Controversial shooter Six Days in Fallujah is released after 12 years

Six Days in Fallujah is coming to consoles and PC this year, twelve years after its initial announcement. The shooter was announced in 2009 but was dropped by publisher Konami shortly after. The third-person shooter was criticized for realistically portraying the war in Iraq.

Developer Highwire Games says it has picked up the development of the game and turned it into an fps. The developer says that the game has been developing over the past three years and uses ‘unique technologies and game mechanics’ for this. Six Days in Fallujah is set to become the “most authentic military shooter” ever, according to Highwire Games.

The game centers on the Second Battle of Fallujah, which began in 2004 when Al Qaeda took the city. According to the developer, that battle was the most difficult conflict for Western armed forces since 1968. The game teams up with veterans who were involved in the battle and the larger war. One of those veterans says he hopes the game will help players better understand what war is like in reality. More than a hundred soldiers and Iraqi civilians have shared their stories, photos and videos with the developer. The game will be a mix of gameplay and documentary-style interviews.

The game was first announced in 2009, when Atomic Games was still the developer. In the original game, players would use tactics like the American soldiers used in Iraq. Soldiers did not always choose to invade a house, according to Atomic Games, but also used bulldozers or bombs from aircraft to destroy houses. At the time, the developer said that the game would be released in 2010 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Shortly afterwards, however, publisher Konami announced that it no longer wanted to publish the game due to the reactions to the game. Particularly from the United States, criticism of the realism came into play, partly because of the aforementioned examples where soldiers chose to destroy houses. Atomic Games went bankrupt in 2011 without ever releasing the game.

The game’s new publisher, Victura, was founded in 2016 by former Atomic Games CEO Peter Tamte. The publisher was founded with the idea to re-release Six Days in Fallujah, “along with other games based on real stories.” Developer Highwire Games has “many” ex-Bungie employees who worked on the original Halo and Destiny games. It is not known when in 2021 and for which consoles Six Days in Fallujah should be released.