“Why is this in a game?” Real footage of the Seoul Halloween crowd crush in ‘Call of Duty’ sparks uproar

[Financial News] Real footage from the scene of the 2022 Seoul Halloween crowd crush has been used in the opening video of the latest installment of the globally popular first-person shooter (FPS) ‘Call of Duty,’ sparking a fierce backlash.

With the disaster’s fourth anniversary approaching, criticism is pouring in that footage of a real-life tragedy was used without permission as material for a war sequence in an entertainment game. The U.S. developer has effectively rejected bereaved families’ immediate demand to remove it, and the dispute appears poised to escalate into a legal battle.

According to the gaming industry and other sources on the 30th, news footage filmed at the time of the Seoul Halloween crowd crush appeared for about three seconds in the opening cinematic of ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4,’ released simultaneously worldwide on the 23rd by U.S. game developer and publisher Activision.
The game is set in a fictional scenario in which war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula following North Korea’s invasion of the South. The controversial scene depicts civilian casualties caused by the war in the form of a fictional news report. Actual broadcast footage from the disaster scene—showing emergency responders and civilians urgently performing CPR on injured people lying in the street, with victims laid out along the roadside—was inserted with a blur effect.
Criticism has intensified further after it emerged that the first line of the footage’s source description explicitly outlined the disaster: ‘At least 153 people died in a large-scale crowd crush in South Korea.’ Critics are questioning whether the developer indiscriminately used the footage despite knowing it showed the scene of a real disaster involving mass casualties.

After these facts became known, the 10.29 Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Family Members’ Association and the Citizens’ Countermeasures Committee immediately issued a statement and strongly protested.
The organizations said, “We are appalled that the desperate scene at the time of the disaster—when people at the scene performed CPR to save one another and victims lay on the cold street—was reproduced as a scene in a game,” and strongly condemned it as “a highly inappropriate and senseless act that disregards the dignity of the victims by using a tragic disaster as material for an entertainment game.”
They also pointed to the spread online of secondary victimization, including hateful comments that mock or distort victims by linking them to the game’s war setting, and demanded the immediate and permanent removal of the scene from the game. They plan to gather signatures from the families of foreign victims who have come to Korea to attend the memorial marking the disaster’s fourth anniversary and take official action. They say they will pursue legal action if their demand is not met.
The Korea Game Users Association also called in an official statement for the developer to clearly explain what happened, issue an official apology, and release an update replacing the footage, saying that the use of real footage of a tragic disaster unrelated to the game’s narrative had caused pain to bereaved families and victims. The association cautioned, however, that “holding those responsible for this incident to account must not escalate into indiscriminate censorship of game content itself or restrictions on its distribution,” and warned against excessive regulation of creative works in general.

As the controversy spread, Activision officially explained, “We used some real news footage only as a dramatic element to convey a fictional story in the game,” adding, “We had absolutely no intention of referring to or making light of any real tragic event, including the Seoul Halloween crowd crush.”
However, regarding the official apology and plans for a patch to remove or replace the scene—demands consistently made by bereaved families and user groups—the company said, “There has been no change to the position we have made public,” effectively refusing to take corrective action.



[email protected] Moon Young-jin Reporter