Subscription-based VR Fitness App ‘Supernatural’ Coming to Quest Today

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Within, the immersive studio known for some of VR’s highest quality experiences, unveiled a new fitness app for Oculus Quest earlier this month that aims to give you a fun, fast, and intuitive cardio workout in VR. Starting today you’ll be able to dive right in.

Update (April 23rd, 2020): Supernatural is set to go live today on the Oculus Store for Quest at 10 AM PT (local time here). The first 30 days is free, however afterwards ‘founding members’ will pay a monthly fee of $19. We haven’t had a chance to go hands-on with Supernatural yet, but we’ll report back soon.

There’s still no word on when a version for Rift, or other PC VR headsets is due to arrive. The original article announcing Supernatural follows below:

Original Article (April 13th, 2020): Called Supernatural, the subscription-based app is said to launch on Quest April 23rd. The subscription includes new workouts published daily at a discounted introductory rate of $19 per month, as well as a free trial to see if its right for you.

And what exactly do you get with this ‘virtual gym’ membership? According to an Oculus blog post, Supernatural melds together VR rhythm game mechanics, daily personalized full-body workouts, expert coaching from real-world trainers, and music from popular artists, all of which is set in variety of photorealistic landscapes.

The promo video certainly gives off Beat Saber vibes, albeit with a decidedly less of a ‘European discotheque’ aesthetic and more of a crunchy granola feel from some Star Trekian future.

“When my Within co-founder Aaron Koblin and I realized we had developed dad-bods without having any actual children, we knew we had to do something,” Within co-founder Chris Milk says. “Neither one of us was fond of or good at sticking with exercise. We disliked the rigmarole of going to the gym and didn’t think the home fitness solutions out there were particularly fun. We wanted the benefits of exercising regularly, but we didn’t enjoy the short-term activity necessary to get those long-term results.”

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The team hasn’t revealed what musical artists will be featured, however Milk says its will feature “some of the biggest artists from the major record labels, and amazing artists from indie labels as well.”

Supernatural is said to arrive with a companion app, which lets you pair your heart rate monitor, schedule workouts, and follow friends.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Bro-tastic

    $20/m no thanks thats 2 months worth of Netflix

    • Andrew Jakobs

      LOL, that’s the DISCOUNTED price… I guess some people will pay such high prices for such crap stuff.. Let them first show they actually can provide such a good service that’s even worth $20 for the app itself, let alone a month..

      • Brian Elliott Tate

        Just fyi, the app is completely free, there’s a free 30 day trial and anyone who does the free trial gets sent a free sweat proof quest cover.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          how is it absoletely free if it has a 30 day trial… after that you’ll have to pay $20/m…

          • Brian Elliott Tate

            Sorry, just meant the app itself from the Oculus and mobile stores with the tutorial, etc. Yes, after the free trial, it does require a subscription to use though.

  • gothicvillas

    $160 a year sub… okaaaay ;)

  • DanDei

    Hefty price point for a Beat Saber clone with nicer backgrounds. Absolutely no chance to survive as a subscription based model in the limited VR market.

    • Malkmus

      Depends. A lot of people use VR for exercise already, and I’d bet that between this or a Peloton this is a lot more enticing for them. Heart rate tracking via Apple watch, and daily coaching are something even Beat Saber can’t offer. I wouldnt write this one off just yet.

    • Jonathan Winters III

      Subscription based? I’m out.

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  • James

    $20 a month right now = D.O.A. It’s a great idea, I hope they will give some thought to pricing, or maybe offering a very extended free trial.

  • James

    $20 month right now = D.O.A It’s a great idea but they had better seriously rethink pricing. I hope they will consider offering an extended free-trial period followed by something a bit more feasible.

  • Jarom Madsen

    I’m curious about the “Real-World Expert Coaching”. If they’re talking about conferencing with a coach for $20 a month then this model absolutely makes sense and is very good value compared to current coaching options (the US national average for a personal trainer is $50/month). If they’re just recordings… eeeeh, they better be offering some killer amounts of new professional content (i.e. monthly programs, constant new tracks, etc.). Regardless, I’m intrigued to hear more about where this will go.

  • Raphael

    Eventually you’ll need to work 70 hours plus just to cover all the subscription games, services and apps.

  • Pablo C

    Everyone want me to subscribe nowadays. Where did the old days go.

  • I dunno, but that name doesn’t lead me to think about a workout app. Someone needs some better marketing advice maybe.

    • James Cobalt

      I think it’s a play on words. It’s Natural in terms of both body and environments, and plussing both, hence the super.

  • VR Fan

    $20 per month for a Box VR / Beat Saber clone? Hilarious.

  • Sky Castle

    I highly doubt they can push out new content regularly enough to even make the monthly payment worth it. This just sounds like such a bad idea. Good luck.

  • Kyokushin

    20$ usd monthly? no deal.

  • Rudl Za Vedno

    $19 per month? In what AR reality do these devs live? I can buy new discounted AAA title every single month for this amount. Hell, I paid 11 bucks for Elite Dangerous and $23 for No man’s sky and devs still keep giving communities new content for free year after year after year. Needless to say, this game is DOA

  • Cyrano DaBurgerack

    I predict this will be a resounding failure. One of the arguments is “we’re paying for the rights for thousands of songs!”, but that doesn’t matter. For every thousand songs, I doubt I’d really want more than 2-3. I’ll never get “my awesome playlist”. Not to mention that’s more than a gym membership, and I already have BoxVR which already has trainers/levels/ and even daily multiplayer sessions… And of course, there’s Beat Saber and a slew of other “fitness” apps/games. So who the heck is going to want to pay $20/month for this?

    • mirak

      20$ a month this is for a low cost gym without coaches and without activities.

      • WyrdestGeek

        Except they say they have coaches. But: I’m not sure what they really mean yet.

  • Harald Heide Gundersen

    Should come today you say? Well It’s not, if you live outside US or Canada. I know it’s hard to believe, but some people actually do that, and those that do, probably are not too happy about this regional discrimination like myself… Not the best way to create positive interest for a product…

  • burzum793

    Fucking subscriptions, they are a disease like Corona. There are so many damn companies starting to enforce susbcription based models, even for software that has no reason to go online at all or needs any damn online features. Why the heck does a programming IDE (Jetbrains) need a subscription? A fucking password manager (1password, Enpass)??? Adobe? You suck anyway. Why the fuck should I store my passwords online, even if they claim to encrypt them, on THEIR servers? 20 Years ago the web and the software was so much better and less anoying.