War Thunder developer Gaijin Entertainment has apologized after using the explosion from the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in key art for the World War 2 massively multiplayer online game.
A forum post from community manager magazine2 said Gaijin "accidentally" used the explosion as it was part of a reference pack used by its artists. The explosion, which killed all seven crew members of the Space Shuttle Challenger when the spacecraft broke apart 73 seconds after take-off, had a fairly distinct shape and was thus recognized by War Thunder players when used in the key art.
"Hey guys, we have accidentally used the explosion from the Challenger disaster in one of our key art images," magazine2 said. "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.
"We’ll be altering this artwork as soon as we can and will take measures to ensure that this doesn’t repeat again in the future." Gaijin didn't say what these changes would be and the image is still available on official channels.
This isn't the first time controversy pertaining to real world events has surrounded War Thunder, though it's usually in hot water due to real military documents leaking through its forums.
Documents related to the M2A2 Bradley Armoured Infantry Fighting Vehicle were posted on the forums in December 2023, for example, and while not legally classified, still contained in-depth details the military considers sensitive.
Another instance saw an image of the DTC10-125 Tungsten Penetrator alongside a technical document detailing its specifications appear in June 2022. That followed others on War Thunder's forums that revealed classified information on British Challenger 2 and French Leclerc main battle tanks.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
