Why are families of Seoul crowd crush victims demanding changes to Call of Duty?

The newest Call of Duty, set during a fictional North Korean invasion of South Korea, uses several seconds of real footage from the Seoul crowd crush that killed 159 people four years earlier, to depict civilian casualties. BBC correspondent Jake Kwon said the clips show paramedics giving CPR and bodies on the ground. Victims' families called the use indecent and improper and demanded its removal, and publisher Activision said it did not intend to make light of the tragedy.

• The game came out a week before the fourth anniversary and quickly topped sales on Steam in South Korea.
• Players recognised the scenes as real, and families asked major South Korean media to verify the footage.
• Activision had not said whether it would remove the clips.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Global News Podcast (2026-10-29). Read the whole episode summary →

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