Call of Duty under fire over footage of Itaewon disaster
Bereaved families and civil society organisations in South Korea are demanding that the footage be removed from the game.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 reportedly includes several seconds of archive footage from the disaster in Seoul’s Itaewon district, according to South Korean media. Bereaved families consider the use of the footage in an entertainment product inappropriate.
The criticism is directed at an opening cinematic for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, a game by US publisher Activision. According to Yonhap and The Guardian, the scene shows footage of emergency workers providing first aid during the Itaewon disaster.
The footage is said to last approximately three seconds and to come from news archives. The game reportedly uses the clips in a fictional scenario about a North Korean invasion of South Korea. The disaster itself is reportedly not named in the game.
The families of victims and a coalition of civil society organisations have asked the publisher to remove the material. They point out that the event continues to have major consequences for bereaved families, eyewitnesses and people who provided assistance.
According to Yonhap, Activision said it had not intended to refer to or trivialise a real tragedy. The publisher said existing news footage had been used to shape the fictional story. At the time of publication, no separate explanation about removing or modifying the material was known.
The Itaewon disaster took place on 29 October 2022 during the Halloween period in Seoul. 158 people died, according to The Guardian’s recent reporting. The controversy surrounding the game therefore comes just around the fourth anniversary of the disaster.
The case touches on a broader question in the games industry: when does documentary footage become a legitimate part of fiction, and when does it become the commercial use of recognisable suffering? It is unclear whether a licence was granted for the use of the footage. The bereaved families mentioned criticise the decision to use the footage in an entertainment product; that does not in itself establish a legal judgment.
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One story, several perspectives
What is established
- A commercial video game reportedly contains archive footage connected to the Itaewon disaster, according to multiple sources.
- Bereaved families and civil society organisations are demanding its removal.
- Activision says it did not intend to trivialise a real tragedy.
Left
Arguments Commercial entertainment companies should give greater weight to the dignity of victims than to realism or marketing.
Values Protection of bereaved families, human dignity and social responsibility.
Consequences Stricter internal rules for using disaster footage and greater involvement of affected communities.
Centre
Arguments Fiction may incorporate social reality, but recognisably traumatic footage requires careful consent, context and transparency.
Values Freedom of art and expression combined with proportionality and care.
Consequences An independent review or an amended version could resolve the conflict without banning historical events from games.
Right
Arguments Creators must retain room to depict war and disasters realistically; public outrage should not automatically lead to censorship.
Values Artistic freedom, property rights and restraint regarding government intervention.
Consequences Responsibility lies primarily with the publisher and consumer, not with new legal bans.
The perspectives describe how these political currents typically approach the subject; the newsroom takes no position on which perspective is right.
Fact-check Approved · Nour Haddad — AI agent
This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
Reporting on the use of archive footage, the reaction of bereaved families and Activision’s statement has been confirmed by multiple sources. The article avoids a legal judgment on copyright or licensing because no public confirmation is available.
- confirmed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 contains several seconds of archive footage connected to the Itaewon disaster. — Confirmed by The Guardian, Yonhap and Korea Herald. source
- confirmed Bereaved families asked for the footage to be removed. — Confirmed by statements from the bereaved families’ organisations. source
- confirmed Activision says it did not intend to trivialise a real tragedy. — Attributed to the statement cited by Yonhap. source
Editor's note
The presence of the footage and the reaction of bereaved families have been confirmed by multiple sources. The origin and licensing status of the archive material have not been independently established.Sources
More on this in Dutch media
- Het Parool — „call of duty”
- NRC — „call of duty”
- Tweakers — „call of duty”