Legal Issues Arise for Bungie Due to Destiny 2’s Content Vaulting

Sure thing, here it goes:

—

So, Bungie’s been in the spotlight lately, right? But not just for their usual gaming antics. Apparently, there’s a bit of drama swirling around with their upcoming game, Marathon (which, by the way, the community seems to have all sorts of feels about). But this time, it’s not all about a game — it’s a lawsuit. Yep. A lawsuit.

Picture this: a writer named Matthew Kelsey Martineau — also goes by Caspar Cole, which is kind of a cool name if you ask me — is claiming Bungie lifted big ideas from his sci-fi tale. He had it up on this WordPress blog. Imagine cruising through your blog and BAM! a billion-dollar game studio is allegedly swiping your thoughts. Wild.

So, a bit of backstory here — this all ties into Destiny 2’s Red War and Curse of Osiris. Martineau says Bungie snagged stuff from his work. The lawsuit’s been kicking around since last October, and Bungie wanted it dismissed quicker than you can say “guilty pleasure.” But, plot twist, a judge told them, “Not so fast.”

Here’s the kicker: Bungie’s old content from those campaigns? Gone. Poof. Into their “Destiny Content Vault.” (Why do I feel like I’m talking about a magical treasure chest or something?) Anyways, Bungie gave the court playthrough videos from YouTube and, uh, some fan-made wiki pages. Judge wasn’t having it because, well, they’re not exactly official proof, right?

Now, Judge Susie Morgan laid it down in a 16-page epic. The gist? Without the actual game content, Bungie’s evidence is like, how do I put it? Flimsy. They couldn’t just hand over these YouTube vids and say, “Look, see!” Not surprisingly, the court was like, “Yeah, no.”

From what I hear, Bungie can’t even whip up a private build of the game with that old content. It’s like trying to piece together a jigsaw with pieces from five different puzzles. Utter chaos.

This whole ordeal kinda raises the stakes for Martineau, though. Turns out his claims about copyright infringement get to move forward. I find it oddly fascinating, this whole books-versus-games thing. Imagine the comparisons now. I mean, yeah, sure, the whole giant entity floating above Earth has been a sci-fi staple forever but still…

At first, I thought, “Eh, this lawsuit’s gonna fizzle out.” But now? It’s morphing into this beast of a legal battle — all because Bungie vaulted their old game stuff. Whether that vaulting was a genius move or a giant oopsie is another debate, but here we are.

In the end, I have this sneaky feeling Bungie might come out unscathed. But the fact that Martineau’s standing his ground? Definitely spices things up. Can’t wait to see what happens next. Stay tuned, folks, ’cause this saga is just warming up.