Bungie addresses misuse of third-party accessibility devices in Destiny 2

Cheating is an issue that has been plaguing Destiny 2 for quite some time. While it doesn't have severe repercussions in the more casual PvE mode, it considerably ruins the overall gameplay experience in the shooter title's popular PvP mode, which boasts a rather healthy player base.

Over the past few years, Bungie has been doing their best to reduce the number of cheaters in the game and has done a commendable job at weeding out players using external software to gain an edge in combat. From what was seen in the recent This Week At Bungie (TWAB) blogpost, the developers are currently moving on to hardware peripherals.

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Will Bungie start banning Destiny 2 accounts that use hardware peripherals to gain an unfair advantage?

As of today, Bungie hasn't banned any Destiny 2 accounts for this reason yet, but they've updated the policy where they state that they will be taking action, including banning the account, if they determine that the player was using these kinds of devices to gain an unfair advantage:

"Bungie embraces the use of external accessibility aids that enable an experience the game designers intended but will take action, including bans, on people who abuse these tools specifically to gain an advantage over other players."

Additionally, they went on to clarify this statement by mentioning the following points:

1. The term "external accessibility aids" refers to devices that can enhance a player's performance and allows them to control the game more than what the game provides. These devices include programmable hardware peripherals like keyboards and controllers to name a few.
2. Using tools that removes the default difficulty in the game would be a violation of the policy because it takes away the "experience the game designers intended."

Numerous players are already excited about this announcement because cheaters have been plaguing Destiny 2 PvP for the longest time. It's generally believed that these hardware peripherals are used mostly in tandem with controllers. Although PvP lobbies aren't infested with cheaters after Bungie's previous ban wave, there are still a handful of people who use unfair means to gain the upper hand.

Interestingly, Bungie isn't the first video game company to make such a decision. Activision recently announced that they would be banning players from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 if they found accounts using hardware peripherals to gain an unfair advantage in the shooter.

Over the past few seasons, the PvP mode in Destiny 2 has been a pressure point for Bungie. Considering that the game has a dedicated playerbase for this particular mode, it's understandable why the developers are trying to make it fair and more accessible to everyone. In conclusion, Bungie stated that they were committed to creating an environment where everyone can easily access and play the game, while protecting their community at the same time.