Bungie says it has "irrefutable evidence" that a well-known streamer accused of leaking content from a recent Destiny 2 Community Summit is in fact guilty of multiple leaks of confidential information over a period spanning several years. The streamer in question, however, is steadfastly maintaining his innocence, and has vowed to clear his name.
Bungie first addressed the leak of photographs and other information from the recent online presentation in a brief statement posted to Twitter on April 14.
Breaches of this trust could result in our inability to hold more summits. We take these breaches extremely seriously and are taking actions to reinforce our policies with those invited to these internal meetings.April 14, 2023
"Community interaction and engagement is central to Bungie and our games," the studio tweeted. "For years, we've invited creators and other members of the community to confidential summits to provide feedback on the future of Destiny. This is a beloved part of the process, but relies heavily on trust.
"Breaches of this trust could result in our inability to hold more summits. We take these breaches extremely seriously and are taking actions to reinforce our policies with those invited to these internal meetings."
Bungie didn't name the streamer, and still hasn't, but Ekuegan, a popular streamer and YouTuber famous for clearing more than 6,000 Grandmaster Nightfalls—Destiny 2's most difficult PvE content, basically—said it was him, first by denying the claim on Twitter and then confirming with Forbes that he was the one accused.
The initial evidence against Ekuegan was contained in the leaked images, which contained information including plans for future seasons of Destiny 2, new gear, balance changes, story beats, and more. The images in question were actually photographs of someone's PC, taken while the presentation was running; desktop icons visible in the photograph were identical to those on Ekuegan's desktop. As a result of the alleged leak, Ekuegan has been banned from Destiny 2—a shocking and, for many fans, disappointing outcome for a well-liked streamer with 48,000 subscribers on YouTube and nearly 100,000 followers on Twitch.
💀💀 pic.twitter.com/6JUjQFrRgJApril 15, 2023
Ekuegan did not seem inclined to quietly take the L and move on with his life immediately following the ban. "All I know is, that company made a huge mistake and I will clear my name," he tweeted on April 17. "I am working on it, Don't worry < I see the real ones on the tags. My head is held high, I had a nature day today and man getting off the internet felt great."
In subsequent tweets of its own, however, Bungie said it has no doubt about Ekuegan's guilt, and worse, revealed that this was not an isolated incident.
"Our Security and Legal teams have reviewed irrefutable evidence, including video recordings, verified messages, and images demonstrating a pattern over time that confirm the same individual shared confidential information from Community Summits spanning multiple years," Bungie tweeted.
"We are very disappointed to have learned this information and wish that things had gone differently with this person. We do not take these actions lightly, and we are confident in our decision. This is our final communication on the matter."
Ekuegan has been silent since Bungie's "final communication," but he did raise some valid questions prior to that point, including the most obvious: Why would he do something so stupid? 'Clout' is the obvious answer but as a popular Destiny 2 streamer that was pretty much his stock-in-trade anyway. "I'm in so many NDAs [at the moment], why would I breach any? it's part of the job," he told Forbes. "I spent 14,000 hours on this game, multiple hours helping people in Grandmasters."
And as he said on Twitter, if he was going to leak information from the Community Summit presentation, why would he take photos of his screen and then post them unedited? Not only is it a bizarre way for a technologically savvy streamer to share screenshots, it's also an obvious giveaway: "I show my desktop daily while live for 10-12 hours daily," he tweeted.
Fair points, but unless Ekuegan can come up with some sort of compelling evidence that he's been wrongly accused, this will be the end of it. And that doesn't seem likely: Bungie's invocation of its security and legal teams in its public statement pretty clearly means that it has a lot more to go on than just a handful of images. I've reached out to Bungie and Ekuegan for comment, and will update if I receive a reply.
To have fucked around so hard a general counsel signed off on this tweet is truly impressive. https://t.co/gy2lKONtTHApril 18, 2023
