Publisher pulls ‘Fallujah’ game

NEW YORK – The publisher behind a video game based on one of the Iraq war’s fiercest battles has pulled the plug on the title, called “Six Days in Fallujah.”

A spokeswoman for Japanese game company Konami Corp. confirmed Tuesday the company is no longer publishing the game, which was set to go on sale early next year.

The game, which was still in development, sought to re-create the November 2004 Fallujah battle from the perspective of a U.S. Marine fighting against insurgents. Fallujah had been an insurgent holdout until U.S. forces stormed it in one of the war’s most intense ground battles.

“Six Days” was developed by another company, Atomic Games, with input from more than three dozen Marines. Before deciding not to publish the game, Konami had advertised it as a realistic shooting game “unlike any other,” combining “authentic weaponry, missions and combat set against the gripping story of the U.S. Marines on the ground.”

But the game was criticized by some veterans, victims’ families and others who called it inappropriate.