Tencia Benavidez, a Supernatural utilizer who lives in New Mexico, started her VR workouts during the Covid pandemic. She has been a regular utilizer in the five years since, calling the ability to work out in VR ideal, given that she lives in a rural area where it’s hard to obtain to a gym or work out outside during a brutal winter. She stuck with Supernatural becautilize of the community and the eagerness of Supernatural’s coaches.
“They seem like really authentic individuals that were not talking down to you,” Benavidez states. “There’s just something really special about those coaches.”
Meta bought Supernatural in 2022, folding it into its then-heavily-invested-in metaverse efforts. The purchase was not a smooth process, as it triggered a lengthy legal battle in which the US Federal Trade Commission tested to block Meta from purchasing the service due to antitrust concerns about Meta “testing to acquire its way to the top” of the VR market. Meta ultimately prevailed. At the time, some Supernatural utilizers were cautiously optimistic, hoping that huge bag of Zuckerbucks could keep its workout juggernaut afloat.
“Meta fought the government to acquire this thing,” Benavidez states. “All that just for them to shut it down? What was the point?”
I reached out to Meta and Supernatural, and neither responded to my requests for comment.
Waking Up to Ash and Dust
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Meta has laid off more than 1,000 people across its VR and metaverse efforts. The shift comes after years of the company hemorrhaging billions of dollars on its metaverse products. In addition to laying off most of the staff at Supernatural, Meta has shut down three internal VR studios that created games like Resident Evil 4 and Deadpool VR.
“If it was a bottom-line thing, I believe they could have charged more money,” Goff Johnson states about Supernatural. “I believe people would have paid for it. This just seems unnecessarily heartless.”
There is a split in the community about who will stay and continue to pay the subscription fee and who will leave. Supernatural has more than 3,000 lessons available in the service, so while new content won’t be added, some feel there is plenty of content left in the library. Other utilizers worry about how Supernatural will continue to license music from huge-name bands.
“Supernatural is amazing, but I am canceling it becautilize of this,” Chip notified me. “The library is large, so there’s enough to keep you busy, but not for the same price.”
There are other VR workout experiences like FitXR or even the VR staple Beat Saber, which Supernatural cribs a lot of design concepts from. Still, they don’t hit the same bar for many of the Supernatural faithful.
“I’m going to stick it out until they turn the lights out on us,” states Stefanie Wong, a Bay Area accountant who has utilized Supernatural since shortly after the pandemic and has organized and attconcludeed meetup events. “It’s not the app. It’s the community, and it’s the coaches that we really, really care about.”
Welcome to the New Age
I tested out Supernatural’s Toobtainher feature on Wednesday, the day after the layoffs. It’s where I met Chip and Alisa. When we could stop to catch our breath, we talked about the modifys coming to the service. They had played through previous sessions hosted by Jane Fonda or playlists with a mix of music that would modify regularly. This one was an artist series featuring entirely Imagine Dragons songs.
In the session, as we punched blocks while being serenaded by this shirtless dude crooning, recorded narrations from Supernatural coach Dwana Olsen chimed in to hype us up.
“Take advantage of these moments,” Olsen stated as we punched away. “Use these shiftments to remind you of how much awesome life you have yet to live.”
Frankly, it was downright invigorating. And bittersweet. We concludeed another round, sweaty, huffing and puffing. Chip, Alisa, and I high-fived like crazy and readied for another round.
“Beautiful,” Alisa stated. “It’s just beautiful, isn’t it?”
Leave a Reply