: Removal Nov. 12

Activision has apologized for using about three seconds of real news footage from the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush in "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4," and says an update scheduled for Nov. 12 will remove it. The clip, which shows paramedics performing CPR on a collapsed person, sits in the game's opening cinematic. The game was released worldwide on Oct. 23 and has since climbed to the top of global gaming charts, according to The Korea Herald.

What the families demanded

On Oct. 28, the Families of the Itaewon Disaster and the Citizens' Countermeasures Meeting for the Itaewon Disaster called for the footage to be removed. They said using video of the tragedy in an entertainment game was inappropriate, and that people who witnessed the disaster or joined the rescue still live with trauma.

Activision's first response was that it had no intention to reference or trivialize the disaster, and that the sequence served the game's fictional story. Two days later, in a statement to Korean broadcaster MBC, it offered condolences and apologies to the bereaved families and victims and said the footage would be removed completely in the Nov. 12 update. Activision still describes the game as a work of fiction and says the real news footage was not meant to evoke the Itaewon disaster. The crowd crush killed 159 people on Oct. 29, 2022. The apology came a day after the fourth anniversary.

A war game in a political fight

The campaign is built around a fictional North Korean surprise attack on South Korea, with urban combat in Seoul and a South Korean soldier as the player's role. In South Korea, opposition politicians have used it to press the government on North Korea policy.

Rep. Han Dong-hoon, a former justice minister, urged President Lee Jae Myung to play the game. "National security is not about hope, but preparation," he wrote on Facebook. Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo of the People Power Party made a similar suggestion on Oct. 20. Han criticized Lee for calling North Korea's nuclear arsenal a "last-resort defensive weapon" on Oct. 19 and questioned the administration's push for an early transfer of wartime operational control and cuts to joint exercises with the United States.

The minor Reform Party pointed to two land mine explosions inside the Demilitarized Zone on Sept. 21 that injured three South Korean soldiers, two seriously. A joint investigation by the South Korean military and the United Nations Command concluded that North Korean antipersonnel mines planted south of the Military Demarcation Line, in violation of the armistice, caused the blasts.

Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young told a National Assembly audit on Oct. 23 that games, like films, are protected creative expression and are not subject to prior censorship. Ruling Democratic Party Rep. Kim Han-kyu posted a video mocking the idea that buying the game is a problem, and said games should not be regulated unless they break the law. Conservative lawmakers also compared the game to "The Assassin(s)," a Korean historical thriller about the 1974 assassination of first lady Yuk Young-soo that drew conservative criticism for suggesting the intelligence agency of the time may have been involved. PPP Rep. Park Soo-young argued that those who defended the film as fiction should apply the same standard to the game.

The Korean American cast

The campaign uses full performance capture with Korean American actors. Young Mazino, an Emmy nominee for Netflix's "Beef," plays Pfc. Park Hyun-jun, a co-protagonist alongside series regular Capt. John Price. Joseph Lee, also nominated for "Beef," plays Capt. Kwon Hae-soo, a South Korean special forces commander whose role was modeled on Ken Rhee, the military veteran turned YouTuber. Lee Ki-hong of "The Maze Runner" plays Pvt. Ju Kwon, a rookie Marine whose multiplayer unlock requires Mastery Level 1,000. Korean players noted that "Ju-kwon" means sovereignty in Korean. Prisca Kim plays the final antagonist, Ri Ju-young, sister of the fictional North Korean supreme leader Ri Seung-ho.

Activision says the footage will be removed in an update scheduled for Nov. 12.