The last twelve months has been a busy time for Bungie's legal department as the studio is stepping up its fight against cheaters and serial harassers playing Destiny 2. Multiple cheat creators have already been taken down by lawsuits, such as Ring-1 and Elite Boss Tech, while the several lawsuits against allegedly toxic players are either pending or currently in court for harassing members of the development team. It doesn't appear Bungie is slowing down as another allegedly toxic streamer has been hit with a lawsuit after threatening multiple times to burn down the studio itself.
The Destiny 2 streamer in question here isTwitch streamer Luca "miffysworld" Leone, who has already developed a notorious reputation in the game's community as a repeated cheater. According to RetBit, Leone has already been hit with 13 bans from Bungie in 2022 for repeated violations, including using "sock-puppet accounts" to work around bans and posting videos of him actively cheating in-game.
However, the straw which appears to have broken Bungie's back are multiple alleged threats Leone has made toward the studio and several members of the development team in recent months. Bungie said in its filing Leone repeatedly threatened to "burn down" the studio's main office building in Washington State in response to the repeated bans. The filing adds Leone said he intended to move into the surrounding neighborhoods with the intent of going after specific members of the development team who Leone allegedly said were "not safe" at home.
Leone has not responded to the lawsuit, as of the time of this writing, and has deleted his Twitter account, which is where the alleged threats were posted. If Bungie wins the lawsuit, Leone will have to pay $150,000 for each copyright infringement and $2,500 for each time Leone was found to be using cheat software. Bungie is also asking the court that Leone be "permanently enjoined" from making further threats against the studio and its developers.
As mentioned above, the lawsuit against Leone is the latest in a long streak of lawsuits Bungie has filed to directly combat toxic players and behavior plaguing Destiny 2. The nature of the lawsuit makes it one of the bigger filings from the studio in 2022, though, as none of the other defendants allegedly threatened the studio in the way Leone is accused of. Previously, Bungie's arguably highest-profile lawsuit was filed in March 2022 against users allegedly responsible for a wave of DMCA strikes against Destiny 2 creators.
The timing also couldn't be worse for Leone as PlayStation's $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie recently closed, making the studio officially part of PlayStation Studios. It means, if it wants to, Bungie could request legal resources from PlayStation to help with this and other lawsuits.
Destiny 2 is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: RetBit