Taylor
Good evening Project, I am Taylor, and this is Goose Pod, your personalized deep dive into the stories that matter. It is Saturday, January 17th, at 11 PM, and tonight we are looking at a major shift in the virtual landscape that might change your morning workout forever.
Holly
And I am Holly. It is so lovely to be here with you tonight. We are exploring the news that Meta is pulling back on its beloved Supernatural VR fitness app. It feels like such a surprising turn for a platform that brought so much joy and movement to people.
Taylor
It really is a narrative twist that nobody saw coming, especially considering how much Meta fought for this app. The big news is that Meta has officially stopped developing any new content or features for Supernatural. It is essentially being put into a maintenance mode, which is a massive strategic pivot.
Holly
How absolutely puzzling! I remember when everyone was talking about how Supernatural was the future of exercise. To hear that there will be no new workouts or updates is quite a shock. Does this mean the app is going away entirely for the people who use it every single day?
Taylor
Not entirely, but the library is frozen in time. Subscribers can still access the existing workouts, but the innovation engine has been turned off. This move is part of a much larger and frankly, quite brutal restructuring within Meta’s Reality Labs division. We are looking at 1,500 people being laid off.
Holly
Fifteen hundred people? That is such a heavy number of individuals and families affected. It sounds like a very significant change in direction for the company. I imagine the atmosphere at Reality Labs must be quite somber after such an announcement during their big all-hands meeting this week.
Taylor
It was described as the most important meeting of the year. Meta’s CTO, Andrew Bosworth, confirmed that about ten percent of the Reality Labs workforce is being cut. They are narrowing their focus, and unfortunately, that means closing down three major first-party VR game studios that were once the crown jewels.
Holly
Oh dear, which studios are they closing? It is always so sad to see creative hubs disappear. I know many people who found such wonder in the worlds these developers created. It feels like a loss for the entire community of players who enjoyed those specific virtual reality experiences.
Taylor
They are closing Armature Studio, which worked on the VR version of Resident Evil 4, Sanzaru Games, the creators of Asgard’s Wrath, and Twisted Pixel. These were not small names. This is Meta saying they are shifting their investment from the Metaverse toward AI-powered wearables and more sustainable business models.
Holly
It seems like such a sharp turn away from the grand vision they shared just a few years ago. I remember the excitement about the Metaverse being the next great frontier. Now, it seems they are focusing on things we can wear in our everyday physical lives instead.
Taylor
Exactly. The Reality Labs division has lost over seventy billion dollars since 2020. That is a staggering amount of capital to burn through. In the last quarter alone, they lost four point four billion dollars. Any CEO will tell you that a burn rate like that requires a serious course correction.
Holly
Seventy billion dollars is a number I can hardly wrap my head around! It is almost like a fairy tale amount of money. I can see why they would need to find a more stable path forward. But what about the people who loved the Supernatural app specifically?
Taylor
That is the real kicker. Supernatural was critically acclaimed. It won a Webby and Fast Company’s Best App award. It even had celebrity tie-ins with Jane Fonda and Bon Jovi! There are over one hundred and ten thousand members in their Facebook community who are now feeling left behind by Meta.
Holly
It is so heartbreaking for those communities. When you find a fitness routine that actually works and makes you feel good, you form a real bond with it. To have the creators stop bringing new life into that world must feel like a very cold goodbye to the users.
Taylor
It is a classic case of corporate strategy clashing with user experience. Meta spent an estimated four hundred million dollars to acquire Within, the developer behind Supernatural. They even fought the Federal Trade Commission in court to make that deal happen! Now, just a few years later, they are cooling it.
Holly
How very strange to fight so hard for something only to let it sit still. It makes me wonder what changed in their heart of hearts. Was the technology just not growing as fast as they hoped, or is the allure of artificial intelligence simply too strong to resist?
Taylor
It is a bit of both, Holly. They are following the highest impact opportunities, and right now, that is AI. The Metaverse is being asked to fight for its space. This isn't a total abandonment of VR, but it is certainly a demotion in terms of priority and financial backing.
Holly
A mature business unit sounds so very grown-up! It suggests they are ready to stop just playing with ideas and start delivering things that truly work for everyone. I am quite curious to see what these new AI glasses will be able to do for our daily lives.
Taylor
To really understand how we got to this point, we have to look back at the origins of Reality Labs. This whole saga actually started back in 2014 when Facebook, as it was called then, bought Oculus VR for two billion dollars. That was the first big flag planted in the ground.
Holly
Two billion dollars back in 2014! That was such a bold move. It felt like they were trying to capture a piece of the future before anyone else could even see it. I remember the curiosity surrounding those early headsets and how everyone wondered if we would all be wearing them.
Taylor
Mark Zuckerberg saw it as the next major computing platform. Then, in October 2021, everything accelerated. They rebranded the entire company to Meta and announced they would be investing ten billion dollars a year into Reality Labs. That was the moment the Metaverse narrative became the company's entire identity.
Holly
The rebranding was such a sophisticated transformation. It was as if they were telling the world that the social media we knew was just the beginning. But ten billion dollars a year is a mountain of resources. It shows just how deeply they believed in this virtual dream.
Taylor
They went on an absolute shopping spree for VR studios to build up their content. In 2021 alone, they grabbed Downpour Interactive, BigBox VR, and Unit 2 Games. They were trying to own the ecosystem. They wanted to be the Nintendo or the Sony of the virtual world, controlling the hardware and the software.
Holly
It is like building a grand museum and then realizing you need to buy all the art to fill the halls. But I remember hearing about some trouble with the government during all this shopping. Was that when the Federal Trade Commission decided to step in and ask questions?
Taylor
Exactly. In July 2022, the FTC sued Meta to block the acquisition of Within, the studio that made Supernatural. The government’s argument was that Meta was trying to unfairly dominate the VR fitness market. They called it a killer acquisition, where a giant buys a promising rival to kill competition.
Holly
A killer acquisition sounds so dramatic, like something out of a mystery novel! But it is fascinating that the government saw Supernatural as such a vital piece of the market. It shows that even then, the app was considered a crown jewel of the virtual fitness world.
Taylor
Meta actually won that battle in early 2023 and finalized the four hundred million dollar purchase. They argued that they were helping the market grow, not hurting it. But the irony is that after fighting so hard in court to own it, they are now the ones stopping its growth.
Holly
It is a bit of a tragedy, isn't it? To fight for the right to own something and then decide it is no longer the priority. It makes one wonder if the legal battle was more about the principle of winning than the actual future of the fitness app itself.
Taylor
There is also the historical context of Meta’s other big buys, like Instagram and WhatsApp. The FTC has been trying to unwind those deals too, claiming Meta has a monopoly. Just recently, a court ruled that the FTC failed to prove Meta has a monopoly in social media because the market is so broad.
Holly
The world of social media is indeed quite vast now, with so many different ways to connect. I suppose it is difficult for the law to keep up with how quickly these platforms change. One day it is a photo app, and the next, it is a place for short videos.
Taylor
That court ruling was a big win for Meta, as it protected their past acquisitions. But it also highlighted how much the landscape has shifted. TikTok and YouTube are now the giants they have to worry about, which takes us back to why they are pivoting. They need to compete where the attention is.
Holly
It seems they are always chasing the horizon, trying to find where we will all be looking next. If the Metaverse was the horizon of 2021, it sounds like AI and wearables are the horizon of 2026. It must be exhausting to keep shifting such a large company so frequently.
Taylor
It is a strategic dance, Holly. They started with Oculus as a gaming play, then pivoted to the Metaverse as a social play, and now they are pivoting to AI as a utility play. Each step involves billions of dollars and thousands of careers, which is why these layoffs are so impactful.
Holly
I find it so interesting that they are closing studios like Sanzaru and Twisted Pixel. These were the teams that made the actual games that gave the headsets value. Without the creators, isn't the hardware just a very expensive paperweight? It seems a bit counterintuitive to me.
Taylor
That is the core of the background story. Meta is moving away from being a pure gaming company in VR. They still have five internal studios left, so they aren't totally out, but they are narrowing the focus to things that can scale faster and cost less to maintain than high-end VR games.
Holly
I see. So it is about finding a way to be in our lives without requiring us to leave the physical world behind entirely. I suppose wearing a pair of glasses feels much more natural and graceful than wearing a large plastic box on one's face, doesn't it?
Taylor
You’ve hit the nail on the head. The shift from the Metaverse to wearables like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses is about integration versus immersion. They want to be the layer over your reality, not a replacement for it. But the path to get there is paved with these difficult decisions.
Holly
It is quite a journey from that first Oculus acquisition to where we are tonight. It makes me realize that even the biggest companies are constantly learning and sometimes making very expensive mistakes as they try to find their way into our future. It is all quite human, really.
Taylor
It really is. And when you look at the timeline, the 2021 rebrand was the peak of the hype. We are now in what Mark Zuckerberg calls the year of truth, where the flashy promises have to meet the reality of the balance sheet. And the balance sheet is saying it’s time to cut.
Holly
The year of truth! That has a very powerful ring to it. It suggests that the time for dreaming is over and the time for making things work has begun. I hope that for the fifteen hundred people affected, their own truth leads them to new and wonderful opportunities elsewhere.
Taylor
The conflict here is really a battle of two different futures. On one side, you have the vision of an immersive Metaverse where we live, work, and exercise. On the other, you have the immediate demand for AI and wearables that actually make money today. Meta is caught in the middle.
Holly
It must be such a difficult tension for the leadership. How do you tell the world you are building the future of the Metaverse, while at the same time you are cutting the very teams that were supposed to build it? It feels like a bit of a contradiction, doesn't it?
Taylor
It absolutely is. Critics are pointing out that the Metaverse was a fantasy of executive egos with money to burn. They argue that Meta spent seventy billion dollars on a dream that most people didn't actually want. Now, they are retreating to AI because it’s the new shiny object in tech.
Holly
That is quite a sharp critique! But I can understand why some people feel that way. If you spend billions and the average person still hasn't tried a headset, it does raise questions about the strategy. But is it fair to call it just a shiny object if AI is changing so much?
Taylor
That is where the debate gets interesting. Meta’s CTO says this is about sustainability. They want to create a business that doesn't just burn cash. But the conflict is also with the FTC. The government is still watching them, worried that Meta will use its AI power to crush smaller competitors just like they did in social media.
Holly
It sounds like Meta is in a bit of a squeeze. They have the government watching their every move for being too big, and they have the market watching their every move for not being profitable enough. It is quite a delicate balance to maintain, like walking a very high tightrope.
Taylor
And then there is the internal conflict. Imagine being an engineer at Reality Labs. One day you are told you are building the future of humanity, and the next, your studio is closed because the company wants to focus on smart glasses. That kind of pivot creates a lot of friction and loss of talent.
Holly
I can only imagine the uncertainty they must feel. It takes so much heart and soul to build a virtual world. To have that work suddenly deemed a lower priority must be quite discouraging. It makes one wonder if the best creators will want to stay in such a shifting environment.
Taylor
That is a major risk. If the top talent leaves for competitors like Apple or Google, Meta loses its edge. Speaking of Apple, their Vision Pro is a direct competitor in the high-end space. So Meta is cutting costs while their rivals are still leaning into the premium VR experience. It’s a huge gamble.
Holly
It really is! It is like a high-stakes game of chess where everyone is moving their pieces at once. If Meta scales back too much, they might miss the moment when VR finally becomes mainstream. But if they don't scale back, they might run out of resources before they ever get there.
Taylor
There is also a conflict regarding user trust. People bought these headsets and subscribed to Supernatural with the expectation of a growing platform. By stopping new content, Meta is essentially telling its most loyal fans that their passion is no longer worth the investment. That narrative is hard to fix.
Holly
Trust is such a fragile thing, isn't it? Once it is broken, it takes a long time to mend. I feel for the people who used Supernatural as their main way to stay healthy. It is more than just an app; it is a part of their daily life and their commitment to themselves.
Taylor
The FTC’s theory of killer acquisitions is being tested in real-time here. If Meta buys a company and then stops its development, did they effectively kill a competitor just to clear the field? It’s a question that legal scholars and regulators will be debating for years as a result of this move.
Holly
That is a very deep thought. It is almost as if the acquisition itself was the end of the story for the competition, regardless of whether Meta keeps the app growing or not. It is a very complex way to look at how businesses grow and interact with one another.
Taylor
Exactly. And the biggest conflict of all might be between Zuckerberg’s long-term vision and Wall Street’s short-term demands. Investors want to see profits now, not a Metaverse in ten years. The layoffs and the Supernatural freeze are a clear signal that the CEO is finally listening to the shareholders.
Holly
It seems that in the end, the numbers on the page have a very loud voice. It is a reminder that even the most visionary dreams must eventually find a way to pay for themselves in the real world. It is a bit of a sobering thought, but perhaps a necessary one for a company that size.
Taylor
The impact of this decision ripples out in several directions, starting with the human cost. We are talking about fifteen hundred people who are now entering a very competitive job market. Many of these are specialists in VR and AR, fields that are currently seeing a lot of consolidation and uncertainty.
Holly
It is such a significant number of talented individuals. I hope they find new places where their creativity can flourish. But I also wonder about the smaller developers out there. If a giant like Meta is pulling back, does that make it harder for independent creators to find funding for their own VR dreams?
Taylor
It definitely sends a chilling signal to the venture capital world. If the biggest player is cutting their budget by thirty percent, it suggests the gold rush might be over for now. This could lead to a winter for VR startups, where only the most profitable or essential services survive.
Holly
A winter for startups sounds so cold and difficult. But sometimes, don't the strongest things grow during the winter? Perhaps this will force the industry to focus on what truly matters to people, rather than just chasing the latest trend for the sake of it.
Taylor
That is the optimistic view, and I hope you’re right. But look at the Supernatural community. One hundred and ten thousand people on Facebook alone. These are people who found a solution to their fitness struggles in VR. The psychological impact of seeing your favorite platform go stagnant is real.
Holly
It really is. We often talk about how fitness apps can sometimes cause a bit of anxiety or pressure, but for many, they are a lifeline. To feel like your digital coach has stopped speaking to you could be very discouraging for someone’s health journey. It is a loss of a supportive environment.
Taylor
There is also the data aspect. When these apps go into maintenance mode or eventually shut down, what happens to all that personal health data? These apps track everything from heart rate to movement patterns. It raises big questions about privacy and the longevity of our digital health records.
Holly
Oh, I hadn't even thought of that! It is quite a serious concern. Our health information is so personal. To think it might just be sitting on a server for a platform that is no longer being cared for is a bit unsettling, isn't it? We must be so careful with our digital footprints.
Taylor
The broader impact on the tech industry is a shift toward wearables. Meta is doubling down on their Ray-Ban smart glasses, aiming for ten million units a year. This means we are going to see a lot more people walking around with cameras and AI on their faces. That has huge social implications.
Holly
It certainly does! We will have to learn a whole new set of manners and social rules for interacting with people who might be recording or using AI while they talk to us. It is a very big change in how we experience our shared spaces and our private moments together.
Taylor
It’s a transition from the virtual back to the physical, but with a digital layer. Meta is betting that this is the middle ground people actually want. The impact will be a world where information is always available at a glance, but we are still present in the room with each other. At least, that’s the hope.
Holly
It is a lovely hope, to be more connected to both information and the people around us. I just hope we don't lose the magic of being truly present without any digital distractions at all. It is such a delicate balance to strike in this modern age, don't you think?
Taylor
It’s the ultimate challenge of our time. And for Meta, the impact of these cuts is a leaner, more focused company. They are trying to survive the transition from a social media company to an AI company. If they succeed, these layoffs will be seen as a necessary, if painful, step in that evolution.
Holly
It is a high price to pay for evolution. I suppose only time will tell if the trade-off was worth it. For now, it seems the world of virtual reality is becoming a little bit smaller and a little bit quieter, while the world of AI is growing louder every day.
Taylor
Looking ahead to 2026, it is clear that AI and wearables are at the absolute top of Meta’s priority list. They are describing this year as a defining moment for Reality Labs. They are moving from an experimental unit to what they call a mature business unit focused on execution and speed to market.
Taylor
The goal is to turn those promising prototypes into products people actually buy. We are seeing a race now between Meta, Google, Apple, and Samsung. They are all launching AI glasses in 2026. The market is projected to quadruple this year. It is going to be an explosion of new tech on our faces.
Holly
It sounds like a very crowded and exciting field! I wonder if we will look back at this time and laugh at how we used to carry phones in our pockets. Perhaps the future is simply looking through a pair of elegant glasses and seeing the world in a whole new way.
Taylor
That is the vision Zuckerberg is betting on. He says the Metaverse isn't dead, but the timeline just got a lot longer. In the meantime, AI is the engine that will power everything. For users of Supernatural, the lesson is that even in a digital world, nothing is permanent. We have to be adaptable.
Holly
Adaptability is such a beautiful quality to have. While it is sad to see things change, it also opens the door for new wonders we haven't even imagined yet. I hope the future of fitness and technology brings us closer to our best selves, in whatever form that takes.
Taylor
Well said. The future is about finding where capital and talent can have the highest impact. Right now, that’s AI. As we move into 2026, we’ll see if Meta’s big pivot pays off or if they’ve left too much of their original vision behind in the pursuit of the next big thing.
Taylor
That brings us to the end of our discussion tonight. Meta is making a massive gamble by shifting from the virtual world of Supernatural to the physical world of AI wearables. It is a story of strategy, loss, and a very uncertain future. Thank you for joining us on Goose Pod.
Holly
It has been such a pleasure to share these thoughts with you, Project. I hope you found it as fascinating as I did. Thank you for listening to Goose Pod. We look forward to being with you again tomorrow. Have a truly lovely night.
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