Activision said it will remove real news footage of Seoul’s 2022 Itaewon crowd crush from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 after bereaved families objected, Yonhap and the BBC reported^1,2.

Yonhap said a short clip of a paramedic performing CPR on a victim appeared in the game’s opening and was used to depict civilian casualties in a fictional war with North Korea². The BBC said the material included stretchers, body bags and resuscitation efforts drawn from news coverage¹.

The crush in Itaewon’s alleys during Halloween gatherings on Oct. 29, 2022, killed 159 people, Yonhap reported². The BBC said more than 100,000 people had gone to the district that night¹.

In a notice to local reporters, Activision Publishing said it deeply apologized to victims and families and that the footage would be removed in an update set for Nov. 12, Yonhap reported². The BBC said Activision confirmed it had used real coverage to set a fictional narrative and said it had not intended to trivialize the disaster¹.

The 10.29 Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Families Association welcomed the removal but told the BBC it had not received a direct apology from Activision¹. Families had called the use of the scene inappropriate, the BBC reported¹.

Whether the Nov. 12 patch ships as stated, and whether families receive a direct apology, were not independently confirmed beyond the publisher’s notice and the association’s comment^1,2.