Last year, writer Matthew Kelsey Martineau filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Bungie, claiming that the studio had stolen his work to create the story for Destiny 2.
Martineau claimed that Destiny 2's Red Legion was pulled straight from his work, which was published on WordPress in 2013 and 2014. Bungie responded with a motion to dismiss the case, saying (per TheGamePost) that Martineau's claim "failed to plausibly allege that Bungie copied constituent elements of Plaintiff's work that are original, and, specifically, that the Complaint fails to plausibly allege factual copying by Bungie and that the works incorporated by reference into the Complaint are not substantially similar as a matter of law."
Demonstrating that has become an issue, however, as TheGamePost reports that the court denied Bungie's dismissal claim because Bungie cannot provide the court with the original content from Destiny 2 to demonstrate the differences between Bungie and Martineau's work. Bungie can't provide the court with Destiny 2's original content because it was vaulted, and it's now incompatible with the modern-day version of Destiny 2.
Bungie game director Tyson Green described why Bungie can't provide the game's original content, clarifying that "the 'Red War' and 'Curse of Osiris' legacy builds can no longer run because their outdated code is incompatible with Destiny 2's underlying operational framework, which has evolved considerably since the 'Red War' and 'Curse of Osiris' campaigns were retired."
Unfortunately for Bungie, Green's statement wasn't enough for Judge Susie Morgan, who won't accept YouTube videos of the game's original content or wikis as admissible evidence.
"While Plaintiff does reference Destiny 2 in his complaint," Judge Morgan's dismissal decision reads, "he does not reference the YouTube videos containing Destiny 2 game footage, the Destinypedia pages, or the Tyson declaration."
Judge Morgan acknowledged that this is an extremely complicated copyright case and not typical compared to previous examples of copyright infringement, which also seems to be part of why the case is moving forward at all.
Vaulting content has never been popular with Destiny players, and while Bungie certainly has its reasons for doing so, those decisions are seemingly coming back to bite them in more ways than just facing the ire of players.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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