Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 to Remove Seoul Crush Footage November 12

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will lose the real news footage of the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush in its November 12 update. Activision confirmed the removal on Friday, October 30, and apologized to the families of those who died in the disaster.

Itaewon is the district in Seoul where the crush happened, and it is the backdrop for the footage. Real news coverage of the 2022 crush is used in the opening cinematic to set up the game’s fictional story: a North Korean invasion of South Korea. Activision said it used the recordings to establish the game’s fictional narrative. The company added that “it is not intended to reference or trivialize the Itaewon disaster or any other real-world tragedy in any way, shape or form.”

Almost 160 people died in Itaewon, when more than 100,000 people packed the narrow streets for Halloween. On Thursday, October 29, the families of those who died said in a statement that footage of rescue attempts, people carried out on stretchers and body bags on the street had been repurposed for a game. They called that use “highly inappropriate and senseless” and asked Activision to remove the footage without delay. The 10.29 Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Families Association said on Friday it had still not received a direct apology from the company.

The game launched worldwide on October 23, so the clip is already in front of players. The November 12 patch lands six days after Season 1 goes live at midnight ET on November 6, with new maps, new modes and the X01 Black Site opening in the DMZ, the game’s extraction mode. Until the patch arrives, the opening still plays as shipped. Our Modern Warfare 4 hub tracks the rest of the season.

One day separated the families’ call for the footage to be pulled and Activision’s confirmation that it will be, and the change lands a week after players got the game. That is a fast turnaround for a live release. What it does not settle is the bigger criticism the game has already drawn. It is built on a fictional North Korean invasion of South Korea, two countries that have technically been at war since 1953 without signing a peace treaty. For example, a player who starts Modern Warfare 4 today still sees the clip, and a player who starts after the patch does not. Pulling one piece of real news footage out of the opening does not change the premise, and the premise is what a South Korean audience will keep coming back to.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report