Call of Duty Cut Tiananmen. Modern Warfare 4 Kept Itaewon

Featured photo: Flowers, notes and Buddhist monks at the memorial outside Itaewon Station Exit 1, November 2022. Photo: Youngjin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

In 2020, Activision quietly cut a shot of Tiananmen Square from a Call of Duty teaser. In 2026, the same company’s new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 shows a Seoul under North Korean attack using real footage from the Itaewon crowd crush, and when asked whether it will fix that footage, Activision did not answer. It came to light two days before the disaster’s fourth anniversary.

The Seoul North Korea attacked was Itaewon

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launched worldwide on October 23. It is set in a fictional “Second Korean War” that begins with a surprise North Korean invasion of the South, and the player fights through the streets of Seoul as a young South Korean soldier (The Elec, The Korea Herald).

On the evening of October 27, Korean broadcaster MBC reported that part of the game’s campaign introduction video matches footage shot at the scene of the 2022 Itaewon disaster. In a scene presented as a street hit by a North Korean missile strike, the position and framing are identical: a person performing CPR on the road, the police line behind them, people lying in a row, a police baton light and firefighters’ uniforms. Forensic video analyst Hwang Min-gu called it “a 100 percent match” (MBC).

The first to notice were the victims’ families and civic groups. The Itaewon Disaster Citizens’ Response Council asked for verification, and one bereaved family member reported that the end of the video credits “Getty Images” as a source. MBC then found a second Itaewon disaster clip on YouTube that matches the game footage (MBC).

Also read: Korea Out-Earns Germany and Japan Combined. Its Stocks Are the World's Cheapest.

A disaster turned into one slot of “news footage”

Activision’s answer was short: it had used “some real news footage to set up the story,” and it “had absolutely no intention of referencing or making light of the Itaewon disaster or any tragic event.” Asked repeatedly whether it plans to change the footage, the company did not answer (MBC).

That explanation is the problem. A disaster that killed 159 people was sold as one slot of “real news footage” on a stock-photo site, and with its place and date stripped away it became the backdrop for a Seoul hit by North Korean missiles. Saying there was no intention is the same as saying nobody checked what the footage was.

“If this isn’t corrected, it feels like it will be stuffed and mounted inside the game forever,” said Lee Jin-woo, whose family member died that night (MBC). The series has sold more than 500 million copies since 2003 and draws more than 100 million players a month (MBC).

The Tiananmen shot was cut

The same company has removed real footage before. The teaser for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, released in August 2020, briefly included a scene from Tiananmen Square in 1989. The shot was soon cut, and the original teaser was set to private on the official YouTube channel. Activision did not explain why (PC Gamer).

Foreign media at the time read it as an edit made with the Chinese market in mind (PC Gamer). The Tiananmen shot was cut without a word. The Itaewon shot is still there, with no promise to fix it, even after the families found it and the press asked. What separated the two scenes was not the weight of the deaths in them, but which market they would cause trouble in.

26 of the 159 were foreigners

For readers outside Korea, Itaewon may be an unfamiliar name. On the night of October 29, 2022, Halloween crowds packed a narrow alley in Seoul’s Itaewon district and 159 people died. Twenty-six of them were foreign nationals, including two Americans (The Korea Times). This June, the government recognized a survivor who died after struggling with trauma as the 160th victim (Herald Business). The alley in that footage is not only Korea’s tragedy. It is the memory of families from 14 countries.

No. 1 on Steam, and a game recommended to the president

Modern Warfare 4 has held No. 1 in Steam’s global sales since launch (Money Today). Samsung Electronics joined as a technology partner from early development (The Elec). In Korean politics, former justice minister Han Dong-hoon and lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo urged President Lee Jae-myung to play it, and Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young said that “games are not subject to prior censorship” (The Korea Herald). While Korea argued over the game as a question of national security and free expression, it took the victims’ own families to discover that their country’s most painful night was inside it.

Under MBC’s report, the comment with the most likes (214) was not a long burst of anger but one sarcastic line: “Then just go use 9/11 footage.”

Sources

• MBC Newsdesk, October 27, 2026 (comment likes checked early October 28, 2026)
• The Elec, October 26, 2026
• The Korea Herald, October 26, 2026
• Money Today, October 25, 2026
• PC Gamer, August 2020: Activision removes Tiananmen Square video from Black Ops Cold War trailer
• The Korea Times, October 30, 2022: foreign victims
• Herald Business: 160th victim recognized
• Official game site: Call of Duty (checked October 28, 2026)