Bungie says tackling harassment and abuse is "good business"

pcgamesinsider.biz:

Destiny maker Bungie has said that its efforts to tackle abuse and harassment within its community is good for business.

Speaking to Axios, the company's general counsel Don McGowan said that people behaving in a toxic manner should not be tolerated within the community. This comes in the wake of Bungie filing lawsuits against cheat makers, a player impersonating the studio to issue takedowns against fan accounts on YouTube and another person who threatened one of their employees.

"We have seen historically that bad actors will often be tolerated because the people with the skills and power to remove them do not focus their efforts there," McGowan said.

"To put it simply, we disagree. In our view, removing harassment and abuse from our community is not only the right thing to do, it is also good business."

He added: “We believe very strongly that most people do not want to be in communities where cheating or harassment is allowed to thrive. Tolerating bad actors chases away a lot of people who would like to enjoy our products.

Bungie senior community manager Dylan Gafner recently said that the company was reducing communication with its playerbase due to the harassment its staff has faced.

McGowan joined Bungie in 2020 having spent almost 12 years at the rather litigious Pokémon Company.