Destiny 2’s unpopular removal of older game content now hampering Bungie’s ability to defend plagiarism lawsuit
Bungie has failed to dismiss a lawsuit which alleges it plagiarised elements of Destiny 2’s original campaign from a sci-fi story posted online.
A US federal judge has now ruled that the lawsuit should continue, as Bungie has been unable to provide satisfactory evidence to have the case tossed out.
That evidence could have been a working copy of Destiny 2 featuring the game’s original story campaign, but this – alongside many other, older parts of the game – are no longer playable, having been excised and relegated to Bungie’s controversial content “vault”.
“Defendant [Bungie] has admitted it cannot produce the entirety of the relevant form of Destiny 2 for the court’s review,” Judge Susie Morgan wrote, revealing that the developer had instead been forced to provide YouTube videos and pages from a fan Wiki, Destinypedia, as evidence instead.
“As Defendant admits in its reply, ‘[t]here is now no feasible way for [Defendant] to provide the Court with a reviewable form of the [Red War or Osiris] campaigns or to produce them should this matter proceed to discovery’,” Morgan continued. “Defendant does not explain how the Court would conduct a side-by-side analysis if it does not have Destiny 2.”
Regardless of the plagiarism claim’s veracity, the case cannot now be dismissed at this stage due to a lack of proper evidence, Morgan decided.
Bungie removed swathes of content from Destiny 2 over the course of several years, including its base Red War campaign, Curse of Osiris and Warmind DLCs, plus its popular Forsaken expansion. Half a dozen planet locations were part of this cull, which saw raids, strike missions and more than a dozen multiplayer maps cut.
The developer said it had been necessary to remove parts of the game – as well as expansions which fans had subsequently also paid for – to keep Destiny 2 at a manageable size. The process was not popular with fans, and ultimately was dropped.
Bungie is currently defending itself from a lawsuit by Matthew Kelsey Martineau, a writer who claims he published a sci-fi story on WordPress during the time Destiny 2 was being developed.
Martineau claims his story featured an invading military force known as the Red Legion attacking Earth, prominently using flamethrowers. A key goal of this Red Legion was to capture Tononob Station, “a massive celestial entity hovering above Earth that houses valuable assets”, in order to dominate the planet.
Bungie’s original Destiny 2 campaign featured an invading military force known as the Red Legion attacking Earth, prominently using flamethrowers. A key goal of this Red Legion was to capture The Traveller, a massive celestial entity hovering above Earth housing mysterious powers, in order to dominate the planet. (Or I think it did, I haven’t been able to play the campaign for several years.)
Destiny 2’s climactic The Final Shape expansion launched last summer, bringing to a close 10 years of storytelling, but the game continues to receive new content even as Bungie readies Marathon for launch. Tonight, Bungie will reveal its plans for the next year of Destiny 2, in a livestream set to begin at 5pm UK time.
