Call Of Duty Maker Faces Backlash Over Use Of Deadly Seoul Tragedy Footage

Call of Duty maker Activision is facing backlash after the newest installment of the hit video game franchise featured real footage from the deadly 2022 crush that killed more than 150 revellers in South Korea. The campaign mode of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 shows a full-scale North Korean invasion of the South, starting with a surprise attack by Pyongyang's forces.

The opening montage shows the scenario of civilian casualties during the invasion. One scene shows a figure performing CPR on a victim lying on the street. Another shows rows of bodies laid out in the road, and a victim being carried away on a stretcher. While the monochrome tones and noise filters were added by the game developers to make it appear as if it was the result of war, the families of the victims immediately caught on that it was real footage.

“We are appalled that the chaotic and desperate scenes, in which countless citizens performed CPR to save one another, and victims lay on the cold street, were used exactly as they were to create a scene in a game,” the bereaved families' council and a coalition of civic groups said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

Apart from the families, the Korean Games Users Association also demanded that the footage be removed and called for an apology from Activision, the game's publisher.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is facing backlash from Koreans for allegedly using footage from the actual Itaewon crowd crush, which claimed 159 lives, in the game. They reportedly included footage of people performing CPR at the actual disaster site and recreated a similar scene in the game. Koreans are now calling for the footage to be removed and I wonder if the developers are going to do anything about it because this is absolutely insane. It has only been four years since that tragedy happened, and now people are seeing something so closely resembling that horrific incident in a video game. This is deeply insensitive to the victims, their families and everyone who was affected by the tragedy.

— kdramahotgists (@kdramahotgists) October 29, 2026

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The company, however, in an interview with South Korea's Yonhap news agency, said the footage was used "as an element to convey the fictional story depicted in the game".

"There was absolutely no intention to reference or trivialise the Itaewon disaster or any other real-life tragedy," it added.

The Itaewon tragedy took place on October 29, 2022, when tens of thousands of people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, were out to attend the first post-pandemic Halloween celebrations in Seoul's nightlife district.

The night turned deadly when people funnelled into a narrow, sloping alleyway between bars and clubs. Lack of effective crowd control led to scores being crushed to death.