Activision to pull real Itaewon footage from Modern Warfare 4 after families object

Hot off the wire, and the story has turned. Activision has apologized and says it will remove real news footage of the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush from the opening of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, after bereaved families in South Korea demanded it come out. ¹

The game launched October 23. Its opening cinematic is a montage of fictional news reports about a North Korean invasion of the South. Mixed in with the staged material are archival clips from real broadcasts, including roughly three seconds of paramedics giving CPR to a person on the ground. ¹²

South Korean players spotted the shot and traced it to Itaewon, where a crowd surge in a narrow alley during a Halloween street party killed 159 people and injured 196. ¹ The footage is used in the game to depict civilian casualties of the fictional war. ³

The October 29 Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Families Association demanded the clip’s removal. Its statement, as translated by SBS, calls using such an incident for entertainment “highly inappropriate and insensitive.” ¹ A civic group, the Itaewon Citizens’ Countermeasures Association, also criticized the scene and says it will raise the issue formally with signatures from bereaved families. ³

The Korea Game Users Association asked for an explanation, an apology and an update that replaces the footage. ¹² Its position has limits: it added that the dispute should not grow into calls for censorship or restrictions on the game itself. ³

Activision’s first answer, given October 28, was an explanation. The publisher said the real news clips were used to carry the game’s fictional story, and that it had “no intention whatsoever” to reference or treat lightly any real tragedy, Itaewon included. ¹² Then came the apology and the promise to remove the footage. VGC’s report of it is the source here; I have no details yet on when the edit will ship or how the cinematic will change. ¹

The game was already under scrutiny in South Korea over its setting. ⁴ This dispute was narrower. It was about one clip, and a request to swap it.

The timing added pressure. The fourth anniversary of the Itaewon disaster fell on October 29, and criticism from families and civic groups was continuing ahead of it. ³

The reporting here traces back to South Korean outlets, chiefly broadcaster SBS and Yonhap, and the families’ own statements as carried by VGC, Inven Global and Maeil Business Newspaper.

Our read: The families made their ask plain, and the publisher has now said yes. That is a promise, not a patch. The thing to watch is the update itself: when it lands, and what replaces the footage. Until a build ships without the clip, the promise is all there is.

The ask was made. The answer came. Now the patch has to follow.

Footnotes

1. VGC, “COD Modern Warfare 4 uses real news footage from South Korean tragedy, is urged by families to remove it”. Retrieved October 28, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

2. Inven Global, “Activision admits using real news footage in ‘Modern Warfare 4’ cutscene”. Retrieved October 28, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. MK, “The actual video was reportedly inserted into the shooting game “Call of Duty,” which was controversial over North Korea’s invasion of South Korea”. Retrieved October 28, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. BBC News, “‘Controversial’ North Korean invasion setting for next Call of Duty game”. Retrieved October 28, 2026. ↩