Only a day after Meta announced the shutdown of its virtual reality (VR) platform Horizon Worlds, it reversed course and announced that it will keep it alive “for the foreseeable future”, WIRED reported on Friday.

The company’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, announced the rollback of the decision in a video on Instagram.

“We have decided, just today in fact, that we will keep Horizon Worlds working in VR for existing games, to support the fans who reached out,” he said.

On Tuesday, according to WIRED, Meta had sent an email to users of the platform saying that it would end Horizon Worlds in VR on June 15, keeping the platform afloat on mobile.

The move followed an announcement by the company last month that it was “shifting investments away from its metaverse and VR efforts and laying off 10 per cent of employees in its VR division, Reality Labs”, the outlet added.

Commenting on the latest announcement, Meta said that there would still be new features on the horizon, like virtual concerts.

“Immersive 3D and 2D concerts are still accessible on Quest via the TV app found in the Quest Store,” a Meta representative told WIRED. “We’ll have some new concerts coming up as part of our larger content slate.”

Users will not be able to create new spaces in Horizon Worlds, but Meta has yet to announce when this update will roll out. Existing user-created worlds, however, will remain available.

Bosworth also said that there would be no new games or major investments in Horizon Worlds, adding that most of the “consumer and creator energy” was shifting towards mobile.

“For people who already have games they like that they’re using in Horizon Worlds, you’ll be able to download the Horizon Worlds app and use it in VR for the foreseeable future,” he said in the video.

“It is unclear what that future looks like. Meta is clearly not getting as much out of the service as it is investing in it, so the pressure to cut costs is not going away,” WIRED said in its report.

“I wonder how long it continues,” says Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at the analyst group IDC, according to the outlet. “‘The foreseeable feature’ does not sound like a ringing endorsement that this is going to stay around forever.”

Meta had made a similar move in January when it ended future updates for its Supernatural fitness service while keeping the service running.

Reuters reported last week that the company has been planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20pc or more of the company, as Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers.