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A release date has been announced for the early access version of controversial tactical shooter Six Days in Fallujah.
The early access release date is on June 22, 2023 and will include four co-operative four player missions set in procedurally generated maps. In case you’re unfamiliar, the “highly realistic” tactical FPS is said to be based on true stories from the real life battle of Fallujah from which the game gets its name, and has been developed “with help from more than 100 Marines and Soldiers” who served in that conflict.
A lot of furore surrounding the game arose when it became apparent that the game is likely to ignore the documented tactics undertaken by the US military at the time, including the controversial use of white phosphorus as a weapon. Publisher Victura’s founder Peter Tamte however, refuted the idea that the game was making a political statement on the war. Back in 2021, he said “The only thing that I fear is that fundamentally, when we cut through everything, people’s objection here to Six Days in Fallujah is more of an objection to the Iraq War. We’ve made games about other wars, and real stories from other wars, that have not gotten the attention and have not gotten any sort of controversy. So fundamentally, people’s objection is to the Iraq War. I don’t think we should be a proxy for that particular battle.”
However, just a few days later, a fresh statement from the publisher claimed the game’s events were “inseparable from politics” after all, and claimed “We believe the stories of this generation’s sacrifices deserve to be told by the Marines, Soldiers and civilians who were there. We trust you will find the game —like the events it recreates— to be complex.”
The game was originally set to be released by Konami, until they cancelled the project in 2009. Tamte – whose original company Atomic Games went under following Konami’s withdrawal – would help restart the project in 2017 at his new publishing company Victura, bringing on Highwire Games as a developer, who themselves count the former Halo lead designer and audio director, Jaime Griesermer and Marty O’Donnell, as their creators.
Six Days in Fallujah arrives in early access on Steam on PC on June 22, 2023 and a full release is expected on both PC and consoles at some point in 2024.
