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24 March 2022
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This Week at Bungie - 3/24/2022

This week at Bungie, we are saying thank you to our generous community for all their incredible contributions to this year's Game2Give charity initiative with the Bungie Foundation. We're also offering some clarity into our Terms of Service regarding in-game behaviors and talking about a recent wave of strikes against the Destiny 2 content creator community (and in an odd twist of events, even our own official channels).

A lighter TWAB this week, but no less important. This week, we're wanting to dive a little deeper into our recent Game2Give charity initiative with the Bungie Foundation, which donated all proceeds from the first 48 hours to Ukrainian relief efforts, while also doing some good for kids in need and a variety of other Light-worthy initiatives. It was another great year, despite being all-virtual again, filled with good times, a giant wheel that made Cozmo's arm much stronger after so many spins, and some awkward dancing with wigs from our dev team. We also saw Guardians from all over the world heed the call and contributed their own communities for a good cause, which provided lasting memories to cherish for a lifetime while also giving back to the world that we call home.

Ready for this week's TWAB?

Roll the clip! (Um, and by that, we mean read onto the next section)

Doing a Little Good, One Light at a Time

Another year, another great opportunity to continue the good work of the Bungie Foundation for this year's Game2Give charity initiative. This year, the community banded together once more to raise hype and funds for a variety of good causes, including Ukrainian humanitarian efforts (you can learn more about that here), children's hospitals, and even rehabilitation for veterans reintegrating into the civilian world. As a vet myself, this was something I was not personally aware of before joining the team, and I was ecstatic for yet another reason to support the continued efforts of this organization. But it's not about me, it's about you and the work that we've done together to make the world just a smidge bit better for all.

From a spinning wheel filled to the brim with prizes, to an inside look inside some of Destiny's best content, this year's Game2Give event ended on a high note. "How high?" you may be wondering. We've got the Bungie Foundation here to break it all down:

Bungie Foundation: Wow! We are completely blown away by the generosity you all showed throughout the Game2Give fundraising campaign in support of the Bungie Foundation's charitable pillars of children's health and wellbeing, humanitarian aid, and inclusion, diversity, and equity.

Thanks to all of you, Game2Give has raised a record amount of $2,011,025! We reached this incredible amount of funding because of the 38,500+ donors and 575 fundraisers who supported across 103 countries. To say this was a true global Guardian initiative is an understatement!

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for showing us once again how truly special the Bungie community is through your care and compassion for those in need around the world.

Countries from all over the world participated in the latest charity drive, showing the true power of what the gaming community is capable of. Together, we were able to provide emotional and social support to more than 100,000 children through entertainment and iPad goodness. Together, we've sent medical aid to Ukraine during a time of immense crisis. And together, we've helped diverse youth get the education they want in STEM fields and efforts to reduce racism in the world of game development. Together, we should be proud. If you listen closely, you may even hear Shaxx screaming in victory for all these accomplishments; making our space-uncles proud, one charity at a time.

Clarification of Account Security Policies

Last year, we updated our Destiny 2 Security policy and how we would be taking action against account recoveries and account boosting services. Now, we are diving a little deeper into that. But first, a small recap on what these services are and why they are against our guidelines.

As noted in our Account Restrictions and Banning Policies article and Terms of Service, found here and here, it is referenced that players agree to not allow access to their Destiny 2 accounts to anyone outside of their umbrella of ownership. Account boosting also falls under this restriction scope, which is where players will relinquish their accounts to boost their Light levels and earn certain high-level gear, which puts an unfair investment into one's character when paired up against those playing the game organically.

Using these types of services can tarnish competitive activities like Trials of Osiris, or even reduce the value of rewards from activities like raids and Grandmaster Nightfalls. To protect the integrity of these experiences, we are issuing the appropriate reprimands to a number of accounts in accordance with our policy. Our security team had this to say about our policies regarding account sharing and other in-game behaviors that can jeopardize account integrity:

Bungie Product Security Team: In August 2021, Bungie adjusted its policy to clarify that account recovery, boosting, and players that benefit from these services were in violation of our Terms of Service. Since then, we have closely monitored suspected activity and issued our first ban wave against identified violators. We want to assure the community that we will fairly enforce our policy on player conduct for even the most skilled or well-known players.

Destiny is an evolving experience, and we will continue to update our policies to make the game a more enjoyable and safe experience for all players. We will continue to update the community on the further evolution of these policies, but for now, you can read up on our current stance right here.

Player Support Report

Winter is over!


Another week, another report from the ever-diligent Player Support Team. This is the team that works tirelessly to track down all reported issues from players, no matter the size of the issue. They don't have capes, but maybe they should. While we look into cape sizing, the team's latest report centers around Rahool's destination materials, Devour timers, and more.

This is their report.

Known Issues List | Help Forums | Bungie Help Twitter

Raid Emblem Update

We have hit a snag in our processes to send players who completed the Vow of the Disciple raid during the 48-hour Contest Mode. We hope to have a resolution soon and will notify players once the emblems are distributed.

Hotfix 4.0.0.5

Next Tuesday, March 29, Hotfix 4.0.0.5 will be released to the world. View our Destiny Server and Update Status page for maintenance times, as well as the timeline below:
  • 9 AM PDT (1600 UTC): Destiny 2 maintenance begins.
  • 9:45 AM (1645 UTC): Destiny 2 is brought offline.
  • 10 AM (1700 UTC): Destiny 2 Hotfix 4.0.0.5 will begin rolling out across all platforms and regions.
  • 11 AM (1800 UTC): Destiny 2 maintenance completes.

PS4 HDR Update

Earlier in the season, we asked PlayStation 4 players to turn off HDR to prevent crashing on their system. We believe that this issue has been resolved with Hotfix 4.0.0.4. If players continue having issues, please report to our Help Forum.

Known Issues

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us via our Help Forum.
  • Osmiomancy Gloves lose a grenade charged after dying.
  • The Devour timer isn't consistent when killing multiple enemies at once compared to killing one enemy.
  • Players on Xbox are crashing at higher rates than usual.
  • Rahool's planetary materials aren't rotating.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article here. Players who observe other issues should report them to our Help Forum.

Takedown Clarifications

Over the past week, we have noticed an escalation in strikes against content creators in the Destiny 2 community, both big and small, and while some of the takedowns in the past have been legitimate violations of our established standards, many recent strikes were issued for content that does not violate those terms. This prompted us to release the following statement on the official Bungie channels, saying:

"We're aware of a series of copyright takedowns on YouTube and we're actively investigating. This includes content on our own Bungie channels."

"These actions are NOT being taken at the request of Bungie or our partners. Please standby for future updates."

We also included a link to our intellectual property guidelines, which can be found here. The most recent wave of takedowns was peculiar and upon further investigation we have confirmed that they included some takedown actions from fraudulent accounts created to impersonate our IP protection service.

Google has confirmed that the accounts that have submitted fraudulent legal requests to YouTube have been terminated and will no longer have access to Google products. All fraudulent submissions from these accounts will be reversed (some have already, the rest should come through shortly). The processing of these takedowns was an enforcement mistake by Google, and beyond rescinding the strikes and reinstating the videos, they are also working on process improvements to reduce the likelihood of any similar mistakes in the future. Please be patient as we work with YouTube to correct the fraudulent DMCA notices. In the meantime, we ask that you please refrain from harassing any member of the community or any employee of CSC.

We wanted to clear up a few misconceptions caused by this fraud:

  • CSC, a Bungie partner that aids in IP protection, did not go rogue or issue any unauthorized takedowns.
    • Bungie does not use or authorize algorithmic takedowns on YouTube. All actions by CSC are reviewed and authorized by Bungie.
      • Because these are human processes, in rare occurrences human error has occurred, in which we have quickly worked to correct any issues.
    • Bungie investigated the claims of suspicious takedowns and found that several strikes were perpetrated by a "bad actor" that is not affiliated with Bungie or CSC, but who has impersonated CSC by falsifying look-alike email aliases. This attack occurred after, and possibly in response to, a recent set of authentic takedowns of OST uploads.

Most of the recent takedowns carried out by us were for uploads of original soundtrack (OST) music content. While it's not permitted to take a soundtrack we release and upload it to your channel, there has been feedback from the community about the desire to access music that is not currently available. Our audio team's main priority is creating and maintaining the amazing music in the game, and we won't be able to release every version of every song. But we do agree that we would like to create avenues for the community to fill these gaps and archive some of the music not currently available.

Going forward we will be allowing certain Destiny music tracks to be uploaded to channels for archival purposes. For those creators interested in this type of content creation, the guidelines below should be reviewed:

  • It can't be an OST song that Bungie has already released or posted elsewhere publicly.
  • The content cannot be monetized.
  • The creator needs to obtain permission from Bungie by contacting this email: licensing@bungie.com.

At the end of the day, our content creator community is invaluable to us - and no, not just the "big" creators. We understand that many creators have their content as a source of primary income, and we do not wish to cause harm to those that express their passion through art. However, as with any company, there are boundaries in place to protect both the community and the property that the Destiny 2 teams have poured their souls into through the years. Because this is important to the future of the game and the future of our community, we have been working to update our community guidelines messaging, found in its original iteration here, to make our boundaries as a business clearer so that you, the creators, can make the content your souls crave without fear. We will share the updated resource with you all when those changes are finalized.

Movies and Thangs

Sam: Happy Twabsday, Guardians! Every single week you all make our lives so much brighter by submitting movies and art for us to go through. This week was another where we totally could have picked 4,000 winners, if we could, but honestly, I think out blog might crash if we hyperlinked than many posts. So, instead, you get these!

Movie of the Week: Time to Improvise

Movie of the Week: Axion Bolts

If a Tree Falls in the Forest but No One Is Around to Hear It, Can It Win AOTW?

Hippy: What does the title of this week's AOTW section mean? Who knows! Moving on. This week's art picks are a hodge-podge of creativity, clever meme-ness (that's a word, don't look it up), and continued tributes to the Vow of the Disciple raid boss with legs for days. Here is this week's Art of the Week picks!

Art of the Week: Drown in the Deep

Art of the Week: You Dropped This, Queen

B-b-b-b-bonus round! 

Art of the Week: Now we want basketball in Destiny, thanks...

Want a chance to get your art or nifty videos nominated for some limelight goodness? Don't forget to tag and share with #MOTW, #AOTW, and #Destiny2Art to get noticed. Go on ahead and tag those Bungie channels to feel extra cozy with your submissions.

Before we let you go, there is one more thing. Remember that nifty Vow of the Disciple raid jacket that is a current reward for being among the first Guardians to beat the challenge? If not, no worries, there's a little refresher image below. For those that are hoping to get their hands (and their Gamertags) on the latest merch, consider this your gentle reminder that the last day to claim this reward is coming up. Fast. Like, end of the month fast. March 31, to be exact. So, if you don't want to miss out, make sure to redeem that reward no later than 11:59 PM PT on March 31, otherwise -- like our youth, this too shall slip through your fingers (wow, Hippy, way to get existential there).


As always, we are continuing to parse through feedback as players help shape the future of what the Destiny-verse has to offer. And look, I'm not mad that you guys don't also tag us in some sweet dad jokes, I'm just disappointed. (But please send dad jokes, for real)

We've got more on the way but for now, thank you again for being the amazing community you are and sharing with us your struggles and your triumphs. You're amazing and don't let anyone make you feel differently. Until next time; stay fresh, be kind, and kick all the butt ... in-game.

"I should go,"

<3 Hippy

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