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Last October a science fiction author, Matthew Kelsey Martineau, launched a lawsuit against Bungie focused on a Destiny 2 enemy faction, the Red Legion, which Martineau alleges is based on work from his WordPress blog (Thanks, GameFile). Naturally something on the scale of Destiny 2 faces all sorts of speculative lawsuits, and this didn’t seem something that should’ve unduly troubled Bungie’s lawyers: Except for the fact that the content in question no longer exists in the game.
Bungie’s response to the suit was filed in December, and airily dismisses all of Martineau’s claims, but the interesting aspect is that those claims relate to the original Destiny 2 campaign, which is about a war against the Red Legion. This campaign was subsequently “vaulted”, Bungie’s preferred term for removing content from the game, and is now unavailable to play.
So the lawyers had to rely on the game’s own fans in order to prove their points about the content in question to the court. Bungie’s response to the Martineau lawsuit explains that the studio can’t submit a copy of the game to the court in order to show the Red Legion storyline because:
“(1) Destiny 2’s narrative is only available to players in the form of a live-service video game that has changed significantly over time, and (2) physical copies of Destiny 2, and any 2017 version of Destiny 2, are no longer available, the attached videos are the best possible way for the Court to review the accused work.”
Bungie’s lawyers then, with all the chutzpah in the world, submitted a ten hour lore video by YouTuber MynameisByf, titled “The Complete Story of Destiny! From Origins to Final Shape! Light & Dark Saga Lore & Timeline.” One can only imagine the judge’s delight. This was Exhibit B, and accompanied by Exhibit C from YouTuber DestinL, which is the more straightforward “Destiny 2: The Red War All Cutscenes (Season 1)“.
Bungie said it would stop vaulting Destiny 2 content in 2022 but, despite restoring some key elements including raids, did not restore everything it had previously handled like this. Amusing as it is that Bungie now has to rely on content that’s been properly archived by fans, this is a good illustration of the law of unintended consequences, and will certainly be making other live service companies sit up and pay attention: Whatever euphemism they may choose to apply to it, making older content inaccessible in-game can come back to bite them in the Red Legion.
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Kurt Indovina
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