These new AAA Quest 3 games prove why you should stop buying the Quest 2
What you need to know
Alien: Rogue Incursion and Batman: Arkham Shadow have been announced as Meta Quest 3-exclusive games.
Neither title will be coming to the Meta Quest 2 (Oculus Quest 2).
Meta has recently been selling the Quest 2 at an all-time low price, signaling the end of life for the popular VR headset.
Two big-name IPs just announced AAA games for Meta Quest headsets, but only the Meta Quest 3 is receiving either of them. Alien: Rogue Incursion and Batman: Arkham Shadow are on the way later this year but neither game will be available on the Meta Quest 2 which has recently seen massive discounts to thin out inventory.
Batman: Arkham Shadow comes from Camouflaj, a first-party Meta developer under the Oculus Studios brand and the same developer behind the excellent Iron Man VR released on PlayStation VR and Meta Quest platforms. It's a brand-new Meta Quest 3-exclusive entry into the mainline Batman Arkham series.
As the teaser trailer suggests, the game should fit nicely in with the Arkham series of games. That should include plenty of stealth missions, high-action fight scenes, using plenty of Batman's extensive catalog of gadgets, and maybe even flying around the city, all in glorious VR. Given that Iron Man VR's gameplay revolved entirely around flying, it would be surprising to see this particular mechanic missing from Batman: Arkham Shadow.
More details will be revealed during Summer Game Fest on June 7 at 2:00 p.m. PT.
Meanwhile, Alien: Rogue Incursion comes from veteran VR developer Survios, who was behind games like Creed: Rise to Glory, Raw Data, and Westworld Awakening. Alien: Rogue Incursion marks the first time a game based in the Alien universe is officially available in VR, making the single-player action-horror experience even more real than ever before. This one is coming out for PSVR 2 and PCVR as well, but not the Meta Quest 2 natively.
Just like with Batman: Arkham Shadow, there's only a teaser trailer for Alien: Rogue Incursion at this time with gameplay details expected over the next few months.
Based on the description, the game sounds like it takes after the excellent Alien: Isolation that debuted a full decade ago. As that's still one of the scariest games ever made, playing it in fully immersive VR is sure to put plenty of players on edge as they make their way through a space station all while being hunted by a killer Xenomorph.
While we've been recommending the Meta Quest 2 as a great budget headset to pick up for under $200, we're changing our recommendation starting today. While the Meta Quest 2 is still a fantastic budget-priced headset to have around the house, we no longer recommend buying one if it's going to be your only VR headset.
Instead, we recommend either getting a Meta Quest 3 or waiting for the rumored Meta Quest 3 Lite, which has been said to be priced quite a bit lower than the Quest 2 while still offering the same horsepower as the regular Quest 3. That means next-generation games like Alien: Rogue Incursion and Batman: Arkham Shadow would work on that system just as they will on a regular Meta Quest 3.
Picking up a Meta Quest 2 for under $200 is still a great buy if you plan to use it for playing PCVR games wirelessly or if you want a secondary headset in your home, but it's clear that the system's library of native titles is only going to continue shrinking as time goes on. Townsmen VR was the first Meta Quest 3-exclusive game just after the New Year 2024, and other upcoming Meta Quest games like Starship Home are also Quest 3-exclusive titles.
