Destiny 2's Character Deletion Is Turning Out To Be A Bigger Problem For Bungie
Update 1/19/23: Since the publication of this article, Bungie has informed fans that it can find no evidence of this character deletion bug impacting any "Destiny 2" accounts beyond CyanSolar's. According to the publisher, "Maintaining your characters and progress is our top priority ... we are confident that no characters or progress were incorrectly lost by our systems." The original article follows below.
Just weeks after the newest exotic weapon broke the game, the "Destiny 2" community is on high alert after discovering that a character deletion bug is more prevalent than previously thought. At least a handful of players have reported the issue to Bungie, and others have gone to social media to express fears of even logging into the game.
It started with a Reddit post. User CyanSolar revealed in r/DestinyTheGame that their Titan had been deleted. When logging into the game, they were greeted with a black screen and a "contacting servers" message at the bottom of it. When that ended, they were taken to the character selection screen and discovered one of the characters was missing. CyanSolar repeatedly returned to the post to update the community on his situation, and Bungie ultimately resolved it.
Destiny community manager Liana Ruppert also provided an update on the situation, saying at the time, it was not believed to be affecting any other accounts. However, she added that restoring the account was an "extremely complicated process that required a variety of teams and numerous hours to implement for a single account." Unfortunately, it seems the issue has been affecting other Guardians too.
The issue is more widespread than Bungie expected
A few days after CyanSolar brought the issue to light, Reddit user Zzephiris announced in the same subreddit that it had just happened to them. They said they were "contacted by Destiny pretty quickly." Like CyanSolar, Zzephiris said they would provide updates if Bungie restored the character, but they've since gone silent on the post.
As if the second post wasn't concerning enough, a third popped up a few days after that from user awesomenessno1. They reported that their Warlock suddenly disappeared and that Ruppert responded via Twitter that Bungie was investigating the issue. Unfortunately, the matter hasn't been resolved yet, but the affected player said they appreciated Destiny looking into it quickly.
While Bungie's expedience has been appreciated, it hasn't quelled the community's fears. Forbes reporter and "Destiny" content creator Paul Tassi tweeted a link to awesomenessno1's Reddit post, saying the bug "has gotta be addressed, one way or another, however small-scale the issue may be." Under Tassi's tweet, one user vowed not to open the game again "until they figure this out." A second user expressed the same reluctance.
Some commenters have speculated that it may have something to do with save transfers from Stadia users ahead of its January shutdown, but awesomenessno1 clarified in their Reddit post that they didn't have a Stadia account. So, for now, players are left hoping they won't be next and waiting for a broader fix.