A lawsuit filed against Bungie alleging the developer used copyrighted ideas in Destiny 2 just got more complicated, as a federal judge has rejected Bungie’s attempt to have the case dismissed and ruled that evidence submitted by Bungie in the form of fan-made YouTube videos and wiki pages aren’t acceptable.
The lawsuit filed by author Matthew Kelsey Martineau in late 2024 accuses Bungie of allegedly copying various ideas from their work, including Destiny 2’s Red Legion faction and other elements like a giant celestial object hovering over Earth.
Bungie sought to have the case dismissed but has run into a strange problem. Many of the ideas Martineau cited as being accused of copyright, specifically Destiny 2’s original Red War campaign and its Curse of Osiris campaign, haven’t been playable for years. They’ve been removed from Destiny 2 as part of Bungie’s “vaulting” process that sees the developer occasionally remove older content from the game. That led to Bungie including YouTube lore videos in its motion to dismiss the case (like a one a 10-hour-long “Complete Story of Destiny” video from YouTuber My Name is Byf) as well as wiki pages from Destinypedia in order to show the differences between Destiny 2 and Martineau’s work.
In a declaration included as part of Bungie’s attempt to dismiss the case, Destiny 2 game director Tyson Green explained that the Red War and Curse of Osiris campaigns “can no longer run because their outdated code is incompatible with Destiny 2’s underlying operational framework,” hence the studio’s use of YouTube videos and wiki pages.
“As a result, Bungie cannot feasibly provide the Court with the original Destiny 2 game as it existed in 2017, including the accused ‘Red War’ and ‘Curse of Osiris’ campaigns, in any operable or reviewable form,” Green said. “Nor will Bungie be able to produce the accused campaigns in operable or reviewable form if this matter proceeds to formal discovery.”
That is, however, what’s happening. The judge overseeing the case said there is sufficient evidence to proceed with the copyright infringement case and that it will not consider YouTube videos and wiki pages as acceptable on Bungie’s part, as they originate from a third-party and their “authenticity” has not been established. The judge also stated that the cases Bungie cited in its motion to dismiss are not applicable to this specific case, and that the case “would require a much more complicated side-by-side analysis than those conducted in the caselaw cited by Defendant.”
Bungie will reveal Destiny 2’s next expansion, The Edge of Fate, during an upcoming livestream on May 6. Meanwhile, Bungie’s new game, Marathon, recently held a closed Alpha test and is slated to release on September 23.
