Activision will remove Itaewon footage from Modern Warfare 4 and apologizes

Activision apologized to the victims’ families and South Korean media on Oct. 30 and said it will cut actual footage of the Itaewon crowd crush from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.

Infinity Ward developed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and Activision published it. The game centers on a fictional invasion of South Korea by North Korea. It launched worldwide on Oct. 23, 2026. Its opening cinematic uses brief news clips to show fictional civilian casualties during that invasion.

Those clips contain footage taken from the 2022 Itaewon disaster, which killed around 160 people. The footage runs about three seconds. It depicts emergency workers giving CPR, victims lying in rows and workers carrying people on stretchers.

The Itaewon crowd crush happened on Oct. 29, 2022, during Halloween celebrations. A crowd packed into a narrow alley in Seoul’s Itaewon district and the pressure became unsurvivable. Most of those who died were in their twenties, and the death toll kept rising over later years as officials added officially recognized trauma victims.

Oct. 29, 2026 was the fourth anniversary of the disaster. The backlash over the game arose only days before that date. South Korean players were among the first to point out what looked like real video from the crowd crush inside a cinematic at the end of the opening mission.

Activision issued an initial statement on Oct. 28 admitting that it used real news footage but not promising to remove it. Two South Korean groups, the bereaved families’ association and the Citizens Countermeasure Meeting, demanded removal of the footage.

South Korean Minister of the Interior and Safety Yun Ho-jung called the footage’s inclusion secondary harm, meaning added suffering inflicted on victims, during a press briefing on Oct. 29. He said he believes authorities should impose appropriate sanctions. Yun said a tragedy like this should not serve as material for a game, entertainment or business because it concerns human ethics. He said relevant agencies should decide on punishment or blocking general access.

By Oct. 30, with pressure mounting, Activision sent a fuller apology to South Korean media. The publisher said it intended the footage to deliver realism and immersion. It denied any intent to invoke or trivialize the Itaewon disaster. It said it would cut the footage through a game update on Nov. 12.

Activision issued the apology in Korean. Inven Global provided an AI-assisted, editor-reviewed translation of the quotes. In the statement, Activision said the game is a fictional work meant to give realistic immersion. The publisher said it never meant to evoke or trivialize the Itaewon crowd crush through real news broadcast footage.

In an earlier statement to Eurogamer, Activision said the opening cinematic uses some real-world news coverage to build the game’s fictional narrative. It said the cinematic was not meant to reference or trivialize the Itaewon disaster or any other real-world tragedy.

The 10.29 Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Families Association released a statement carried by SBS. It said the footage was deeply painful to witness and that using those images in a commercial entertainment product was highly inappropriate and senseless. The group urged Activision to act without delay, calling the use “highly inappropriate and senseless.”

The bereaved families’ association welcomed the decision but told the BBC the company had not reached them directly. No personal apology had been given to the families of the 160 victims.

The Korea Game Users Association backed the demand and sought removal of the clip. It also asked for an explanation of how the clip got into production. It asked for a formal corporate apology.

Industry commentators have said standard geographic and cultural checks should have caught the clip before launch. They said this was especially true because Modern Warfare 4‘s story takes place on the Korean peninsula. They called the failure a process problem rather than an intent problem.

Victims’ families said the use of the chaotic and desperate scene in a game appalled them. They said people performed CPR and victims lay on the freezing street. They said using such an event for entertainment is highly inappropriate and senseless.

Activision at first refused to change its position. Later it said it would remove the footage in an update planned for Nov. 12. It expressed regret to the families and victims affected by the incident.