Six Days in Fallujah, an early access game about the second battle for Fallujah during the Iraq War, has been the topic of controversy since development started in 2005. Head of publisher Victura, Peter Tamte, has previously gone on the record to say the game would not delve into the U.S. armed forces’ use of white phosphorous. But recent comments provided to Dot Esports now say otherwise.
During research for another article, Dot Esports reached out to Victura and received new comments from Tamte himself on future plans for the co-op military FPS. Six Days launched in early access on June 22, 2023, and currently “covers only a very small slice of the story [it] plan[s] to tell.”
At the moment, the game includes several co-op missions where you take on the role of a U.S. Marine and clear buildings of insurgents in battle-stricken Fallujah. We’ve previously been told Six Days will include a story mode with missions narrated by real U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians, but for now, this is what we have.
“Before we can talk about white phosphorous, we need players to understand why the battle happened and what their mission will be,” Tamte’s comment reads. “We’ll deal with white phosphorous, and many, many other topics, once we get to these points in the story.”
This comment is contrary to earlier ones made by Tamte that Six Days would not include depictions of the incendiary weapon. “I don’t think we need to portray the atrocities,” Tamte said to GamesIndistry.biz back in 2021. Now, he’s telling us Six Days will indeed “deal with white phosphorous” at some point in its future.
This reversal should be taken with a pinch of salt as video games often fail to deliver on promises—looking at you, canceled Overwatch 2 PvE mode. Still, if Six Days does delve into the more controversial aspects of the war rather than avoiding a political commentary, it could win back a lot of favor from people who previously doubted the need for yet another war game where the U.S. invades the Middle East.
Updated July 14, 5:04am CT: The previous version of this article attributed the comments to PR company Neohype, but the comments are actually direct from head of Victura, Peter Tamte.
