Destiny 2 Update Causes Players' Usernames to be Wiped Out

Following a recent update, many Destiny 2 players discovered their Bungie Names—their in-game usernames—had been unexpectedly altered. Read on to learn about the developers' response and how to proceed if your name was changed.

Destiny 2 Players' Bungie Names Mysteriously Changed After Update

Bungie to Distribute Free Name Change Tokens

This week, a significant number of Destiny 2 players found their Bungie Names replaced with "Guardian" followed by a random series of numbers. This widespread issue, starting around August 14th, stemmed from a malfunction in Bungie's name moderation system.

The Destiny 2 team acknowledged the problem on Twitter (X), stating: "We are tracking an issue where a high number of account names have been changed by our Bungie name moderation tool. We are actively investigating and expect to have more information tomorrow, including details on an additional name change token for all players."

Bungie's name moderation typically targets usernames violating their terms of service (offensive language, personal information, etc.). However, this incident affected numerous players who hadn't violated any rules, some of whom had used the same name since 2015. This caused considerable confusion and frustration within the community.

Bungie swiftly investigated and reported the following day that they had identified and fixed the underlying issue preventing further accidental name changes. Their Twitter (X) update read: "We have identified the issue that was forcing a high number of Bungie name changes. We have applied a server-side change to prevent the issue from impacting accounts moving forward. As noted yesterday, we are still planning to distribute name change tokens to all players at a later date to assist. As we have more information, we'll be sure to share it with you."

While Bungie works to resolve this, affected players are advised to remain patient. Free name change tokens will be distributed, and Bungie will provide further updates as they become available.