War game tops sales charts

Virtual warfare: ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’ features a fictional North Korean invasion of South Korea. – Photo taken from social media

The latest instalment of the Call of Duty video game franchise, featuring a full-scale North Korean invasion of South Korea, has topped sales charts in the would-be target, even as real-life border tensions are ratcheting higher.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, the latest edition of the globally- popular franchise is set against a backdrop of tensions between the United States and Russia.

Its Friday release comes on the heels of an explosion inside the heavily-fortified Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that injured three South Korean soldiers, further straining ties on the peninsula.

The game follows several parallel storylines: a squad of young American and South Korean soldiers fighting for survival, a former serviceman driven by rev­enge and a power struggle surrounding a new North Korean leader – a character players can also take on.

The new edition has generated considerable interest in South Korea, where able-bodied men are required to serve between 18 and 21 months in the military, depending on the branch.

The title has topped both the global and South Korean sales charts on Steam, one of the world’s largest digital distribution platforms for PC games.

The campaign begins with a surprise invasion of South Korea by North Korean forces, who deploy paratroopers and infiltrate through an underground tun­nel to catch South Korean and US troops off guard.

In reality, the US stations about 28,000 troops in South Korea to help deter the nuclear-armed North. Seoul and Pyongyang are technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Reactions among South Korean gamers have been largely positive, with some posting hashtags featuring a Korean slogan mea­n­ing “exterminate communism” on social media and others saying they were consi­dering upgrading their compu­ters or buying new consoles to play the title.

“I cried so much playing the game to a point I almost got dehydrated. It reminds me so much of my grandfather, who fought in the Korean War,” a Threads user with the handle b_yeol_t said. — AFP