Six Days in Fallujah, the controversial first-person military shooter game, has been delayed to Q4 2022. Publisher Victura and developer Highwire Games announced the delay on Wednesday in a blog, saying the development team planned to double in size.
Six Days in Fallujah was first announced in 2009, originally planned to publish under Konami. Ensuing controversy resulted in the game being shelved in 2016 until February 2021 after Highwire Games took over development. The game follows U.S. soldiers through the Second Battle of Fallujah, a controversial battle during the Iraq War, in which at least 800 Iraqi civilians died at the hands of U.S. and British troops.
As outlined in IGN's special report on Six Days in Fallujah, the game became the subject of controversy again immediately after its reboot was announced in February 2021. This was in part due to the inherently sensitive nature of adapting a highly controversial real-life battle for a video game, as well as concerns about a lack of representation of Iraqi or Arab citizens in the game beyond being faceless enemies to shoot.
Six Days in Fallujah's official website says that the game was developed with help from more than 100 Marines, soldiers, and Iraqi citizens and that the game aims to "give players a deeper understanding of urban warfare through the stories and struggles of both service-members and civilians," though preview footage scarcely seems to depict the Iraqi civilian perspective.
Back in February, Victura CEO Peter Tamte said Six Days in Fallujah is not attempting to "make a political commentary about whether or not the war itself was a good or a bad idea,” and "will not grapple with the political machinations that led to the titular conflict."
Tamte later walked back his comments in March, saying “anybody making a game about the Iraq War obviously understands these events are intertwined with politics. What we’ve said is that we’re not trying to make a statement about how the war in Iraq began. Instead, we are focused on this battle, the events that led up to this battle, and we want the people who were in Fallujah during this battle to speak for themselves through the game."
Six Days in Fallujah was originally planned to release in December. The new delay means that it will release sometime between October and December 2022. It is currently scheduled for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.