Atari has agreed to buy classic video game maker Digital Eclipse for up to $20 million in cash and stock.
12.10.2023 - 04:05 / pcgamer.com / Tom Warren
A common refrain from gamers caught cheating online is that they've been falsely convicted of a crime they didn't commit. It's hard to know who's telling the truth and who's just lying, because of course you'd lie if you were caught cheating. When we're lucky, the lies are exposed in a dramatic, extremely funny fashion. But sometimes the accused are telling the truth, and so it is that Bungie is now forking over 5,000 Silver to «a small number» of Destiny 2 players who were banned from the game for cheating, even though they weren't.
«Along with a small number of other players, your account was inadvertently flagged as having tampered with game client functionality,» Bungie said in a message sent to impacted players that was shared on Twitter by The Verge senior editor Tom Warren. «While the overwhelming majority of these detections are accurate, we discovered that in extremely rare cases this detection may be triggered through no fault of the player. This error was determined as part of our auditing process and we acted as quickly as possible to validate the issue and rescind the small number of inadvertent flags.»
Bungie didn't share specifics on what was tripping the false alarm or specifically how many players were impacted, but it did say that it's updated Destiny 2's anti-cheat systems to keep it from happening again. It also told Kotaku that the false positive didn't arise from an ongoing issue, but occurred «during a recent ban wave, [and] was isolated to this specific ban wave.»
The studio also apologized to the players for the trouble, and as a way of saying «sorry for the mess» it's giving everyone who was falsely banned 5,000 Silver, Destiny 2's premium currency, to spend in the in-game Eververse store. In real-money terms, that's about $45: A 5,000 Silver bundle sells for $50 but includes a «bonus» 1,000 Silver, so it's actually 6,000 for $50 and you can work the math out from there.
Some players were happy to see Bungie copping to the mistake and paying up, but there's clear frustration with its processes in the replies to Warren's tweet, where numerous players are complaining about a lack of transparency in Bungie's ban system and slow response to appeals. That's easily understandable: False positive bans may be rare but as this incident demonstrates, they do happen. And while there are practical reasons for slow responses—sifting through 100 «it wasn't me» complaints to dig out the one that's legitimate naturally takes a certain amount of time—being booted out of a game you love for days or weeks because of something that really wasn't your fault is not a pleasant experience.
This isn't the first time Bungie has mistakenly dropped the banhammer on Destiny 2 players who didn't deserve
Atari has agreed to buy classic video game maker Digital Eclipse for up to $20 million in cash and stock.
By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.
By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.
By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.
By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.
By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.
By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.
Microsoft has detailed its earnings for the first quarter of its 2024 fiscal year, pointing to a record-breaking Q1 for Xbox gaming revenue, despite a 7% drop in hardware sales.
By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.
Microsoft has launched a new "Power your dreams" Xbox marketing campaign for the holidays, featuring various popular games.
Insomniac Games has confirmed that Marvel's Spider-Man 2 will receive New Game Plus and mission replay after launch, but they won't be coming via the Day One patch.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is almost here – just one more day until it hits PlayStation 5 exclusively on October 20. We loved it – read Game Informer's review of it here – and are excited for everyone to get their hands on it. Yesterday, we learned Insomniac Games recommends players download the day one patch for the «best experience» before starting the first mission, and now, we've learned when to expect the fan-favorite New Game Plus feature in the sequel.