Video game developers are apologizing after a photo documenting a great American tragedy made its way into promotional artwork and was noticed by eagle-eyed gamers.
A Reddit user was among the first to notice a familiar explosion on the art used in an update for Gaijin Entertainment's combat simulator "War Thunder."
"What did Gaijin mean by this?" Reddit user abacs21 posted Saturday, posting a picture of the artwork with the explosion circled. Those familiar with the failure of the Space Shuttle Challenger mission will immediately recognize it.
The picture, seen below, makes up part of the background in a high-action scene showing a jet warplane firing a missile.
Wtf Gaijin??
Not Challenger shuttle disaster pic.twitter.com/3kaI6487zQ
— FriendlyFrench Boi (@FrenlyFrenchBoi) June 23, 2024
The Challenger and its American crew were not downed by a missile.
NASA's archive on the Challenger accident documented the national tragedy.
"On January 28, 1986," the agency's post read, "NASA and the American people were rocked as tragedy unfolded 73 seconds into the flight of Space Shuttle Challenger's STS-51L mission. "
All seven crewmembers died in the flight's explosion as it disintegrated before it could exit the atmosphere.
According to a report by the Rogers Commission, a group tasked by then-President Ronald Reagan, the cause of the explosion was a "failure in the joint between the two lower segments of the right Solid Rocket Motor."
A famous photo of the incident shows a cloud of smoke and debris immediately following the explosion. This was the photo chosen for use by Gaijin.
Outrage over the explosion's abhorrent inclusion in "War Thunder" materials soon exploded on the game's official forums.
User TheMightyAltroll uploaded the promotional materials with a comparison photo of the Challenger disaster. One of Gaijin's community managers, going by the username magazine2, responded.
"Hey guys," the Gaijin team member wrote, "we have accidentally used the explosion from the Challenger disaster in one of our key art images."
"Please accept our sincere apologies for this, the picture was part of an aerial explosion reference pack used by our artists and the context was lost."
The community manager assured users this sort of disrespect wouldn't occur in the future.
"We'll be altering this artwork as soon as we can," he wrote, "and will take measures to ensure that this doesn’t repeat again in the future."
Do you believe him?
