Six Days in Fallujah resurfaced 11 years after Konami abandoned it.
The Iraq war game, set during the Second Battle of Fallujah in 2004, was abandoned by Konami in April 2009 due to the amount of negative feedback received.
“After seeing the reaction to the video game in the United States and hearing opinions sent by phone and email, we decided several days ago not to sell it,” said a Konami spokesman at the time.
“We had the intention to convey the reality of the battles to the players, so that they could feel what it was like to be there.”
Developer Atomic Games has collaborated with real American soldiers to authentically retell the Fallujah battle in Iraq from an American perspective. Unsurprisingly, the shooting game for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 was soon attacked by the mainstream press – even Andy McNab from real-life SAS got involved.
Now, 11 years later, Six Days in Fallujah is back as a tactical military shooter based on real-world events, in development by former Halo and Destiny makers.
Victura, which was founded by former Atomic Games CEO Peter Tamte in 2016, is the Seattle company behind the revival, with Golem Highwire studio hired to make the game. Highwire was created by Jaime Griesemer, who was the chief designer of the original Halo and Destiny games, Marty O’Donnell, who was audio director and composer for Halo and Destiny, and Jared Noftle, who co-founded Airtight Games .
In his announcement, Victura includes a quote from former Navy sergeant Eddie Garcia, who was wounded during the Battle of Fallujah and proposed the original idea for Six Days in Fallujah in 2005:
“Sometimes the only way to understand what is true is to experience reality for yourself,” said Garcia.
“The war is full of uncertainties and difficult choices that cannot be understood by watching someone on TV or on the cinema screen making those choices for you. Video games can help us understand real-world events in a way that other media cannot. “
The press release highlights that the developers are working with Marines and frontline soldiers who fought in the Battle of Fallujah, with more than 100 Iraqi Marines, soldiers and civilians present who shared their stories, photos and recordings. The game will include images of original documentary interviews.
Here is an optimistic quote from Tamte, perhaps in anticipation of questions about why this game needs to be done:
“It is difficult to understand what it is like to fight false people doing false things in false places. This generation has shown sacrifice and courage in Iraq as remarkable as any in history. And now they are offering the rest of us a new way of understanding one of the most important events of our century. It’s time to challenge outdated stereotypes about what video games can be. “
Six Days in Fallujah will be released on PC and consoles in 2021.