What began as a showcase of new features quickly descended into chaos as viewers witnessed an unsettling display of the ugly side of the Destiny 2 community.
The highly anticipated Destiny 2 reveal livestream, meant to shed light on the game’s upcoming free content update called Into the Light, took an unexpected turn as racist and toxic Steam friend requests flooded one of the developers showcasing gameplay during the event.
This was during the reveal livestream hosted on March 19, 2024, during which Noah Lee, Associate Activity Designer at Bungie, unintentionally revealed their Steam username after accidentally pressing Alt+Tab on their computer.
Related: Bungie Wins Legal Battle Against Destiny 2 YouTuber Over Fake DMCA Takedown Claims
This mistake led to dozens of friend requests from over one hundred thousand viewers tuning in. However, the excitement soon turned grim as these requests bore shocking and offensive usernames.
The developer found their notification feed flooded with usernames containing slurs. Examples included usernames like “KILL YOURSELF,” “KILL ALL NIGoRS,” and “Bungie Rape Victim.” During this eight-minute segment, roughly 45+ Steam friend requests were shown as a notification on stream, but the actual number is likely much higher. This was in addition to harassment sent from viewers in the live chat on Twitch.
This reprehensible behavior sparked outrage among the Destiny 2 community. Fans expressed their disgust and disappointment at the toxic individuals who hijacked what was supposed to be a celebratory event. Many took to social media platforms and online forums to condemn the hateful conduct and demand accountability.
Among them, X (formerly Twitter) user JakeParkerLIVE voiced their opinion, stating, “How awful a person are you to do this to a Bungie dev for simply showcasing upcoming content they’re excited to give you for free?”
Reddit user BAakhir echoed similar sentiments in a thread on r/DestinyTheGame, titled “The toxicity towards Bungie has gotten egregious.” They said, “While Bungie has made mistakes in the past the few devs left trying to deliver don’t deserve the constant harassment this community gives.”
The sentiment was shared by another Reddit user who commented, “It’s baffling how the poor dev got bombarded with outright disturbing messages on Steam after he accidentally tabbed out.”
The disappointment and concern extended to the Destiny 2 subreddit, where a user in r/destiny2 expressed their initial amusement turning to alarm, stating, “I desperately hope that the ones with inappropriate names catch a ban from D2. At first, when I saw the friend requests start to flood in it was just funny, but it stopped being funny when people were doing it with completely inappropriate names.”
The recent events serve as a clear indication of the ongoing problem of toxicity present within the Destiny community, as well as other online communities in general. Unfortunately, this is not the first instance of Destiny 2 fans engaging in toxic behavior and sending death threats to the developers at Bungie.
Bungie has been very vocal against harassment toward its developers, taking legal action against toxic fans – even banning a Destiny 2 streamer for harassing developers, and fellow creators.