Meta spins off VR fitness game Supernatural instead of shutting it down
▼ Summary
– Meta’s VR metaverse efforts largely failed, but the fitness game Supernatural was a notable success.
– Meta acquired Supernatural’s studio, Within, in 2023 after an eight-month antitrust battle and a $400 million deal.
– Meta initially planned to stop adding content to Supernatural, but user protests led to a reversal.
– Supernatural is being spun off into an independent company, Supernatural Health, led by its original founders.
– The transition is framed as a shared belief that the community is best served by a focused, independent team.
Meta’s grand vision for the metaverse and virtual reality never quite took off the way the company hoped. But amid the wreckage of that ambition, one gem shined through: Supernatural, a VR fitness game that turned exercise into something genuinely fun and accessible. Now, users can breathe a sigh of relief, because Supernatural isn’t shutting down after all.
Meta fought a grueling eight-month antitrust battle to acquire Within, the studio behind Supernatural, back in 2023. The price tag reportedly landed around $400 million, not including the legal costs of beating the FTC in court. Yet despite that massive investment, Meta soon laid off much of its VR workforce and announced it would stop adding new content to the app just a few years later.
But then Meta did something rare: it listened. Facing a wave of protest from devoted Supernatural users, the company pivoted. About five months after the initial shutdown announcement, Meta is now allowing the Supernatural team to spin off into a new independent company called Supernatural Health, which will take over the app later this year.
“Supernatural is being reborn. Same coaches, same DNA, same obsession with making fitness feel like the best part of your day , now under a new, independent company we’re starting from the ground up,” Supernatural Health writes on its website.
Who’s behind this new venture? The original founders, naturally.
It’s a happy ending, but it’s also maddening. The whole saga feels like a high schooler who stages an elaborate prom-posal, survives a tense dinner with their date’s parents to prove their good intentions, and then breaks up right after the dance.
“We’re grateful for the platform and resources Meta provided during a critical growth phase,” Supernatural Health stated. “This transition reflects a shared belief that Supernatural’s community is best served by a focused, independent team. Meta has been supportive throughout.”
I’ll be here pulling my hair out over how absurd this whole situation has been. But at least I know that one online community has escaped the crushing weight of big tech.
“Like so many of us I was so devastated when the coaches were let go and we were told our beloved Supernatural, while we loved it and it was great, would never get any better than it was. What we had was what we had. We all felt like it was purchased to kill,” one user wrote in the public Supernatural Facebook group. “I am such a sap. Why am I tearing up?”
(Source: TechCrunch)
