Supernatural Coaches Returning As Founders Spin Out VR Fitness Service From Meta

Supernatural founders Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin are taking their VR fitness service out of Meta as Supernatural Health.

The human heart of VR fitness service Supernatural — the coaches — are set to return as the original founders spin out their work from Meta.

January’s seismic strategy shift at Meta to center on AI laid off thousands of employees and shuttered gaming studios ahead of winding down the company’s wider Horizon Worlds effort. The shift also tore the heart out of the acquired service Supernatural as the coaches who guide members through their fitness journey were effectively turned into ghosts. Their performances would remain as “content” in the app but their employment ended.

Now founders Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin, who originally agreed to sell the service to Meta in 2021, are going back to their roots as an independent entity called Supernatural Health and planning to bring back the coaches.

“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. The next chapter is going to be even better than the last one, and we want you involved from day one,” a Q&A page on the official website explains, noting a price increase is also coming to the service to support the effort. “As a fresh new independent company, we want to continue to pay the team industry salaries with real benefits, sign our own music deals, invest in new features and give the coaches you love a career instead of a side gig. The new price is what lets us do all of that and keep the bar high — for years, not just a season. Founding Members will help us get started with a founder discount as a thank you for being there from the start of this new chapter. Subscribers who join after we launch will pay full price.”

The announcement was made through the official Supernatural Facebook group. While the group has more than 110,000 members usually posting positive reinforcement for people on their fitness journey, shock and anger in the aftermath of the announcement in January has given way to a recurring theme of disheartened members finding themselves wondering if they should stick with Supernatural as friends they’ve made left the community.

This is breaking news first reported by Good Virtual Reality. This publication is a 100 percent independent, community-supported journalism effort made exclusively by people for people. Please consider a donation to support our reporting or become a paid subscriber.