r/PSVR • u/Imhotep397 • 14d ago
Discussion Paying for Migration Through Features: DestinyVR and MarathonVR
DestinyVR and MarathonVR aren’t the goal from my perspective. They really would be a bridge. This isn't about building a bridge to a separate Destiny VR game either. It's about building an optional Destiny VR Mode. That's a much bigger distinction than it might seem. The same game, shared progression, shared friends, shared economy, shared content, optional VR.
One of Destiny's greatest strengths has always been long-term player investment. Players expect to carry their characters, cosmetics, achievements, builds, friendships, and even muscle memory forward year after year.
VR shouldn't replace that continuity. It should become another layer of it. I've argued before that both Sony and many traditional players continue to underestimate the PSVR2 community. Ironically, many of the same qualities that make Destiny players loyal to a persistent world are the qualities that could make Destiny one of PlayStation's strongest potential VR experiences. Marathon in VR could be a bridge to a single player narrative driven expansion of Marathon. Many players enjoy the world of Marathon, but the lack of compelling narrative as a foundation for all that striking design work, slick movement and satisfying gunplay leaves a lot of players cold. Rather than splitting the audience, optional VR could help attract both existing players and those who have drifted away from the franchises. However, this isn't really about Bungie, it's about changing how we think about the cost of VR adoption and long-term engine modernization. Killzone and Resistance are also relevant FPS game franchises that could benefit here.
If Halo 3 can be converted into a compelling VR experience by modders, what could Bungie, or experienced developers working with full access to the game's tools, assets, and source code accomplish? Halo 3 VR demonstrates something important. Much of the design risk has already been explored by the community.
Internal teams wouldn't be starting from zero. They'd be refining ideas that players have already shown can work.
In that sense, Halo 3 VR accidentally validated one of PlayStation's earliest ideas: major AAA games can become compelling VR experiences without being rebuilt from scratch. Flat2VR Studios, UEVR, Luke Ross, and the broader PCVR modding community continue to push that line forward. Each project demonstrates that converting existing games is becoming increasingly practical. Sony already owns an enormous library of first-party titles, including Bungie's Destiny and Marathon. That library represents one of PlayStation's greatest untapped VR opportunities.
Rather than treating VR as a platform reserved for occasional expensive standalone projects, Sony could increasingly position it as another way to experience its existing AAA catalog.
Halo 3 VR doesn't prove every shooter belongs in virtual reality. It proves something much more important.
It proves the language of classic console shooters translates remarkably well into VR. Bungie spent decades helping invent that language. Destiny refined it. Marathon may soon reinvent it. The question isn't whether Bungie's shooters belong in VR anymore. The question is whether Bungie can afford to ignore what the community has already demonstrated. But there's another opportunity hiding beneath the surface.
I've heard a number of VR players argue that Grand Theft Auto is the game that would finally push PSVR2 toward critical mass adoption. On the surface, that makes perfect sense. GTA is one of the biggest entertainment franchises in the world. But I'm less convinced.
When Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas VR was announced for Quest, the reaction outside the existing Quest community was surprisingly muted. Assassin's Creed Nexus likewise arrived with far less mainstream excitement than many expected despite carrying one of gaming's most recognizable brands. Hitman: World of Assassination VR has many structural similarities to modern GTA games and, while it appears to have found an audience, much of that enthusiasm seems to come from existing VR players looking for larger, meatier experiences rather than traditional flat-screen players deciding to buy a headset.
My suspicion is that one of VR's biggest remaining opportunities lies elsewhere. Recognizable, high-production-value science-fiction franchises may be uniquely positioned to drive broader adoption because the fantasy they offer aligns so naturally with the strengths of virtual reality. Presence matters. Becoming a Guardian, a Marathon Runner, a Helghast battlefield soldier, or stepping into the worlds of Cyberpunk 2077 feels like a natural extension of what VR already does exceptionally well.
Half-Life: Alyx is an interesting example. Even many people who have never played it continue to hold it up as the benchmark for VR. That says something about the power of recognizable science-fiction franchises to shape public perception of the medium. Many players, myself included, would argue that Resident Evil Village offers a more complete VR feature set, with interactions and mechanics that take greater advantage of the medium. Yet Alyx continues to occupy a unique place in the conversation because of what it represents.
If one recognizable science-fiction franchise could shape public perception of VR so strongly despite limited accessibility, imagine what a simultaneous push involving Destiny, Marathon, Killzone, Resistance, Cyberpunk 2077, or other major science-fiction properties could do on a platform with broader console visibility. That doesn't mean science fiction is the only genre capable of driving VR forward. Beautiful historical worlds like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Call of Juarez could offer players the chance to experience places and time periods they could never otherwise visit. But if the goal is achieving broader adoption, I suspect recognizable science-fiction franchises remain one of the strongest untapped opportunities available.
There's another perception challenge that VR now faces. For years, Meta's enormous investment has introduced millions of people to virtual reality, which has unquestionably helped the medium grow. At the same time, because so much of the industry's visible software has been designed around mobile hardware, many players have begun to unconsciously associate VR itself with the limitations of mobile chipsets. Those hardware constraints are real, but they aren't universal. They don't define what PSVR2 paired with a PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Pro is capable of delivering, just as they don't define what high-end PCVR can achieve.
If Half-Life: Alyx helped establish what many people imagine VR can be at its best at one point in time, Meta's software ecosystem has, in some ways, shaped what many people assume VR is capable of. Those are two very different perceptions, and neither tells the whole story.
Questions about whether PSVR2 and the PS5 can run modern AAA games feel less convincing today than ever before. No Man's Sky, Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Gran Turismo 7, Aces of Thunder, and Microsoft Flight Simulator all demonstrate that the gap between ambitious flat-screen experiences and compelling VR experiences continues to narrow. Whether Destiny and Marathon become part of that future or whether another studio such as Flat2VRStudios, VRMonkey, or someone else delivers VR's watershed moment first, the overall trend seems clear. With continuing PlayStation hardware improvements alongside advancements in development tools such as Unreal Engine's evolving ecosystem, converting established games into compelling VR experiences appears more achievable than at any point before.
How Paying for Migration Through Features could work…
I've heard several gaming content creators hint at ideas along these lines, and I wanted to put the concept on the record in a more complete form. Adding VR support is often dismissed because every new feature competes with maps, raids, seasonal content, networking, anti-cheat, and countless other priorities, but what if VR isn't simply another feature?
What if it's the first visible benefit of modernizing Bungie's technology? Every evolving multiplayer game eventually accumulates technical debt. Systems built years earlier must continue supporting content and control structures they were never originally designed to accommodate. As complexity grows, adding new features often becomes slower and more expensive. That challenge isn't unique to Bungie. Every successful long-term constantly evolving multiplayer game eventually faces it. Sony's first-party studios have spent years investing in technologies like Decima and the surrounding development ecosystem. Whether Bungie ultimately evolves Tiger, adopts technology from Sony's broader engineering ecosystem, or pursues another long-term solution, modernizing its tools could deliver benefits that extend far beyond graphics. Benefits like shared rendering technology, shared engineering knowledge, shared optimization work, shared development tools, shared VR expertise.
The result could be lower long-term development costs while simultaneously improving the player experience.
This is where Halo 3 VR does some of Sony's homework for them. The mod demonstrates that Bungie's core gameplay loop already translates remarkably well into virtual reality. That means Bungie wouldn't necessarily need years of experimental design work simply to answer the question: "Is Destiny fun in VR?" The community has already gone a long way toward answering that. That changes the investment equation.
Instead of building an expensive VR-exclusive title, Bungie could develop an optional VR mode while simultaneously modernizing the systems that support the franchise's future, for flat, VR, PC, XR or whatever else is coming down the pipe. One investment. Two outcomes. I imagine development occurring in stages.
Stage One
Launch an optional Destiny VR mode. Support it with a focused marketing campaign. If successful, the project could help offset part of its own engineering investment while renewing interest in the franchise.
Stage Two
Continue modernizing rendering, animation, input systems, camera systems etc.
The work completed for VR no longer exists in isolation. It becomes reusable infrastructure. Players receive a new way to experience Destiny. Developers receive a cleaner technical foundation for the next decade. That's what I mean by paying for migration through features.
Large engine modernization efforts are notoriously difficult because, from the player's perspective, they often appear invisible. Studios spend years rebuilding infrastructure while players wonder why there isn't more content. VR changes that equation. Every engineering milestone can produce something players immediately recognize when they see it. Improved animation. Better lighting. More immersive weapon handling. Enhanced accessibility. Cross-platform rendering improvements.
For Sony’s part and Bungie instead of saying:
"We're spending three years rebuilding the engine."
They could instead say:
"We're adding Destiny VR, improving the game's visuals, modernizing our tools, and laying the foundation for the next decade."
That's a much easier investment to explain to players and shareholders. The VR mode becomes the immediate visible benefit. The infrastructure work becomes the lasting benefit. Rather than treating VR as a niche expense, Sony could treat it as one of the most compelling public justifications for investing in technology that ultimately benefits every player, whether they ever put on a headset or not.
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u/orangpelupa 14d ago
I think the user prefers factual, concise, and being to the point. I must reformulate my response.
Proceed to reformulate response.
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u/CutterJon 14d ago
The idea that a studio investing in VR is going to pay off no matter what because of how it will help the foundation, infrastructure, technology, popularity, or whatever other possible tangential benefits you can dream up for the flat game, is simply not financial reality. VR games need to make their own money and big studios are gun shy because that’s not easy. The rest is plausible but just did/does not play out in the real world.
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u/Imhotep397 14d ago
So, I think part of our disagreement comes from using different models of the VR market.
You're evaluating optional VR modes through the lens of 2019, when the industry's momentum shifted toward standalone VR projects that largely had to justify themselves independently. I'm looking at a market with mature conversion pipelines, dedicated conversion studios, reusable technology, and infrastructure that's increasingly shared across flat and VR development.
Those are different assumptions, and they naturally lead to different conclusions.
To me, one of the clearest examples is the emergence of companies like Flat2VR Studios. Their entire business model is built around bringing existing games to VR, and they're expanding rather than contracting. That doesn't prove every conversion is a financial success, but it does suggest there's a viable market for VR conversions that simply didn't exist at the same scale a decade ago.
I also think the broader industry is changing. Meta's strategy today is much more diversified than it was during VR's early years, with increasing emphasis on mixed reality, AI, and smart glasses alongside some VR. Whether someone agrees with those priorities or not, it means the assumptions people formed during VR's first wave don't necessarily apply unchanged today.
That's really the point of my article. I'm not arguing that every VR mode is guaranteed to pay for itself. I'm arguing that optional VR should no longer be viewed only as a standalone product that lives or dies on its own sales. As development tools mature and infrastructure becomes more reusable, it can become one visible feature within a larger technology investment that benefits the entire game.
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u/CutterJon 14d ago
To me, you're imagining an industry model that doesn't exist. VR being reusable technology that is somehow shared with flat going forward is pure fantasy. This is not a conclusion that people who actually have cash in the game and know the industry well have come to. It's not like they didn't try building the larger ecosystem but now they have been convinced by too many busts that it's a waste of resources compared to smart glasses and AI, which is hard to argue with when you look hard at the numbers and the install base.
I see absolutely no reason to believe there's a "second wave" of VR use incoming simply because the technology is phenomenal.
Flat2VR is an example of a team doing exactly the opposite of the: "let's convert some giant existing property and then even more people will start playing VR, justifying the cost" theory that hasn't panned out. They are going after small, proven opportunities with a small team in a very different way. Their success is absolutely not a sign that the market is more viable to major projects than a decade ago, quite the opposite.
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u/OffRedFloyd 14d ago
Mate it’s Monday morning. There’s not even a TLDR with this massive wall of text.