Suppose you’re a Bungie fan or just someone who plays Destiny 2. In that case, you’re probably already aware of the Bungie-Leaker debacle, which hit social media a few days ago. The story has been growing and expanding faster than me in my 30s, but if you’ve missed it, here is the breakdown.
As Bungie has been preparing for Destiny 2’s upcoming Season 21, which is planned for a late May launch, many leaks regarding changes and new content have emerged. This caused Bungie to head over to social media a few days ago and acknowledge the leaks while claiming to know who is responsible: -a well-known community member who claims to be innocent.
According to Bungie, the story is that the person behind the leaks was a content creator who had been invited to a private summit event to preview upcoming changes to the game and is now leaking this information to the world. It was also strongly implied that this breach of creator/content creator trust will have significant ramifications for how information is shared with the community in the future.
Community interaction and engagement is central to Bungie and our games. For years, we've invited creators and other members of the community to confidential summits to provide feedback on the future of Destiny. This is a beloved part of the process, but relies heavily on trust.
— Destiny 2 Team (@Destiny2Team) April 14, 2023
“Community interaction and engagement is central to Bungie and our games. For years, we’ve invited creators and other members of the community to confidential summits to provide feedback on the future of Destiny. This is a beloved part of the process, but relies heavily on trust. Breaches of this trust could result in our inability to hold more summits. We take these breaches extremely seriously and are taking actions to reinforce our policies with those invited to these internal meetings”.
But anyone who watches true crime knows there are always two sides to even the most simple stories. The well-known streamer in the Destiny 2 community, Ekuegan, has his own tale to tell. According to Ekuegan, he is indeed the one being accused of being the leaker by Bungie behind closed doors.
In a series of Tweets from Ekuegan, he said: I did not leak anything. All I know is that the company made a huge mistake, and I will clear my name. I am working on it. It was a great run, indeed. Much love.
Ekuegan also confirmed that he did attend the summit in question and has since been banned from the game. However, Bungie confirmed they would not take legal action for breaking his non-disclosure agreement.
According to Ekuegan, Bungie’s evidence against him centres around the leaked photos matching his computer desktop. However, Bungie hasn’t come forward to confirm or deny this claim.
All I know is, that company made a huge mistake and I will clear my name. I am working on it, Don't worry < I see the real ones on the tags. My head is held high, I had a nature day today and man getting off the internet felt great.
— G1 EK (@Ekuegan) April 17, 2023
Since Ekuegan’s Tweets, Bungie has come forward again. Although they still have yet to call Ekuegan out publicly, they have said that they have irrefutable evidence of what happened and claim that the leaker has been sharing information for multiple years.
“Our Security and Legal teams have reviewed irrefutable evidence, including video recordings, verified messages, and images demonstrating a pattern over time that confirm the same individual shared confidential information from Community Summits spanning multiple years. We are very disappointed to have learned this information and wish that things had gone differently with this person. We do not take these actions lightly, and we are confident in our decision.”
As of this morning, Bungie has gone on Twitter to state they won’t address the situation further. Only time will tell if Ekuegan is innocent or if he’s been pulling a fast one for years already with no one but Bungie noticing.