The rumors swirling around Call of Duty: Modern Warfare censorship might finally have been put to rest this week thanks to Infinity Ward director Taylor Kurosaki, who confirmed on Twitter (multiple times, in fact) that the game would not be censored due to the demands of people who haven't yet played it. The censorship debate was sparked last week when some fans took a quote about changing content out of context, assuming that the changes were being done because of feedback on Modern Warfare's visceral and unsettling content matter.
That claim was dismissed, and for better or worse, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's controversial child soldier section and other representations of delicate subject matter appeared to be moving forward as planned. Naturally, some critics have been concerned over Infinity Ward's ability to cover these topics, given that the franchise has had brushes with poor or offensive representations of real world subjects prior to this. Long-time players of the series will remember 2009's "No Russian" mission, a level that tasked players with gunning down civilians in an act of airport terrorism that's still discussed as one of the most problematic level designs ever featured in a shooter.
The critical backlash from that level was a decade ago, however, and Infinity Ward is confident the developer can handle broaching delicate subject matter now. Kurosaki went on record on Twitter earlier this week to dismiss yet another claim that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare censorship was coming, with a fan concerned over the possibility that the London terrorism mission that featured some brutal imagery would be removed from the game prior to launch. Kurosaki's reply was short and sweet:
Kurosaki also had a mature and well-reasoned response to a fan who suggested that some critics had deliberately created misleading headlines to milk controversy from the game, demonstrating the director's wealth of industry experience:
It does seem as though much of the controversy surrounding potential Call of Duty: Modern Warfare censorship has been accidentally manufactured not by any one malicious party, but rather a series of miscommunications that has ultimately landed on a much more drastic interpretation of a process Kurosaki refers to as simply continuing to finish and polish up the game. The London mission will likely be present in the final game, then, although the team has been playing coy about exactly what has been changed during recent development of Modern Warfare, likely to avoid generating any unintentional backlash.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare censorship might not exist, but the controversy certainly does. No matter what happens when the game launches, there will be an air of political debate surrounding it. Will the acts of terrorism in the game accurately reflect real-world attacks? If not, is the game censored? If so, is it too realistic? Infinity Ward knows what its doing by inviting these questions, and we'll see if the spotlight is too harsh for one of the most-anticipated Call of Duty titles in recent memory when it launches on October 25, 2019.
Source: Taylor Kurosaki/Twitter