Controversial shooter Six Days in Fallujah launches in June on PC

Six Days at Fallujah, the controversial tactical shooter video game set in one of the bloodiest operations of the Iraq War almost 20 years ago, got a surprise launch date on Wednesday — June 22. It’s an early access release for Windows PC via Steam.

Launched on the 22nd of June, four cooperative missions for four players will be available. “These missions are set in urban maps that are generated procedurally every time the game is played, to recreate the uncertainty of combat, along with unlimited replayability,” developer Highwire Games and publisher Victura said in a statement.

The trailer that was released on Wednesday illustrates Six Days at Fallujah’s gameplay with voiceovers from U.S. military personnel who saw combat there. The trailer notes that the operation it represents — the Second Battle of Fallujah, in November 2004 — was “the largest urban assault since 1968,” meaning the Tet Offensive begun by the North Vietnamese army that year.

Players will be able to play “cooperatively as special operations or Iraqi soldiers fighting alongside coalition forces, and players will begin to encounter civilians as the battle progresses,” Victura said in the statement. Additional cooperative missions are planned for the early access period, including “story campaign missions recreating real stories from the Second Battle of Fallujah from the perspective of both coalition forces and Iraqi civilians.”

The door-to-door combat in Iraq was a brutal affair. Not only did many civilians die (the International Red Cross tallied 800), but the experience still has a lasting impact on many U.S. Marines and soldiers who were there. Six Days at Fallujah In 2009, Atomic Games proposed a project with Konami. It was attacked in media outlets and Konami backed out. Atomic Games filed for bankruptcy two years after.

Highwire Games acquired the project in 2020. The studio was founded by Jaime Griesemer, game designer for the Halo and Infamous franchises; Highwire’s developers also include Jared Noftle, co-founder of Airtight Games (Murdered: Soul Suspect, Dark Void); Marty O’Donnell, audio director and composer on the Halo and Destiny franchise; as well as several former design director, character, vehicle, and weapon artists from Bungie.

Peter Tamte was the founder of Victura. A former Vice President of Bungie Studios, Tamte was involved in both versions of Six Days at Fallujah.