UPDATE: More users on other forums are reporting similar stories of being banned. The common thread appears to be that some point they activated their overlays, and recorded footage. After a few hours, when they tried to log back in they were surprised to find their accounts were banned. The ban complaints have continued to appear today despite Bungie’s claims that third-party recording apps do not result in account bans.

Late last night Reddit forum threads began to appear with several users complaining they were unjustifiably banned from their Destiny 2 accounts moments after the game launch. The cause, they claimed, was using third-party video capture tools like Discord, Fraps, and OBS. Bungie’s PC Project Lead immediately took to Twitter with a statement:

Still, the claims of being banned escalated on Reddit and other social media outlets continued all through the night. Blizzard, who’s Battle.net app launches the title was not able to help anyone who was banned last night. It appears that while they support Battle.net, all Destiny 2 accounts are handled directly through Bungie. While Bungie’s lead PC project lead did state that they do not block video overlay programs from functioning, his statement does not completely mirror Bungie’s own help and support information for the game:

“To help ensure that every player will have a fair shot at fun and glory in Destiny 2 on PC, we resist attempts by third-party applications to insert code into the game client. This may result in an incompatibility between Destiny 2 PC and the features of common third-party applications.”

In the help page, only Nvidia Shadowplay and AMD ReLive (and we tested Windows 10 Game DVR, which appears to work) will allow exclusive full-screen video capture, while OBS, Fraps, and other third-party software applications will only work in Windowed Mode. The help page does not state that using such software applications will result in a ban. Bungie simply warns of degraded performance.

Bungie’s insistence that they do not ban for these applications is puzzling. A number of users were banned for attempting to record Destiny 2 footage during the closed beta, could this have carried over to the full release? The facts are unclear at this point, in the meantime disabling overlay software could be a safety measure, or at the very least abide by the guidelines listed on Bungie’s support page. We will have more on this story as it unfolds.

Destiny 2 released for PC yesterday October 24, 2017. It is an online multiplayer shooter developed by Bungie, it’s first PC release in over twelve years. Published by Activision, and launched through Blizzard’s Battle.net app.