“Sorry for misleading you all”: Destiny 2 red Subclass leak was fake all along, original editor shows how it was made

Destiny 2’s old red subclass leak has finally been debunked, with the original editor showing how it was made and a former Bungie artist calling it fake.

For years, Destiny 2 players have talked about the so-called “red subclass” leak. The clip first made the rounds during Season of the Deep and seemed to show a new subclass icon with red UI elements. Since Strand had leaked in a similar-looking way before Lightfall, a lot of players took this one seriously, too.

Bungie later cooled things down when Destiny 2 game director Tyson Green said the red subclass “isn’t real” and was “not a thing right now.” Still, the theory never fully went away. Players kept pointing to old clips, red effects, and later story elements like Eclipse from Renegades as possible signs that Bungie had something planned.

Now, though, we have much stronger evidence that the original Season of the Deep red subclass clip was fake all along.

Destiny 2’s Old Red Subclass Leak Has Finally Been Debunked

The latest update comes from two places. First, a couple of weeks ago, YouTuber Nimbus9003 shared a video showing how the fake edit of the clip was made using Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. At the end of the video, they said this:

“Hello, everyone. Thought I’d make this now since Bungie pulled the plug. Sorry for misleading you all, but it was fun. There were two of us that made this. It took us a couple of hours with basic Photoshop and After Effects editing.

“We collected and spliced together many UI elements, combined with in-game tricks, trying to replicate a realistic and accurate ArtStation dev showcase. On top of this, we made a post on Reddit using a smurf account (Nimbus9002) with a link to the video.

“After the video caught enough traction, we deleted it and the Reddit account to make it seem as if it was taken down by Bungie. It was fun seeing everyone excited and trying to debunk whether it was real or not. Farewell, D3 believers.”

Now, former Bungie artist John Zelman, known online as TR_BlueJay, has also commented on the leak. Zelman said he was on the team that would have made those kinds of assets. He also made it clear that he does not know if Bungie ever had plans for a sixth Darkness subclass after he left.

Here’s what Zelman shared:

“That ‘red subclass leak’ from Season of the Deep was indeed fake, btw, Zelman said on a post on X. “Source: I was on the team that would have made them, and we all had a good laugh when we saw it. Fantastic Photoshop work though! We weren’t allowed to comment at the time, I figure I probably can now.”

He later added, “No, I have no idea if [Bungie] ever wanted to do a 6th darkness subclass. There were like… 2-3 full years of development after I was laid off, no clue what happened while I was gone.”

So, this pretty mcuh confirms that this specific viral leak was not real. That is still a pretty major update, because this clip was one of the biggest pieces of “evidence” fans had for the red subclass theory.

In other Destiny 2 news, Bungie recently released the game’s final live service content update, Monument of Triumph. Reports have also claimed that Bungie could face major layoffs soon, with some claims pointing to cuts of up to 50% of the studio.

You can watch the video below.

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