Destiny 2's content sunsetting lands Bungie in tricky lawsuit situation

Amid the ongoing lawsuit against Bungie regarding copyright infringement for the early story campaign of Destiny 2, a US federal judge has now rejected a motion to dismiss. The reason cited was that the evidence submitted came in the form of third-party recreations like YouTube videos and the Destiny 2 wiki.

For those out of the loop, Bungie is currently facing a lawsuit filed back in 2024 by sci-fi writer Matthew Kelsey Martineau. As per the lawsuit, the company has been accusesd of stealing ideas from his old work and incorporated them in the game's story.

Martineau claims the Red War story campaign features a faction using War Beasts and Flamethrower-like objects, an idea he originally came up with. Bungie responded with a call for dismissal by submitting evidence in the form of YouTube videos and written content from a third-party wiki like Destinypedia.

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Court rejects Bungie’s attempt to dismiss lawsuit against Destiny 2

Bungie was required to provide evidence against the copyright lawsuit, and that having a similar plot to something doesn’t equate to copyright infringement. The problem is that the campaign cannot be accessed inside the game anymore.

Captured Traveler during Red War (Image via Bungie)

Older content from Destiny 2, like The Red War campaign, Forsaken, and multiple other expansions, has been sunset. This led the company to rely on lore videos on YouTube that documented the game's story and cinematics before the content vaulting.

The evidence, however, wasn’t enough to justify the motion to dismiss, mainly because the origin of these videos was from a third party.

“The Court will not consider the exhibits attached to Defendant’s motion to dismiss and will not convert the Defendant’s motion to dismiss to a motion for summary judgment. There has not been sufficient time for discovery, and the attachments are admittedly of third-party origination. Their authenticity has not been established,” the official response wrote.

Bungie’s reasoning behind the sunset was to reduce the game’s size and to keep the code manageable. Now that its submission has been rejected, fans woder what Bungie will do next.

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What was the community reaction to Bungie’s setback?

The content vaulting didn't bode well among Destiny 2 players. This was mostly because everyone paid for the content, which was getting removed permanently.

A general reaction was one of disbelief as people never really thought that Bungie, the developers behind the game, would not be able to provide proper evidence.

A few others called it karma, saying the content sunset was wrong and shouldn't have been done in the first place.