Police called to fake hostage crisis at Bungie exec’s house

A Bungie executive has been the latest to suffer fake threats that strike a little too close to home – literally, in this case.

KOMO News reports that a police helicopter was dispatched to the unnamed exec’s home at 4am on Thursday and officers surrounded his home.

They were responding to claims that someone in the house "had an assault rifle and he had placed explosives in the yard and he was holding a family hostage", according to Kotaku.

The call that carried the threat was a fake, a fresh incident of a technique known as "swatting", and police "believe the suspect has ties to the video game community".

A Bungie spokesperson says the exec "is okay and didn’t want to discuss the incident".

The incident followed a bomb threat against the building containing Borderlands dev Gearbox Software last month, as well as a string of death threats and doxxing – the revelation of a person’s private details, such as address – against various female developers in recent months.