A copyright infringement suit against Destiny 2 developer Bungie is moving ahead, due to a recent court decision that rejected Bungie’s motion to have the suit dismissed.
The suit, originally filed in October 2023 by author Matthew Kelsey Martineau—who writes under the pseudonym Caspar Cole—accuses Bungie of taking elements from his own science fiction work for use in Destiny 2’s Red War campaign. That story was part of the game’s release but has since been removed through the game’s vaulting system.
In December, Bungie filed to have the suit dismissed, saying Martineau’s claims were too vague to be legally actionable. The studio also presented fan-made YouTube videos and wiki entries as evidence to suggest the contested narrative elements were in broad circulation and not specific to Martineau’s work.
However, Judge Susie Morgan rejected Bungie’s arguments last week. She ruled that third-party material like videos and fan wikis aren’t sufficient to present a firm legal comparison of Martineau’s work and Destiny 2’s Red War content. Bungie had explained it couldn’t produce its own original build of the Red War campaign due to technical incompatibilities caused by it being stripped from the game.
Judge Morgan noted that because Bungie’s evidence provided was not first-party and Martineau’s complaint quoted only Destiny 2 itself, the motion to dismiss was unnecessary. Additionally, she said that Martineau’s lawsuit did sufficiently allege two of the significant legal requirements: that Bungie had access to his work and that there are substantial similarities between his writing and the game’s story—factually copying being possible.
As of yet, no court date has been set, and it may be months before there are further developments. However, the case will now go forward, which is a significant step in Martineau’s case against Bungie.