Bungie and its flagship title, Destiny 2, continue to be an ongoing topic of discussion amongst the gaming community. A string of major lawsuits have been issued by Bungie, and the company continues to pursue legal action against game harassers and cheaters. Bungie's own lawyer decided to share insight into the matter and how it may affect the player community of Destiny 2.
Bungie has been aggressive with legal efforts since summer 2021, which saw the company file five lawsuits against Destiny 2 cheat software makers and sellers. Ubisoft joined the legal battle to aid Bungie since the same cheat group, Ring-1, was targeting Rainbow Six Siege with distribution of cheat software. 2022 has been a relentless year for Bungie as the company sued a player involved in roughly 100 fraudulent YouTube copyright takedowns against Destiny 2 content creators. This summer, Bungie also sued a player who sold game items in violation of copyright and constantly threatened to burn down the studio.
Axios spoke with Bungie general counsel Don McGowan to learn about Bungie's legal tactics and aggressiveness toward cheaters, harassers, and abusers. Bungie's efforts are part of a legal strategy to strengthen and improve its player community according to McGowan. Removing harassment and abuse from the community would be good business for Bungie and would reopen avenues of communication with its player base. Bungie recently dialed back communications with fans across social media due to bad actors and harassers of employees.
"This is an issue that impacts many studios across the industry, and it is critical to deal with it to maintain a healthy and happy community that wants to play your game," McGowan said. "We believe very strongly that most people do not want to be in communities where cheating or harassment is allowed to thrive. Tolerating bad actors chases away a lot of people who would like to enjoy our products." McGowan implies that more lawsuits could be filed, adding the parenthetical "so far" when recounting the amount of lawsuits to Axios.
Bungie wants to protect its online community and fight back against potential bad actors that could ruin the experience of playing Destiny 2. Bungie's actions are necessary toward ensuring an even playing field in Destiny 2 and future Bungie games. Unfortunately, McGowan says other major companies are willing to avoid lawsuits because of uncertainty around identifying online perpetrators or the inability to recover from the costs of pursuing legal action.
These legal actions set an example and a warning for those who want cheat and harass other players within Bungie's games. Major publishers should work together to ensure more action is taken to protect its online community and dissuade more people from committing wrongdoings. The future of Destiny 2 and other online games may be even brighter with Bungie's actions this past year.
Source: Axios