I’m thrilled about Batman: Arkham’s move to VR — and you should be too
Gamers woke up to some very surprising news on Wednesday, May 1. Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley revealed via X that Rocksteady’s beloved Batman: Arkham series was making a comeback. Batman: Arkham Shadow would launch later this year, with more details coming in June during Summer Game Fest. It was a cause for celebration … until people read the fine print.
Batman: Arkham Shadow is a Meta Quest 3 exclusive.
That detail was not received kindly. Replies to Keighley’s tweet are filled with players bemoaning the VR exclusivity. “Got all excited until I saw VR,” one reply reads. Some complaints are more specific, with players angry about its platform exclusivity. There are fair critiques to be made, but I for one am excited about Batman: Arkham Shadow — and anyone paying attention to VR over the past few years should be too.
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Embracing VR
At first glance, I can sympathize with those who find Batman: Arkham Shadow disappointing. For one, it’s coming to one specific platform that’s not nearly as widely adopted as the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. The fact that it won’t even be available on PlayStation VR2 is an annoyance for anyone who invested in Sony’s poorly supported headset last year. It’s also disappointing that the game isn’t being developed by Rocksteady, the studio that built the Arkham games in the first place.
Once you get past those annoyances, though, the news goes down much smoother. The most exciting piece of this is the developer behind it. The project is coming from Camouflaj, a VR studio that Meta acquired in 2022. The studio is responsible for 2020’s Iron Man VR — and that should perk your ears up. While I’ve previously voiced my fair share of issues withIron Man VR, the project was crucial to changing the tech’s reputation in 2020. At that point, developers were still struggling to create full-featured games that could be
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