Big changes are coming to Destiny 2 this year and some of them leaked earlier in the month. Bungie now thinks it knows who is responsible and has taken action, banning popular Twitch streamer Ekuegan Teko-Agbo from the game he plays to make a living. The content creator says he’s innocent, however, and no one’s quite sure what to make of the entire episode.
Every so often Bungie holds a secret meeting with star players and content creators from the Destiny 2 community to preview upcoming changes and get feedback on the status of the game and its future. These summits are invite-only and heavily NDA’d, but that didn’t stop apparent screenshots of a PowerPoint presentation from the most recent one from being leaked on Discord on April 5 by a user called Freezing Dart. The slideshow seemingly revealed upcoming content, weapons, and gameplay changes. A week later, Bungie took the unprecedented step of publicly acknowledging the leak.
“Community interaction and engagement is central to Bungie and our games,” it tweeted on April 14. “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.”
The studio went on:
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.
It didn’t mention Ekuegan by name, but the streamer later confirmed Bungie had settled on him as the source of the leak in an interview with Forbes’ Paul Tassi. The veteran player renowned in the community for his skill and achievements in the game said he would no longer play it following the ban and proceeded to delete some VODs of past Destiny 2 streams. Still, he says he’s innocent and has no knowledge of the leak, despite virtually attending the summit in question.
What appears to have Ekuegan fingered as the leaker are desktop icons in the leaked computer screenshots that match his own. He told Tassi that was the explanation Bungie gave him, and he even suggested he may have been framed. “I’m in so many NDAs [at the moment], why would I breach any? It’s part of the job,” Ekuegan told Tassi. “I spent 14,000 hours on this game, multiple hours helping people in Grandmasters.”
One possibility is that the leaks were expertly photoshopped to incriminate Ekuegan despite coming from someone else. Another possibility is that someone else used his computer to produce the leak. That’s Tassi’s theory, and it would square people’s perception of Ekuegan as an honest and dedicated figure in the Destiny 2 community with whatever evidence Bungie has. It would still constitute a breach of his NDA, but it would make more sense than Ekuegan potentially blowing up his career to momentarily and secretly impress a small Discord channel.
Ekuegan didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other big Destiny 2 streamers and content creators have similarly been in disbelief. I’ve seen Ekuegan as nothing but kind to me & the community,” wrote Gladd. “He’s a pillar. I trust him; take it for what it’s worth. At the VERY least, Bungie needs to look at this more closely.” Destiny 2 lore YouTuber Byf was more concise: “No clue what to think. Whole situation sucks.”
It’s not clear when or if any answers will be forthcoming. Bungie hasn’t elaborated beyond its initial two tweets, and didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the meantime, Ekuegan is still streaming other games and said he’s working on clearing his name. “I have gotten to a place where I am happy with who I am in life,” he tweeted. “I personally know the truth, I know who I am and I’m happy knowing it. Only God can judge me.”
Update 4/17/23 10:24 p.m. ET: Bungie released a new statement late Monday night saying it had “irrefutable evidence” showing a pattern of Ekuegan leaking confidential information about Destiny 2 for multiple years now.
“We are very disappointed to have learned this information and wish that things had gone differently with this person,” the studio wrote. “We do not take these actions lightly, and we are confident in our decision. This is our final communication on the matter.”