Destiny 2 PC players are being banned in droves for using legitimate third-party software

Update: Bungie has released a statement that admits Destiny 2 players on PC had been mistakenly banned. Those bans have now been overturned. The admission was added to an earlier statement that flatly denied this was the case, and said that 400 players had been banned for "using tools that pose a threat to the shared ecosystem of the game".

Original story: Destiny 2 arrived on PC yesterday (24 October) with thousands of players eager to take on the Red Legion in the series' first game on the platform. However, many have been left frustrated and confused after claiming bans have been handed out for using third-party software.

Players are reporting that they are receiving bans for using software to capture gameplay and overlays for programs such as Mumble and Discord that allow them to chat with friends while playing the popular shooter.

Software that allows players to monitor hardware usage while playing is also said to be resulting in bans.

Bungie has yet to make an official statement on the bans, or make clear that those who have been banned will regain access to the game.

One community rep on Bungie's forum did say: "Third-party applications that aren't compatible with Destiny 2 may cause the game to not run but won't result in a ban." However this is counter to the experience of many players.

On Twitter Bungie's project lead for the PC version told a player requesting comment: "We do block programs from pushing their code into our game. Most overlays work like that. We don't ban for that though. That's internet BS."

As a security measure, preventing third-party apps from introducing their own code to the game's servers or onto other players makes sense. Something is going wrong somewhere however.

According to Bungie's banning policy, bans are issued for the use of external programs "to modify the operation of the Destiny game software". Examples given include "Trainers, mods, cheats, aimbots [and] autofire" as well as graphics hacks and software that sends "malicious network traffic" to the game servers or its players.

IBTimes UK has reached out to Bungie and publisher Activision for comment.

Destiny 2 launched in September for PS4 and Xbox One. The game is a first-person, shared-world online shooter in which players fight co-operatively and competitively across the Solar System.

Players that have been banned have voiced their disapproval on the Destiny 2 subreddit.

"This has to be the dumbest s**t I've ever seen," wrote one player, whose comment received over 400 upvotes from other users. "Like holy s**t. Let's be honest here. If they don't unban people getting banned like this, it's not gonna go well for them."

"This is just indefensible," another wrote in response. "Come on Bungie, you're better than this."

The main thread offers a list of all the software that has resulted in players getting banned. The full list of affected software is below.

Game Capture Mode in:

• OBS
• XSPLIT

Overlays in:

• Fraps
• Mumble
• Discord

Hardware monitoring Software:

• MSI Afterburner
• EVGA Precision XOC

On top of this problem, the otherwise smooth launch of Destiny 2 on PC has also resulted in numerous error messages, with Bungie outlining what they mean and the best way to overcome them (basically, update your drivers).

A list of known issues can be found on the Bungie forums, including the two named error messages below.

• Saxophone Errors when Launching: Players may erroneously encounter Saxophone errors when launching the Destiny 2 application directly from the .exe file. Players who encounter this issue must close the application and relaunch through Blizzard's Battle.net app.
• Buffalo Errors on multiple PCs: Players may encounter Buffalo errors when logging in to Destiny 2 on multiple PCs at the same time. To prevent this issue, players must ensure that they are logged out of Destiny 2 on any PC that they do not currently intend to play on.