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 account names—had been unexpectedly changed. This widespread issue, impacting a significant number of players, stemmed from a malfunction in the game's name moderation tools.

Destiny 2 Players' Bungie Names Mysteriously Altered After Update

Bungie to Distribute Free Name Change Tokens

Starting around August 14th, players began reporting their names replaced with "Guardian" followed by a random series of numbers. The Destiny 2 team quickly 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 system typically flags and changes names violating their terms of service (offensive language, personal information, etc.). However, this incident affected numerous players who hadn't violated any rules, some having used the same name since 2015. This caused significant frustration and confusion within the community.

Following their initial statement, Bungie provided updates, confirming the scale of the problem and assuring players they were working to resolve it. They subsequently announced they'd identified and fixed the underlying issue preventing further accidental name changes. The team tweeted, "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."

Bungie is actively working to rectify the situation and will distribute free name change tokens to all players. Affected players are advised to remain patient and await further announcements from the developers.