An author has sued the Sony-owned studio, claiming that the story of Destiny 2, or at least part of it, has been plagiarized.

Matthew Kelsey Martineau, who publishes under the name Caspar Cole, has filed a lawsuit against Bungie for copyright infringement, claiming that his work was copied by the studio and used to develop the Destiny 2 narrative. The lawsuit was filed on October 2 in the District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. According to Martineau, Destiny’s Red Legion is derived from, among other things, his writings published directly on WordPress between 2013 and 2014.

“Red Legion forms the backbone of the entire story that unfolds in the infringing Destiny 2 game. While Destiny 2 provides an immersive and engaging gameplay experience that keeps players on the edge of their seats, the game is based directly on Martineau’s source material,” the document reads. The lawsuit goes on to detail the alleged similarities between the two stories, claiming that Bungie intentionally copied his work without his consent and that he has suffered “substantial, immediate, and irreparable harm for which there is no adequate remedy.”

As part of the lawsuit, Martineau is demanding, among other things, that Bungie stop distributing material “substantially similar” to Destiny 2 and provide him with “an accounting for the sale of any products or services that infringe” his rights. The plaintiff is seeking damages for copyright and willful infringement and a trial by jury.

Since we are not familiar with Caspar Cole’s work, we are not sure if there is any basis for his claim. Bungie is not in a great state these days anyway, as we have heard that their next game, the Marathon reboot, was not in a very good situation and that the morale within the team is somewhere on the ground. On top of that, Sony has recently gone down in flames with Concord, which uses the live service model, so this puts Bungie and its new game in a very delicate situation.

It is an interesting case.

Source: Gamesindustry