Geoff Keighley revealed a new Batman Arkham game is in the works to be released later this year, with a first look at gameplay happening at Summer Game Fest. Unfortunately for just about everyone, Batman: Arkham Shadow is a VR-only game exclusive to the Meta Quest 3. The community reaction hasn’t been great.
Looking at the Batman Arkham subreddit has had some interesting comments from fans hoping for a return to form for the Arkham series. Many first thought it was a fake announcement, saying it was an impressive fan-made trailer. However, others are pointing out that it’s not that exciting of a trailer to begin with.
Why don’t people want Batman: Arkham Shadow?
Context is important in the Batman: Arkham Shadow situation because on its own, a new Arkham VR game isn’t terrible news. It’s disappointing to see it exclusive to Meta, regardless, since the first Arkham VR game was a PSVR exclusive. VR games in general are not that exciting to the general gamer, but there is a small crowd that enjoy them. That crowd will be cut down even more by keeping it on Meta only.
What’s more heartbreaking about this news is the whole dumpster fire that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League turned out to be. It is supposedly set in the Arkham universe, and many feel that the Batman character they fell in love with in the other games was heavily disrespected, us included. This crowd just wants another single player Arkham game on par with Asylum, City, Origins, and Knight.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been under scrutiny for years at this point. Rocksteady, who made the original Arkham games that everyone loved, pulled a Crystal Dynamics by making a live service multiplayer game when their success in the past has been single-player games. The game is struggling to keep a player base and quickly got heavily discounted shortly after release. Things are not looking like they’ll turn around anytime soon, and we are just hopeful WB doesn’t do anything drastic like severely cut down Rocksteady or outright close them down. Batman: Arkham Shadow isn’t looking to be much more promising at this point, but maybe the reveal at Summer Game Fest will draw more people in.
