Arkham Shadow is the first major exclusive VR game for Quest 3

One of the main reasons why it was hard to recommend the $500 Quest 3 VR headset over the $200 Quest 2 is the lack of exclusive titles, as most games should support both models. That said, we haven’t really seen the power of Quest 3 yet, but the tides are turning. Meta just announced Batman: Arkham Shadowwhich is completely exclusive to the company’s latest headphones.

This title appears to be real set in the pre-existing Arkham universe, but is not being developed by franchise manager Rocksteady Studios. It was created by Oculus Studios and a developer called Camouflaj, who did surprisingly great Iron Man VR experience. The track record is pretty spotty when it comes to other developers playing in Rocksteady’s sandbox, but Camouflaj’s inclusion makes me cautiously optimistic.

There’s a trailer seen above, but it’s devoid of actual gameplay. We’ll have to wait until Summer Game Fest in June for that, according to Jeff Keighley. The trailer shows the presence of a little-known member of Batman’s a rogues gallery called the Ratcatcher. He controls the rats to commit crimes. It’s a whole thing.

This isn’t the first time Batman has worn a VR headset. In 2016, Rocksteady released Batman: Arkham VR. The game was praised for being immersive, but criticized for only being an hour long. Hopefully this one is a bit longer, although I actually like short VR experiences that are done really well. I have so much time to wander around the house like an idiot with an earpiece attached to my face.

While this is certainly the highest-profile Quest 3 exclusive, it’s not the first to be announced. Starship Home is a mixed reality adventure that looks like it should have been a launch exclusive for Vision Pro. The tinged with horror Alien: Rogue Incursion isn’t quite exclusive to Quest 3, as it’s also being released on Steam and PSVR2, but it’s a “next-gen” VR game that shouldn’t run on the aging Quest 2. All three titles will be released from the end of the year.

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