This Week at Bungie - Celebration & an Explanation

The latest This Week at Bungie has been posted that dishes up some really nice goodies with regard to Destiny 2 including the recent world first celebration around the first clearing of Leviathan, PvP / Crucible, interesting notes from the Support Team and a sneak peek at the Trials of the Nine. In addition, the team offers a lengthy explanation about the events surrounding the storm regarding the removal of gauntlets thought to too closely resemble a symbol co-opted by a hate group.

According to the post, the original design of the gauntlets was made in 2015, long before the "kekistan" internet meme had been co-opted by a hate group. The similarity to the original inspiration, it appears, was actually unintentional. "[T]hat review was conducted to explore whether or not we were comfortable with the connection to the original, innocuous “kek” internet meme."

What steps are we taking to ensure that this won’t happen again?

We are digging in to determine how we can more deeply vet our game content to shield us, and our community, from inappropriate imagery. Though we are still investigating our creative process in full, we know there was no degree of malicious intent from anyone on our team. That said, we do recognize that the design in question is close enough to warrant removal from the game.

We want everyone to know their identity is welcome in our studio and in the worlds we create. This isn’t merely a platitude, but an official pillar we hold ourselves, and our work to. It is also a clarion call for the type of people we want to bring into our studio to help us make better games.

We aren’t asking you for the benefit of the doubt. We know we are judged by our actions. We want to thank the members of our community, and the press, for bringing this matter to our attention. We will always strive to make all players feel welcome in our worlds, to promote positive experiences, and to portray a bright and hopeful world in Destiny 2, and in every game world we create.

Check out the full update on the Destiny 2 site.