Bungie Files Lawsuit Against 'Destiny 2' Player Over Death Threats

Game company Bungie has filed a lawsuit against a Destiny 2 player for repeatedly cheating, evading bans, and making threats against Bungie and its employees, GamesRadar+ reports.

Filed on 15 July, the lawsuit alleges that Luca Leone had tweeted that he wanted to to “burn down” Bungie’s office, and had claimed that some employees were “not safe”, as he planned to move to their neighbourhood. It also states that he allegedly created 13 different accounts to play Destiny 2, in order to evade the bans placed on him for cheating.

One of the alleged threatening incidents detailed in the lawsuit took place in May this year, when Leone tweeted out a picture of Bungie community manager Dylan Gafner’s employee badge. In a series of replies to the tweet, Leone said “[I] just [realised I’ll] be moving to a place that's 30 minutes away from dmg [Gafner]”, and that “he is not safe”. Apparently, Leone later confirmed that he had moved to Washington, and in a Twitter interaction said he’d be willing to commit arson at a discount “if it’s [Bungie HQ]”. 

Furthermore, Bungie alleges that “Leone infringed Bungie’s copyright in Destiny 2 as an audiovisual work each time that he used cheat software to create an [unauthorised] derivative work of Destiny 2”, and as such, the company “is entitled to statutory damages of $150,000 for each copyrighted work infringed”. 

Bungie has asked the court to have Leone “be preliminarily and permanently enjoined from harassing, stalking, or otherwise engaging in unwanted or unsolicited contact with Bungie, its employees, or Destiny 2 players”, and request “an award to Bungie of restitution and damages, including, but not limited to, compensatory, statutory, punitive damages, and all other damages permitted by law”.

Recently, Nintendo also sent a Switch hacker to prison, apparently describing it as a “unique opportunity” to send a message to other hackers: “This is a very significant moment for us, Nintendo’s lawyer Ajay Singh said at the time. “It’s the purchase of video games that sustains Nintendo and the Nintendo ecosystem, and it is the games that make the people smile. It’s for that reason that we do all we can to prevent games on Nintendo systems from being stolen.”