A shot of rescue efforts from the 2022 Seoul disaster was used in the game's opening news montage. After bereaved families and South Korea's interior minister spoke out, Activision says it will be fully removed in the November 12 update.
Modern Warfare 4’s opening cinematic is getting edited. Activision has apologized for using real news footage from the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush in Seoul in the game’s intro, and says the clip will be “completely removed” in an update scheduled for November 12, per Inven Global and VGC.
What you need to know
- What’s in the game: MW4’s opening title sequence is a montage of news reports about the game’s fictional North Korean invasion of South Korea. Mixed into it is real archival news footage, including a brief shot of a paramedic giving CPR to someone on the ground, per VGC.
- Where it came from: players identified that shot as news footage from the aftermath of the Halloween crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon district in October 2022. Nearly 160 people died, per the BBC.
- Who spoke out: the October 29 Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Families Association and the Korea Game Users Association both called on Activision to remove it, per VGC. The fourth anniversary of the disaster was this Thursday, October 29.
- The fix: the footage comes out in the November 12 game update. Until then it’s still in the intro.
- Timeline: Activision first defended the footage, then issued a formal apology on October 30, two days after its first statement and about a week after MW4 launched, per Inven Global.
What Activision said
Activision’s first response, given to the BBC, said the team “approached the subject matter with care and respect” and that “the game’s opening cinematic utilises some real world news coverage to establish the game’s fictional narrative.” It also said it had “not intended to reference or trivialise the Itaewon disaster or any other real-world tragedy in any way, shape or form.”
Its follow-up statement to South Korean media, as translated by Inven Global, goes further:
“The video footage in question will be completely removed through a game update scheduled for distribution on November 12. We bow our heads in deep sympathy and apology to the bereaved families and victims who were deeply hurt by this incident, as well as to everyone we have caused concern.”
PC Gamer, citing the Korea Herald, quotes the apology this way: “We offer our deepest condolences and sincere apologies to the bereaved families, victims and everyone who has been deeply hurt or distressed by this incident.”
What the families and the government said
The bereaved families’ statement, via the BBC, did not hold back: “Using such an event as material for a game made for entertainment is in itself highly inappropriate and senseless.” They added that if Activision “has even a minimum of courtesy and empathy towards the victims, it should take corrective action without delay.”
It reached South Korea’s government too. Minister of the Interior and Safety Yun Ho-jung called the footage “secondary harm” at an October 29 briefing and said “appropriate sanctions should be imposed,” while leaving any punishment or blocking to the relevant agencies, per Inven Global.
Context
MW4’s North Korea vs. South Korea setting drew criticism before launch, since the two countries never signed a peace treaty after the Korean War. At launch, Call of Duty chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl told BBC Newsbeat, “We have to understand this is entertainment.”
OnPoint’s take: Activision got this one right in the end, and it needed to. You can tell a gritty, realistic war story without using footage of real people dying in a real tragedy that had nothing to do with war, and that clip should have been caught long before the game shipped. Apologizing and pulling it is the correct call, and doing it inside a month is better than digging in. The one thing we’d push on: November 12 is almost two weeks away. If it’s coming out anyway, get it out in the next patch. Respect to the families for speaking up.
Sources
- Inven Global: Activision Removes Crowd Crush Footage from ‘Modern Warfare 4’, Apologizes to Bereaved Families (Oct 29, 2026; Korean original at Inven)
- VGC: Activision apologizes and says it will remove South Korean crush footage from Modern Warfare 4 (Oct 30, 2026)
- PC Gamer: Real-world disaster footage in Modern Warfare 4 opening cinematic will be removed (Oct 30, 2026)
- BBC Newsbeat: Bereaved families appalled by footage of Seoul crush in Call of Duty
- The Korea Herald: report via PC Gamer
Image: Activision / OnPoint 4 Gamers
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