Update: Konami Backs Out of Fallujah

John Funk

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Dec 20, 2005
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Update: Konami Backs Out of Fallujah



Veteran publisher Konami has decided to drop the controversial Six Days in Fallujah, merely three weeks after announcing its existence.

There are few games that cause the sort of controversy firestorm that has flared up around Atomic Games' Six Days in Fallujah, and even few have garnered such controversy by simply being announced. Falleujah was over in Europe [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90759-Six-Days-in-Fallujah-Triggers-Outrage].

Now, apparently, the game might not see release anywhere at all: Konami has dropped the title, reports the Asahi Shimbun [http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200904270177.html].

"After seeing the reaction to the videogame in the United States and hearing opinions sent through phone calls and e-mail, we decided several days ago not to sell it," said a Konami representative. "We had intended to convey the reality of the battles to players so that they could feel what it was like to be there."

The game was to set players as U.S. soldiers in the midst of the battle of Fallujah, a six-day siege that was one of the bloodiest and most controversial battles in the war. The player would be asked to make split-second decisions in real time like those faced by the actual soldiers - for instance, whether or not to shoot someone who appeared to be unarmed. Despite the assistance of approximately 40 U.S. soldiers who offered their diaries and experiences to Atomic Games, the title came under fire by other Iraq veterans and friends and family of soldiers who had been killed in the conflict.

I'm not going to lie; this is fairly disappointing. It's not surprising, but it is disappointing - Fallelujah remains an interesting concept for a game, despite the controversy. Plenty of gamers and games journalists have pointed out that it wouldn't be considered so controversial to have a book or movie about the conflict in Fallujah, so why is a game coming under such heavy fire? Should developers be afraid to tackle such genuinely mature [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/going-gold/5997-Rated-M-for-Mature] material?

Well, Fallujah isn't dead yet - but I wonder if Atomic will be able to find any other publishers who will touch the game with a ten-foot pole.

Update: Peter Tamte, president of Atomic, has contacted the Escapist to give his official word on Konami's decision not to publish Six Days in Fallujah:

[blockquote]"We were informed on Thursday night that Konami had decided to pull out of Six Days in Fallujah. This caught us by surprise," said Mr. Tamte. "Development of the game had been progressing very well and on schedule. We would very much like the opportunity to complete the game."[/blockquote]

(Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23367])

(Image [http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/469909676/])

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sneakypenguin

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Can't say i'm too disappointed. It would probably just be like a 3ps in the manner of GRAW, with some "realistic horrifying war moments" thrown in
 

Cousin_IT

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while it is a shame, in principle, they backed down. The little id read on the subject suggested that had they gone through with this game, it would have just "proved" that the industry still cant handle genuinely mature material maturely
 

Skizle

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they should probably release it after 3 or 5 years. maybe then it will be better recieved
 

fix-the-spade

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"After seeing the reaction to the videogame in the United States and hearing opinions sent through phone calls and e-mail, we decided several days ago not to sell it,"

Do you think that's a veiled way of saying Konami staff started getting death threats?

I think someone wll pick it up, even if the game was shocking(ly bad) it would sell just through the controversy factor, the US being what it is someone will be drawn by the chance to make a lot of money...
 

SharedProphet

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Cowards. This is basically a press release along the lines of, "Konami has announced today that it does not believe the medium of games can support mature discourse on issues of relevance to the world today."

I really hope Atomic continues, and that there is a publisher willing to take a stand for the legitimacy of the industry.
 

SomeBritishDude

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This is disappointing and a little sad blow for games in general. If Six Days in Fallujah had done things right it could have been a new stepping stone for games to start documenting more serious material.

I somehow doubt it would have done things right though. Early reports told of just another FPS, no different to CoD or Half-Life, just with more controversie behind it. I suppose in a way this almost make this a relief. If SDiF hadn't gone down well no one would have made another attempt at such a thing for a very long time, perhaps ever. I'm not saying that theres another game around the corner that will cover matters this serious, but it's at least put an idea in peoples heads that wasn't there before, and it's certainly made me think about what makes a great game.
 

kawligia

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That is powerfully lame.

This kind of game could have shown people what it's like to be faced with split second decisions. When a non-combatant gets hurt or killed, people only seem to look at the situation in hindsight. They are able to take all the time in the world to calmly analyze the situation and then ***** and moan about the effects or what they should have done.

They fail to realize what it's like to have to make those decisions AT THE TIME when their lives are on the line. It's not so damn simple and easy when you have only miliseconds to gather information, consider alternatives and consequences, make a decision, and then act on it.
 

MiloP

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Silly sill silly...

Why is this controversial when the one billion games about World War 2 have free reign? Just because this war is happening now doesn't make it any worse than WW2.
 

Gladion

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I'm not sure what the hell people are talking about here. Did you expect anything else than a third-person shooter with a few tactical elements and some gruesome scenes, maybe real photos and videos of real combat or some shit like that?
Besides, it's not like you couldn't show the terrors of war with a fictional setting, is it? I wished the games industry would turn away from that whole "realism-realism-realism" bullshit while at the same time they allow you to shoot while moving.
kawligia said:
That is powerfully lame.

This kind of game could have shown people what it's like to be faced with split second decisions. When a non-combatant gets hurt or killed, people only seem to look at the situation in hindsight. They are able to take all the time in the world to calmly analyze the situation and then ***** and moan about the effects or what they should have done.

They fail to realize what it's like to have to make those decisions AT THE TIME when their lives are on the line. It's not so damn simple and easy when you have only miliseconds to gather information, consider alternatives and consequences, make a decision, and then act on it.
Do you really think a video game could reenact a situation like this, even one bit? I highly doubt it. You fuck up, you just restart, knowing whats gonna happen for the next try.

CantFaketheFunk said:
Plenty of gamers and games journalists have pointed out that it wouldn't be considered so controversial to have a book or movie about the conflict in Fallujah, so why is a game coming under such heavy fire? Should developers be afraid to tackle such genuinely mature [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/going-gold/5997-Rated-M-for-Mature] material?
"Mature"... bleh. There are many games with mature themes and noone complained about them, the reason why this game was recieved so poorly is not because it was too "mature" (which it probably wouldn't have become anyways).
 

Dr.Zoidberg

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I suppose that if Atomic games still develops it, they can publish it via Steam or other digital distribution services, without a proper publisher.
 

Bretty

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I hope they can go through steam... this is a story worth telling and that I would like an opportunity to see through this medium.

Shit, its on the military channel 24/7?
 

Anton P. Nym

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I am very much of two minds on this.

I think Konami may have been right to drop it, given the controversy, especially if the game was merely "Mature"-rated and set in controversy merely to gain word-of-mouth instead of actually portraying the battle in a mature manner.

Then again, I'm worried that by caving in to popular outrage against a title which doesn't even have a demo out (so the opinion isn't terribly informed, to say the least) the game-designer environment becomes that much more hostile to including genuinely mature content.

Oh, for the days of easy decisions.

-- Steve
 

Littaly

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A much as competitive and recreational video games are awesome, it's disappointing to see a game that takes the medium a tad more seriously being laid down.

It could have one of those games you point at and say "See, not all pointlessness".
 

scotth266

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SomeBritishDude said:
This is disappointing and a little sad blow for games in general. If Six Days in Fallujah had done things right it could have been a new stepping stone for games to start documenting more serious material.

I somehow doubt it would have done things right though. Early reports told of just another FPS, no different to CoD or Half-Life, just with more controversie behind it. I suppose in a way this almost make this a relief. If SDiF hadn't gone down well no one would have made another attempt at such a thing for a very long time, perhaps ever. I'm not saying that theres another game around the corner that will cover matters this serious, but it's at least put an idea in peoples heads that wasn't there before, and it's certainly made me think about what makes a great game.
Quoted for truth. Whilst we need more serious games to prove to everyone we can DO serious stuff, failures would drive publishers away. Infinity Ward is the only dev that I'd trust with a project of this scope, and even then I don't know if it would be good.
 

cainx10a

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scotth266 said:
SomeBritishDude said:
This is disappointing and a little sad blow for games in general. If Six Days in Fallujah had done things right it could have been a new stepping stone for games to start documenting more serious material.

I somehow doubt it would have done things right though. Early reports told of just another FPS, no different to CoD or Half-Life, just with more controversie behind it. I suppose in a way this almost make this a relief. If SDiF hadn't gone down well no one would have made another attempt at such a thing for a very long time, perhaps ever. I'm not saying that theres another game around the corner that will cover matters this serious, but it's at least put an idea in peoples heads that wasn't there before, and it's certainly made me think about what makes a great game.
Quoted for truth. Whilst we need more serious games to prove to everyone we can DO serious stuff, failures would drive publishers away. Infinity Ward is the only dev that I'd trust with a project of this scope, and even then I don't know if it would be good.
Earlier reports from shacknews placed 6 Days as a Gears rip-off. It was an action game, not a documentary. Good thing Konami decided to drop it.