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Video game publisher Activision has apologized for including real footage of the 2022 Seoul crowd crush, which killed 159 people during Halloween celebrations in South Korea, in "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4" and pledged to remove the clip following criticism from victims' families.
According to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, Activision Publishing Inc. announced Friday that the footage would be taken out through a game update scheduled for Nov. 12.
The controversy centers on the use of actual news footage from the disaster in a fictional military scenario depicting a full-scale North Korean invasion of South Korea.
The footage appears in the game's opening scenes and shows a paramedic performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), an emergency lifesaving procedure, on a victim lying in the street.
The images were taken from the aftermath of the Oct. 29, 2022, crowd crush in Itaewon, a popular nightlife district in Seoul, where 159 people died after a crowd became dangerously compressed in a narrow alley during Halloween celebrations.
Although the game presents a fictional conflict between North and South Korea, its inclusion of footage from the real-life disaster drew criticism from families who lost loved ones.
In a notice sent to South Korean reporters, Activision apologized to the victims, their families and others affected by the decision to use the footage.
"We deeply apologize to the victims and their bereaved families who must have suffered, as well as to everyone who we have caused concern," the company said.
"The footage will be removed in our update set to be rolled out on Nov. 12," it added.
The publisher maintained that it had not intended to bring up painful memories of the Itaewon disaster or disregard the suffering caused by the tragedy when incorporating news footage into its games.
However, bereaved families criticized the company for "lacking common sense" and called for the footage to be removed entirely.
Activision's announcement addresses those demands, with the removal scheduled for the Nov. 12 update.
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