There are a number of apps for the Meta Quest platform that focus on fitness with Supernatural being one of the most prominent. Today, the Supernatural team have announced that actress, comedian and producer Tiffany Haddish will be starring as the app’s next guest coach from January.
Photo credit: Supernatural
From 1st January 2022, you’ll be able to enjoy workouts led by Haddish as part of Supernatural’s This Year, Be You campaign, encouraging Meta Quest owners to start feeling healthier by getting their sweat on in VR. She’ll coach four Supernatural sessions during January: Boxing, Flow – a cardio workout – guided meditation and a stretch session.
“I became addicted to Supernatural last year,” says Haddish, having lost over fifty pounds using the app. “I’ve never felt so powerful or had so much fun working out. I can travel the world from my living room, move to music I love, and feel like a superhero every day. My mission in life is to spread joy and empower people and, as a Supernatural Guest Coach, I get to spread that goodness in a way that also gets people sweating and smiling as they get a great workout.”
Supernatural arrived on Quest in 2020, becoming one of the first apps for the headset to offer a purely subscription-based service. Whilst there’s a 7-day free trial, after that Supernatural will cost you $18.99/month or $179.99/year to enjoy its workouts. Aside from the range of workouts on offer, Supernatural also boasts an expansive collection of major-label music featuring over 1000 songs. The only caveat, Supernatural is currently only available in the US and Canada. Other territories are supposedly coming but there’s been no mention of when.
“Tiffany is not just a force for joy, she is a force for good, breaking boundaries and expectations with everything she does,” adds Supernatural Co-Founder and CEO, Chris Milk. “With this series, we’re proud to have her share her unmatched energy with the Supernatural community through a series of workouts that invite you to take on the most welcoming, positive and joyful new years resolution possible.”
Supernatural has done so well since its initial launch that in October the company announced that it had been acquired by Meta.
For continued updates on Supernatural and all the other ways to stay fit in VR, keep reading VRFocus.
Earlier this year Meta announced the acquisition of Within, the studio behind the VR fitness app Supernatural. While the price of the acquisition wasn’t disclosed, a report this week claims Meta hoped to pay $400 million for the studio but the deal may not have closed yet due to ongoing scrutiny by the US Federal Trade Commission.
Meta announced the acquisition of Within at the end of October, saying that the studio would be run under the umbrella of Meta Reality Labs, the company’s XR organization. The price of the acquisition was not announced at the time. Like previous VR studio acquisitions, Meta said the studio will “continue to be operated independently.”
This would mark the company’s sixth acquisition of a VR studio, though it turns out the deal may not be finalized just yet.
According to a report from The Information, the deal price was to be “$400+ million,” citing two unnamed sources. Further, the report claims that the US Federal Trade Commission, which oversees antitrust and consumer protection, has “opened an in-depth probe of the acquisition, meaning Meta may not be able to finalize the acquisition for another year, assuming the agency doesn’t formally challenge the deal in court, causing additional delays.”
The FTC’s interest in the deal is reportedly connected to its ongoing case alleging that Meta engaged in anticompetitive practices when acquiring companies like Instagram and WhatsApp. While that case had not previously directly involved any of Meta’s XR business, the size of the Within acquisition has reportedly put it on the FTC’s radar in conjunction with the existing case. We’ve reached out to Meta for comment on The Information report.
Meta’s acquisition of Within would mark the sixth VR studio that the company has bought in an effort to have greater control over the destiny of killer VR apps and the talent behind them. Meta has also acquired Beat Games (Beat Saber), Sanzaru Games (Asgard’s Wrath and others), Ready at Dawn (Lone Echo and others), Downpour Interactive (Onward), and BigBox VR (Population: One), all in just under two years.
Meta (formerly Facebook) today announced its sixth VR studio acquisition. This time it’s Within, the studio behind the popular Quest exclusive VR fitness app Supernatural.
Meta announced the acquisition of Within on the Oculus blog saying that the studio will be run under Meta Reality Labs, the company’s XR organization. The price of the acquisition was not announced. Like previous VR studio acquisitions, Meta says the studio will “continue to be operated independently.”
Within has had a winding path to this moment. The company was founded back in 2014, originally called Vrse, two years before the first consumer VR headsets hit the market. At first the company was producing 360 VR video content, including some seminal 360 short films like Evolution of Verse and Clouds Over Sidra. Eventually the company expanded beyond producing its own content and built a streaming content library of immersive films, and raised tens of millions of dollars along the way. Like most VR video streaming platforms, the app struggled to find strong traction, though it remains available today on all major platforms.
The company made a hard pivot into the VR fitness space with the release of the Quest-exclusive Supernaturalin 2020. Structurally the app plays a lot like Beat Saber (which was also acquired by Meta), but with a much clearer focus on fitness and coaching.
Supernatural has been something of a darling for Meta since its launch. It was one of the first Quest apps to be built around a subscription pricing model, and though it’s been criticized for its relatively high monthly price, it seems to have found real traction with Meta regularly holding it up as the posterchild for VR fitness on Quest.
Meta says that Within will continue to focus on “fitness, wellness, and social experiences in VR, [and] helping people achieve their goals in the most joyful and connected way possible.” Specifically for Supernatural the company says it will “more music, creative ways to workout, features, and social experiences” in the future.
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Today’s acquisition marks the sixth VR studio that Meta has bought in an effort to have greater control over the destiny of killer VR apps and the talent behind them. Facebook has also acquired Beat Games (Beat Saber), Sanzaru Games (Asgard’s Wrath and others), Ready at Dawn (Lone Echo and others), Downpour Interactive (Onward), BigBox VR (Population: One), and now Within, all in just under two years.
A little more than one year after launch, Supernatural is changing lives with its subscription-based fitness program on Oculus Quest.
If you’re looking for a “daily source of inspiration and motivation” and curious about the broader impact of VR as a technology, you might think about checking out the Official Supernatural Community on Facebook. The group has more than 13,000 members with updates streaming in at all hours from people talking about their fitness journeys in VR. They share what’s going on their lives, their progress, the music and the workouts, and generally encourage one another with support and tips.
A key part of Supernatural is its focus on coaches in virtual reality who talk members through new workouts every day. Leanne Pedante is the Head of Fitness at Supernatural and her encouraging voice has been driving “champions” to finish their Supernatural workouts strong and proud. We’re going to be joined by Pedante in our virtual studio this week for a live broadcast interview talking about exercise in VR. Has Pedante been noticed out in the physical world by Supernatural players who “met” her virtually? Does she have any advice for people to keep up with their workouts? Do you have your own questions?
Tune in on Wednesday, June 9 at 11 am Pacific time for our live discussion with Pedante from our virtual studio. We should be able to monitor live comments, so no matter if you’re a member of the Supernatural community already, or entirely new to VR and thinking about getting a headset for exercise, leave a question or comment and we might talk about it on the show.
You can subscribe to our channel and set a reminder for the interview with the video below, or check back on this page at 11 am Pacific time on June 9.
Every weekend VRFocus gathers together vacancies from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industry, in locations around the globe to help make finding that ideal job easier. Below is a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on immersive entertainment.
Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hubto check as well.
If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).
We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.
Oculus Quest workout app Supernatural now offers family plans so that sharing the same headset is easier while tracking the progress for each player.
The feature doesn’t extend to multiple Quests and it won’t wipe away the sweat for you between uses, but the feature may help some families stay fit together.
Supernatural is the Beat Saber-like workout app from Within that’s built from the ground up for the wireless freedom of Quest. The app features a deep music catalog with a number of popular artists and songs arranged into workouts with fitness coaches providing guidance. Every song makes use of 360-degree freedom, asking you to turn toward different lanes to bat away targets. The design is also meant to be fairly intelligent as it calibrates to each user — so the new family plan allows for quickly switching profiles so that “everyone gets their own personal workout history, calibration, community profile and more for a completely unique and personalized Supernatural experience,” according to Within.
Supernatural is priced $19 per month to become a member and there’s an annual membership priced to $179 as of this writing. The subscription also comes with a 30-day free trial and, when you sign up, Within is still sending out silicone liners (one per subscription) to protect the headset from sweat.
Earlier this year we discussed whether the pricing is worth it and there’s a lot to consider depending on what your goals are and how the service might fit into your life. You can read that breakdown here or check out the discussion in the video below.
Does the addition of family plans to Supernatural change the math for any of you? Let us know in the comments below.
Supernatural (2020), the VR fitness app for Oculus Quest, kicked off its subscription service late last month, offering up a fun and engaging gameified fitness routine for $19 per month. Now the developers Within have included an annual subscription option to lower the cost of entry.
From now until May 31st, would-be subscribers will be able to plonk down $149 for 12 months of access to Supernatural, which effectively brings the price down to $12.42 per month.
Starting June 1st, the annual subscription price goes up to $199 (~$16.60 per month), although if you lock in before that date you’ll be able to keep the $149 price moving forward.
The $19 per-month tier will still exist, however if you’re looking to commit to the game long-term, you’ll be able to do it a bit cheaper overall.
In addition, Within is tossing out free sweat-proof silicone liners to new subscribers as long as supplies last.
We gave Supernaturala respectable [7.7/10] in our review for its highly polished visuals and engaging (if not well-tread) gameplay. Based on the same block-slashing concept as Beat Saber (2018), Supernatural differentiates itself by adding in extended workouts to popular music, which are guided by digitized personal trainers. Integrated fitness tracker support also allows you to include your heartbeat stats, making for a well-rounded way of tracking your fitness goals.
Supernatural offers a 30-day free trial, so whether you find its growing list of Beat Saber-style workouts an acceptable stand-in for the gym, or conversely not substantial enough, at least you have the freedom to try it out and find out for yourself.
Following the launch of its subscription-based VR fitness app earlier this month, Within just revealed a limited Supernatural deal for your first year. But you’ll need to act fast.
When Supernatural launched on Oculus Quest, Within set a monthly subscription fee of $19, with your first 30 days free. This price has been the subject of much discussion, however, with many feeling that it’s too high a price for a VR game that’s very similar in nature to Beat Saber. For 12 months of subscription, you’d be looking at around $240 spent with the current deal.
This new deal, which is now live on the official website, offers an entire year for $149. That works out to a little less than $13 a month instead. The offer is only available until May 31 as an early adopter promotion. Within also confirmed to us that this price will never rise if you keep your subscription going over multiple years.
After that, a yearly subscription costs $199, still saving you a bit over the monthly fee.
Supernatural offers daily workout playlists hosted by professional trainers that guide you through its rhythm-based gameplay. Though it does indeed play very similar to Beat Saber, the app is far more concerned with your fitness, mapping tracks to get the most out of your workout and providing stats via a companion app.
Last week we met up in our virtual studio to discuss if the app was worth its monthly price tag. You can see that video below. We also laid out the value in an article, concluding that, while the app itself was often impressive, basically $20 a month would be far too high a price for many people. You could get a lot of other VR games at a one-time purchase for that much money.
What do you think of this Supernatural deal? Is the VR fitness app now worth it at this price or is it still too high for you? Let us know in the comments below!
There’s no better moment than now to find a reason to get up and moving, which is probably why acclaimed AR/VR studio Within launched its at-home VR fitness app Supernatural (2020). The gameified fitness app will get your heart pumping to the beat of a list of songs from popular artists, all while you have a digital personal trainer piped into your ears for encouragement. Is it worth the monthly $19 subscription price though? The short answer: not for me, but it could be for you.
Supernatural Details:
Developer: Within Available On:Oculus Quest Reviewed On: Quest Release Date: April 23rd, 2020 Price: $19 per month subscription, free 30-day trial
Gameplay
I didn’t realize at first why Within decided to release Supernatural only on Quest, but after the first few moments of going through setup phase, which recorded my height and taught me the basic moves, it became apparent to me that wire-free was the only way to go with Supernatural’s frenetic workouts.
Much like Beat Saber (2018), you’re tasked with hitting directional-based objects, which in the case of Supernatural are black and white orbs with a translucent cone to indicate which side of the orb you need to smash through, using with your matching black and white bats of course.
To get you moving around, you also have to fit through incoming glowing white triangles, forcing you to lunge left or right, or assume a standard squat position. Little tails coming from some orbs lead you to spin your whole body to a new position, giving you a gradual 360 spin around the room on a central axis. That last part, combined with the lunging and striking at the same time, would be super frustrating with a cable in the way, so the Quest-only approach makes a lot of sense here.
Since my gym has been closed for months now, and I’ve completely neglected my workout routine as a result, Supernatural proved to be a great all-around heart-pumping exercise to get me moving again, offering about the same level of activity that you might get from a step class. Although my Fitbit Charge HR2 couldn’t pair with the smartphone app (many fitness trackers do), recording it separately showed I was consistently hitting the ‘Fat Burning’ stage, and only sometimes dipping into ‘Cardio’ stage for my weight, height and age.
There are a handful of workouts right now (more are added every day), all of which are based on that orb-smashing, triangle-squatting concept. They do however vary in duration, difficulty, and coach. Workouts span anywhere from 12 to 26 minutes, and include several high-profile songs—almost too many to name. Suffice it to say that it’s not your mishmash of hip EDM titles like you’ll find outside of the DLC music packs on Beat Saber, but rather recognizable singles from across many musical genres.
In addition to workouts with set difficulties, there’s also a number of them with an automatic difficulty adjuster based on your ability, which at times kept me at the point of utter confusion with the amount of orbs to smash and triangles to fit inside. I would have liked to manually choose difficulty for these auto-difficulty workouts, but the studio has been adamant about throwing out a new workout every day since launch, making for a pretty wide selection for any level user.
Getting the high score isn’t just about the accuracy points either, not entirely. You’re also graded on power, which is combined in a composite power/accuracy score. Besides keeping track of your growing muscle memory of a track, this also keeps you from taking any shortcuts by wrist-waggling the controller, as you need good, smooth, powerful follow-through to get the highest power points.
Image courtesy Within
To be frank, I was expecting a lot more variety from the onset, maybe even some muscle specialization, stretching routines, and different style games to chew on. That, I feel, may be what makes or breaks Supernatural in the long run if it wants to keep subscribers on board. The game itself is very fun, and it nestles very easily into my Beat Saber skill set—you might call it the number one Beat Saber competitor based on its stark similarities to the genre-defying forebear.
Image courtesy Within
That said, I’ve been happily coasting on the free 30-day trial, and while I’ve been genuinely enjoying it so far, I just don’t know if now is the right time to commit to making Supernatural a core part of my fitness program. For $19 a month, which is a little under the price of a monthly subscription at the YMCA, I would expect a buffet of different fitness activities to keep me coming back for more.
I say this with the knowledge that most of humanity is locked in their houses right now, so I can see people signing up for Supernatural for a few months and forking over that monthly Andrew Jackson as a means of self-motivation to continue working out—and having a lot more fun doing it than spending 30 minutes on the elliptical while they’re at it. This leaves me a bit conflicted personally. You may find the value to price proposition enough to keep you returning every week, but I simply can’t when I already use my standard mix of Beat Saber, Knockout League, and Space Pirate Trainer to keep the blood from pooling in my butt cheeks.
The game’s developer Within is one of the best in the field when it comes to polish, and I expected no less going into Supernatural. Here, you’re treated to amazing 360 landscapes paired with near-photorealistic rendered foregrounds, making for a convincing illusion that you’re working out in a rice paddy at sunset, on the Icelandic tundra, or in the Scottish Highlands.
Everything in Supernatural looks like it sprung out of a science fiction film, as if it were some sort of fitness program you’d use while stuck on a deep space transport mission to Omicron Persei 8. That alone is a charming little slice of weirdness that you can only have in VR.
As far as immersion is concerned, hitting black and white orbs while you’re floating over an ocean is pretty abstract. One of the most immersive bits though is the individual coaches, who help ground the workout with a pre-workout chat, and then continue with disembodied suggestions, motivation, and most everything you’d expect from a personal trainer.
I say most everything because the coach’s dynamic dialogue doesn’t cover all aspects of what you might expect from a live instructor, who can actively correct your form, and make truly individual suggestions to your behavior. I have an old tennis elbow injury from overextending my arm too much in karate, so I know not to extend my arm too much now, or risk the aching pain returning. I wonder whether the virtual coach might actually encourage ‘bad form’, the enemy of all fitness instructors, with their implicit silence.
Comfort
Since fitness is the name of the game, and you’ll be making fast and powerful arm and leg movements, you really have to crank the Quest down on your head to make sure it’s stable enough on your noggin and not flopping around. If it isn’t tight, you may feel a bit woozy after having the virtual world move independently from your eyes at such regular and frenetic intervals.
Otherwise, besides the not-so-awesome ergonomics of the Quest and discomfort associated with getting sweat on the facial interface, Supernatural is a very comfortable experience overall.
Make sure to dress the part, use a washable VR cover, and move the couch and cat away from you, and you’ll be sweating to the oldies, beginner or advanced VR user alike.
It’s been over two weeks since Within launched Supernatural, its radical new VR subscription service on Oculus Quest. It’s a $20-a-month app that wants to swap the treadmill for a videogame. After extensive testing, we can now weigh in on the big question: is Supernatural worth it?
In the video below, three of the UploadVR team headed into our virtual studio to discuss the pros and cons of Supernatural based on a few weeks of use. We found some common ground on both sides. On the one hand, there’s the app’s strong tracklist of music with great mapping to maximize spending your energy. But the question of its price, especially in the face of competition, is a tough one. Read on for more info about the app and our thoughts on if Supernatural is worth it.
Before we go any further, I have to point out that it is very easy for you to make your mind up about Supernatural yourself. Within offers an entire month free — a generous offer considering the hefty monthly subscription — and if you have any interest in VR fitness at all, you really should take the company up on it.
It’s also important to note that we’re assessing the service just as its starting out and that there is, hopefully, a long runway of tweaks, additions and improvements to be made to the service. With that in mind, let’s dive in.
What Is Supernatural?
Make no mistake about it, Supernatural is a Beat Saber clone. Its core mechanics have you swinging two colored bats to corresponding notes that fly towards you in time with a music track. Occasionally, triangular-shaped obstacles force you to squat, too.
But, rather than simply picking from a list of songs to master with repeat playthroughs, Supernatural offers a new workout routine (or playlist) every 24 hours. Workouts between 10 – 30 minutes are accompanied with introductions from fitness coaches that will then spur you on as you play. A companion app will track your progress, too.
What Kind Of A Workout Does It Offer?
Supernatural aims to wear you down with a mix of consistent arm swinging and squatting from side-to-side for a workout that uses both upper and lower body. Though it’s technically easy to get away with casual movements, trainers encourage you to swing with power and from the core to maximize your workout.
If you’re doing particularly well, the app’s adaptive difficulty with pick up the pace, or slow it down if you’re struggling. The aim is to create an experience where you’re not focused on scores so much as flow and pace, though you can also choose between high and low intensities and a Pro workout that offers the most intense mapping right the way through.
How Intense Is It?
Fairly obviously, the answer to this question will depend on a lot on your own physical fitness. For our own testing, three of the UploadVR staff tried Supernatural for a few weeks. Myself, Video Editor Zeena Al-Obaidi, and Senior Editor David Jagneaux all took part.
I came to Supernatural already as someone that has exercised every day for the past few months, alternating between 5K runs and an assortment of home-based workouts. Personally, what I’ve found is an experience I can approach enthusiastically at the end of one of my other workouts as a means of keeping active for a bit longer, if not something that has often left me entirely exhausted, especially after my legs acclimatized to VR’s most demanding squats. I wouldn’t count a lone Supernatural session as a sufficient day’s workout myself.
Video Editor Zeena Al-Obaidi, however, attempted to swap out a daily routine of 20 – 30 minute YouTube-guided high-intensity training workouts with the app and quickly found herself eager to switch back as Supernatural wasn’t providing the same level of exhaustion. Meanwhile, Senior Editor David Jagneaux approached Supernatural as a fresh start for exercise after injuring his knee during intense personal training last year. He loved his initial workout but has subsequently found it to be less and less demanding as he acclimatized to it.
That said, we all agreed that by VR’s standards, Supernatural offers one of the most intense and dedicated workouts you can find inside a headset. It just doesn’t really compare to what’s available in the outside world.
How Much Fun Is It?
Obviously, there’s not much point investing in a gamified fitness program if the game itself isn’t any fun. Fortunately, by sticking close to the Beat Saber formula, Supernatural has an engaging and addictive set of mechanics right at its core that lots — if not all — VR players will enjoy.
In Supernatural’s best songs, it’s pure magic, a thrilling rollercoaster with a seamless flow that pulls you along for the ride. Adaptive difficulty keeps the pace going and the lively, energetic tracklist never feels out of place or weak. Of course, I say ‘not all’ because, even as VR’s most successful game, Beat Saber isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for a fitness game perhaps with more escapism, this isn’t the one for you.
But there are more troubling aspects, too. While song mapping is on-point and active, I’ve personally really struggled with matching the right color to the corresponding note in more complex moments. In Beat Saber, this is one of many intricacies that makes it such an engaging game. When I approach Supernatural, I am in the mindset of getting fit, hitting goals and making progress, not trying to mentally navigate a maze. Every time my brain pulls a fast one on me, I feel discouraged. And yes, within time I might improve and fitness instructors try to reassure you it’s not always about the accuracy, but taking a hit to workout morale — one based on mental dexterity rather than my actual health — that early on is hugely concerning.
How Does It Track Activity?
Though you’ll get stats on accuracy and power of swings at the end of every song for more detailed statistics you’ll need a smartwatch and a companion app. Other VR apps have in-game calorie counters, though it’s important to point out that there’s very little way of telling how accurate these are. Still, even rough approximations can be useful to spur you on and give you something useful to measure, especially if you don’t have access to a smartwatch.
How Does It Compare To Beat Saber And Other VR Fitness Apps?
Although the service is nearly identical to Beat Saber in terms of mechanics, rest assured this is a premium imitation. Supernatural’s sleek black and white design and real-world environments are a welcome breath of fresh air from the numerous neon imitators that have followed in the wake of Saber (or, going back further, Audioshield). Its tracklist is equally top tier, boasting the likes of Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar. Most importantly, though, its daily supply of new workout routines, each individually coached by one of a handful of personal trainers, gives you a new combination of tracks to try every 24 hours at different intensities, even if some tracks will repeat over the course of a few weeks.
Beat Saber isn’t the only VR fitness app, though. Odders Lab’s OhShape, for example, has you lunging and ducking to win human Tetris and BoxVR’s punching workouts might play a little rickety, but it’s not short on curated playlists and offers multiplayer support. Supernatural’s premium feel still bests its competitors, but I personally also find OhShape’s mix of shape-throwing, coin-grabbing, wall-dodging gameplay to offer a more dynamic mix of work
How Does It Compare To Non-VR Fitness Options?
There’s really two options to consider here: traditional workout options like gym subscriptions or home exercise or, perhaps more appropriate, subscriptions to digital fitness services accessed on your phone or PC.
Compared to a gym or out-of-home exercise, Supernatural has the obvious advantage of not making you leave the house. However, if you’ve proven to yourself that getting to the gym on a regular basis isn’t an obstacle before, the benefits really stop there. Supernatural just doesn’t offer the variety of intensity of exercise that you’d get from weight lifting, more dedicated cardio or class-based or personal training sessions. With proper motivation, you could even get more mileage out of household equipment like weights or treadmills.
Plus, as someone who has subscribed to professional at-home fitness plans before, I don’t think Supernatural offers the intensity or diversity they do for a similar price, either. Dedicated workout plans are, from my experience, unquestionably the better way to go. But it’s also true that these sorts of plans take an enormous amount of self-motivation and persistence.
And that’s the key; all the gym equipment in the world doesn’t matter if you can’t bring yourself to use it. What Supernatural may lack in intensity, it makes up for in this department. Through its brand of enjoyable exercise, Supernatural doesn’t feel nearly as much of a chore to return to time-after-time. But, as someone that doesn’t struggle to gather motivation to workout, this is less of a factor for me. You might need to ask yourself about your own self-discipline when deciding if the app is worth it.
Is Supernatural Worth $20 A Month?
That’s the big, expensive elephant in the room. I do believe that for a certain set of people that struggle with routine, mundane exercise and need more motivation for a VR workout than repeating Beat Saber songs, Supernatural’s combination of enjoyable gameplay and persistent structure could be hugely beneficial.
Personally, I find it hard to justify spending $20 a month on Supernatural when it is so single-mindedly obsessed with Beat Saber. A year of subscription will cost you an astounding $240. As of right now, the entire Beat Saber experience, including the base game, all the free updates and premium DLC (released over the course of the past few years), would set you back $111.58 on Steam. That’s a significant all-in difference and, crucially, if you’re serious about VR fitness you could then pile on some other games for variety.
You might argue that comparing the subscription fee to that of a Netflix or online gaming account is unfair; if you were to instead compare it to traditional digital workout subscriptions it stacks up quite well. But Supernatural doesn’t do enough to separate itself from one-time purchase VR games to warrant that $20 price tag and, even if it did, it doesn’t offer the variety and versatility you’ll find in many of the top programs, in my opinion.
Conclusion
When deciding if Supernatural is worth it for you, you need to ask yourself a set of questions. Firstly, are you sure that more traditional forms of exercise won’t work for you? And, if they wouldn’t, would your money be better spent instead completing a library of Beat Saber songs and other VR fitness games you’ll be able to play forever with a one-time purchase? If you consider seriously consider both of those points and decide it’s still worth it, Supernatural could make genuinely great progress in your life. But I suspect that the number of people that truly fit that criteria is worryingly small for a service as ambitious as this.
VR fitness is a great thing, a wonderfully unexpected side-effect of regular use of an entertainment product. In Supernatural, you can see a well-intentioned, thoughtfully-planned attempt to capitalize on that positivity. And for some people I don’t doubt adhering to a few months of daily workouts inside the app could make a dramatic change. But I suspect for a great many more people certain elements like price and variety need to go back to the drawing board if they’re to represent anything like the right kind of value. At its core, pushing through the workout wall is genuinely enjoyable in Supernatural but its hefty monthly subscription may be one mountain too tough to climb.
