BungieBungie has reached an out-of-court settlement with sci-fi author Matthew Martineau, closing a year-long copyright fight over Destiny 2’s original Red War campaign.
Martineau first sued the developer in October 2024, claiming that Bungie copied key ideas, factions, and plot beats from stories he wrote under the pen name Caspar Cole in 2013 and 2014, including similarities to the Red Legion and elements that later appeared in Curse of Osiris.
Bungie denied any infringement and tried to get the case thrown out, but a judge refused its attempt to rely on fan YouTube videos and wiki pages to explain vaulted Red War content, allowing the lawsuit to move forward.
Bungie and Martineau end legal dispute
According to court filings spotted by The Game Post, both parties agreed to an out-of-court settlement on November 12, with the judge later issuing an order confirming the case had been fully settled, dismissing it without costs.
“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,” the court documents read.
Destiny 2’s Red War campaign was removed and “vaulted” in November 2020.The court maintains a 60-day window to reopen the action or enforce the deal if something falls through. The terms of the agreement are sealed, so there is no publicly available information on what the settlement entails.
As for whether Destiny 2’s original Red War campaign will ever be reintroduced to the game, that outcome is unlikely. Bungie admitted back in February that the current version of Destiny 2 is incompatible with the Red War campaign, which was removed and “vaulted” in 2020.
