Bungie and sci-fi author settle lawsuit over alleged plagiarism of his old Wordpress stories for Destiny 2's launch campaign

In October 2024 a science fiction author, Matthew Kelsey Martineau, launched a lawsuit against Bungie focused on a Destiny 2 enemy faction: Martineau alleged that the game's Red Legion faction, the Red War storyline, and various other narrative beats were based on his stories from 2013-14, which had been published on a Wordpress blog.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about it, though, was that Bungie had since "vaulted" all of the Red Legion content in question, which is its term for removing stuff from the game. So after an attempt to have the case dismissed fell flat, Bungie's lawyers had to rely on submitting old fan videos from YouTube and Wiki links to make its case.

For his part, Martineau responded by expanding his claims, pulling in the Curse of Osiris expansion and recently trying to add the Destiny Grimoire Anthology books, arguing these contained even more ideas lifted from his original work.

Both sides have now agreed to settle the case, with a new court filing (obtained by The Game Post) citing a settlement conference held in front of Magistrate Judge North on November 12, 2025. The filing reads:

"A settlement conference was conducted on this date before the undersigned Magistrate Judge. Negotiations were successful and resulted in the settlement of all claims. The Court thanks counsel and the parties for their efforts in bringing this matter to an amicable resolution."

This was shortly followed by another filing, with Judge Susie Morgan ordering that "this action be and is hereby dismissed as to all parties" in the matter, with no costs awarded. There is a 60-day window for the settlement to be implemented, during which either side can reopen the case if things fall apart. The full legalese:

"The court having been advised that all parties have firmly agreed upon a compromise in this matter; it is ordered that this action be and is hereby dismissed as to all parties, without costs and without prejudice to the right, upon good cause shown, within sixty days, to reopen the action if the settlement is not consummated. In addition, the court specifically retains jurisdiction to enforce the settlement agreement if settlement is not consummated within sixty days."

This should be the end of the matter, though with no details of the settlement, no admissions of wrongdoing by either side, and no costs awarded… it is an unsatisfying one for outside observers. It seems absurd that Bungie's writers would have ripped off a random Wordpress blog for Destiny 2's blowout launch campaign. But it's not the first plagiarism scandal the studio has faced and Bungie, god love it, has enough problems without fire-fighting on these kinds of fronts. Not least digging Destiny 2 out of the doldrums after the disaster that has been the Edge of Fate expansion.

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