Konami/marines making Iraq War game

By Robert Purchese Published 7 April, 2009

Just Fallouja think you are?

Konami has decided to turn the Iraq conflict of 2004 into a videogame, inspired and directed by real US Marines.

They will retell, in gritty fashion, the November battle of the town of Fallouja (sometimes written Fallujah), which left 38 US troops and 1200 insurgents dead.

"The soldiers wanted to tell their stories through a game because that's what they grew up playing," Konami's John Choon told the LA Times.

Mike Ergo, a former-Marine that served in Fallouja, added: "Videogames can communicate the intensity and the gravity of war to an audience who wouldn't necessarily be watching the History Channel or reading about this in the classroom.

"In an age when everyone's always online or playing games, people's imaginations aren't what they were, sadly. For this group, books may not convey the same level of intensity and chaos of war that a game can."

Six Days in Fallouja will be a third-person, tactical, squad-based affair and launch sometime next year. There's no intel on platforms, but PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 look likely - judging by the LA Times likening the visuals and gameplay to Call of Duty and Medal of Honour.

The aim of the game will be to boss a team of four around Fallouja and wipe out the insurgents within.

"For us, the challenge was how do you present the horrors of war in a game that is also entertaining, but also gives people insight into a historical situation in a way that only a videogame can provide?" explained Peter Tamte president of developer Atomic Games.

"Our goal is to give people that insight, of what it's like to be a Marine during that event, what it's like to be a civilian in the city and what it's like to be an insurgent.

Juan Benito, creative spark at Atomic Games, added: "You can have entertainment that's not just about violence, or just about Care Bears and rainbows. It's about having a challenge, then formulating a plan to overcome that challenge. Overcoming that difficulty is a big part of the fun."

Whether Konami will look to release the game outside of the US in unknown. But both publisher and developer are keen to present gamers with the tough choices and experiences facing a soldier during combat.

"Our opportunity for giving people insight goes up dramatically when we can present the dilemmas and the choices that faced these soldiers. It's a chance to really give them a better understanding and empathy," added Peter Tamte.

"What interested us were the soldiers' stories. Some of these soldiers came right out of high school. They went from boys to men in the span of two weeks," concluded Konami marketeer Anthoy Crouts.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • The_Inquisitor #1 3 years ago

    I particularly enjoyed the (fictional) version on the Iraq invasion depicted in the US series Generation Kill. It didn't look like boys turning into men there, rather boys with guns shooting people. One thing is for sure though, all the tactics at the US Army's disposal were wasted on that 'war', so I find it difficult to understand how they'll make a tactical shooter out of it while staying true to the actual events.

  • monkeylite #2 3 years ago

    Invade first, look for made-up WMD later. That is their tactics.

  • Goffee #3 3 years ago

    As long as we get also to play the insurgents, for balance....

  • FWB #4 3 years ago

    I really like RTS and FPS games set in WW2, NAM, OFP et al, so is it hypocritical of me to say this seems a little... weird? At least wait till the whole conflict is over before turning it into entertainment.

  • beckyh #5 3 years ago

    To FWB, I concur that it is a little weird. The Iraq war is so fresh and the military are still present in the country. This does not seem right because people are still dying.

  • djed #6 3 years ago

    The important thing to remember is that you are all using the right words; insurgents instead of resistance, event instead of assault, and conflict instead of war.

    It's also satisfying to note that "It's a chance to really give them [the players] a better understanding and empathy [for the soldiers]". Because really, I've had enough of all this vilification of the noble US soldiers fighting for Europe's freedom in the middle-east, against musky, bearded, terrorists (they're muslim to boot!) who hate our freedom and peaceful democracies.

    Also, I can't wait to shoot white-phosphor in the face of some dirt-poor hillbilly Iraqi!
    Edited by 1 at 07/04/09 @ 12:01

  • Goffee #7 3 years ago

    #FWB - Fair point, but then again, the auto-biographies have been on the shelves, the documentaries on TV, Ross Kemp tumbles his way around Afghanistan on Sky One, so isn't a game just an extension of all that?

    I bet there would still be an outcry even today if an "official" FPS recreation of the Falklands came out, Bluff Cove, Goose Green, Tumbledown and all.

  • DanWhitehead #8 3 years ago

    All that talk of turning it into a game for some sort of philanthropic educational ideal is making me feel a little bit sick. The problem is that playing Fallujah as a videogame puts the player in control of the outcome, therefore it has absolutely no value as a means of offering insight or understanding. All it can do is show how "intense" the battle was, which is a pretty vague goal at best.

    Although I shouldn't be surprised that the US military would like us to believe otherwise, a manufactured recreation of something is not the same as reporting it.

  • timpig #9 3 years ago

    I came in here to have a little vent about how this seems hugely inappropriate, opportunistic and frankly sickening. But you all seem to have beat me to it. Carry on.

  • FWB #10 3 years ago

    Goffee, you're right in that that is another form of entertainment, but as Dan says, a video game let's you change the outcome. I can't see how this can be educational. If you want that, then make a documentary on it, write more books. I suspect it's another attempt to make war look like fun to encourage more recruits.

    Would I admit to my elderly relatives that I play WW2 FPS/RTS games? Nope, not at all. That in itself tells me something about my perception of what the game involves. Obviously I am distancing myself from the reality in order to happily shoot Nazis. Even if I am being hypocritical, it's certainly not something that certainly should be happening with an on-going conflict.

  • dgamlin #11 3 years ago

    "Just Fallouja think you are?" = very funny!

  • Bangaioh #12 3 years ago

    I think this is simply appalling and stupid.
    Generation Kill is a brilliant piece of fiction based on what happened in Iraq, this is a bleeding game! I still think there is a HUGE difference between the two and they should stay, at least for now, where they belong.
    I can't even think of making a game out of the tragedy that the US invasion has been!

  • collateral89 #13 3 years ago

    the uk shud definetly get this game were in the war 2!!!!!!

  • M_of_the_sys #14 3 years ago

    UK's finest above.

  • djed #15 3 years ago

    @ Burzum09

    Sure, but you're missing the bigger picture here. Don't you think a woman who's seen her son's face melt off will turn into a terrorist sooner or later? Probably sooner, that is why you must kill her too, even if bleedin' hearts claim she's a civilian, whatever that's supposed to mean. I think there is something in the bible or something about this; that when you kill a man you must kill his entire family also. Makes sense really.

    This is the kind of moral choice I'm looking forward to in this title.

  • cyber_nicco #16 3 years ago

    There is a fair amount of crap being bandied about on this thread.

    /Leaving now

  • William #17 3 years ago

    The game is developed by Destineer, who also developed the average 'Close Combat: First to Fight' shooter (Xbox, PC, gamerankings 69%). That game was preceded by a good amount of PR about "true military tactics" etc. but featured nothing new.

  • Kojima100 #18 3 years ago

    all of you wanting too play as the terrorists are sick

  • zakrocz #19 3 years ago

    Squad based 3rd person military shooter - no thanks