A judge has ruled that a copyright lawsuit concerning Destiny 2 will go ahead despite Bungie’s attempts to have the case dismissed.
In 2024, science fiction writer Matthew Martineau, known under the pen name Casper Cole, filed a lawsuit against the developer, alleging that Destiny 2’s original Red War campaign plagiarized portions of his unpublished WordPress writings.
In the initial filing, Bungie’s head of engineering, David Aldridge, stated that the campaign in question “could no longer run because its outdated code” was incompatible with the current live version of Destiny 2 and therefore couldn’t be submitted for side-by-side comparison with Martineau’s material.
The Red War campaign was removed from Destiny 2 with the release of its Beyond Light expansion in November 2020.
Bungie submitted user-uploaded YouTube compilations and pages from the Destinypedia Wiki as an alternative, although these have been subsequently declined.
Martineau alleged that Destiny 2’s Red War campaign and his original work were “substantially similar”.
Judge denies request for dismissal
In court documents obtained by The Game Post, a Louisiana judge declined Bungie’s motion to dismiss the case on May 2.
The 16-page filing ruled that, as YouTube videos and other materials were considered third-party, unverified, and not specifically mentioned by Martineau, they weren’t submissible or considered a relevant substitute for the source material.
“The court will not consider exhibits attached to Defendant’s motion to dismiss,” the summary read, adding, “There has not been sufficient time for discovery and the attachments are admittedly of third-party origination. Their authenticity has not been established.”
Of the YouTube videos submitted by Bungie, Martineau described them as “merely snippets of third-party derivative works that cannot be substituted for the actual infringing Destiny 2 game,” and Destinypedia excerpts as “the work of anonymous Destiny fans randomly uploaded to a third-party site.”
It’s unclear what the next steps are from here. Martineau’s allegations remain sufficient enough to continue his claim for copyright infringement.
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