New game based on Iraq War sparks anger, outrage

Just one day after being announced, a new video game based on one of the bloodiest battles in the Iraq War is receiving widespread criticism.

Created by Konami and Atomic Games, 'Six Days in Fallujah' will let gamers relive the brutal 2004 conflict that scarred the Iraq city of the same name. The makers have taken great pains to make the experience as authentic as possible, tapping three dozen U.S. soldiers present at the actual battle for guidance, and the game will be released on consoles and PC next year.

Fair Game For A Videogame?

Provided, that is, it survives the current onslaught of negative reaction. Decorated British Army colonel Reg Keys, father of a soldier killed by an Iraqi mob in 2003, went on the offensive.

"Considering the enormous loss of life in the Iraq War, glorifying it in a video game demonstrates very poor judgment and bad taste. It is particularly crass when you consider what actually happened in Fallujah," he told the U.K.'s Daily Mail. "These horrific events should be confined to the annuls of history, not trivialised and rendered for thrill-seekers to play out, over and over again, for ever more."

Keys went on to state his intent to get the game banned from release, a sentiment echoed by former colonel Tim Collins, OBE, who called the game "insensitive" while pointing out that it was "much too soon to start making video games about a war that's still going on."

Anti-war groups were equally offended. In an interview with TechRadar, Tansy Hoskins of the Stop the War Coalition blasted the game.

"There will never be a time when it is appropriate for people to 'play' at committing atrocities," she said. "The massacre in Fallujah should be remembered with shame and horror not glamorised and glossed over for entertainment."

But according to Anthony Crouts, VP of marketing for Konami, the documentary-style game isn't intended to shock and awe so much as simply entertain.

"We're not trying to make social commentary. We're not pro-war. We're not trying to make people feel uncomfortable. We just want to bring a compelling entertainment experience," he told the Wall Street Journal. "At the end of the day, it's just a game."

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