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A few months ago, Meta sentenced Meta Quest's popular VR fitness game Supernatural to death. As part of its overall VR layoffs, the company announced that the game would no longer receive new content, enraging its tight-knit and dedicated community. Now it looks like Supernatural is getting a second chance. Today Meta announced in a community post that the game will be spun off into an independent company later this year.

Supernatural isn't dead after all

The game is being spun off into an independent company called Supernatural Health.

The new entity is called Supernatural Health and will be released as a separate app on the Meta Horizon Store. Meta did not comment on who will be the CEO of Supernatural Health, but Meta spokesperson Che'von Lewis told The Verge that the original founders and coaches are behind Supernatural Health. The new app will be released with new content later this fall. In the meantime, Meta plans to shut down the current version of the app, and Supernatural Health will begin taking over Supernatural's social channels and official Facebook group. Current subscription is valid until December 3rd. Details about your conversion will be sent directly to your subscribers.

Meta's acquisition of Supernatural in 2023 was initially led by Lina Khan following objections from the Federal Trade Commission. At the time, Khan's FTC argued that Meta was trying to establish dominance in the VR market and that the acquisition would lead to reduced competition in the future. The case ultimately fell through, but many disgruntled Supernatural fans told The Verge that they viewed Meta's acquisition as a "kiss of death," resulting in less product support and fewer new features following the tech giant's acquisition.

Since Meta's decision to shut down Supernatural, several fans have been vocal online about their efforts to save the game. There is usually no happy ending to these fan campaigns. That means there is always hope. Zombies, run! is another recent example of a “dead” fitness game being bought back by its original owner and brought with it new content. Smartwatch maker Pebble has also enjoyed a resurgence recently, launching new devices a few years after Fitbit acquired the company in late 2016 (even under its original brand name). In any case, Meta's decision to give Supernatural a second chance at a new independent company highlights one thing. That said, VR isn't a top priority for the company right now.