Walmart releases 'Walmart Unlimited' shoppable gamified miniseries
Walmart continues integrating real-world product purchases with metaverse and gaming environments.
The discount giant is launching an immersive in-game commerce experience, called "Walmart Unlimited," in partnership with 3D gamified media platform Spatial and the Unity real-time 3D development environment.
For the first time ever on Spatial, players in the three-episode "Walmart Unlimited" gamified miniseries can purchase real-world goods inside a virtual experience. Walmart initially partnered to let Unity creators to sell physical items in real-time 3D experiences in January 2024. Leveraging the official Walmart Unity SDK the retailer has created a seamless shop-to-checkout experience.
Each Walmart Unlimited episode takes players on a multi-level journey to play, discover, and support products created by Walmart suppliers. After playing, users can explore the immersive commerce hub and purchase products from suppliers like A Dozen Cousins, whose founder and CEO, Ibraheem Basir, is featured in part one of the miniseries.
Directed by animation and creative studio Martian Blueberry, in collaboration with game development studio Pigiama Kasama on the Spatial platform, the currently available first episode of "Walmart Unlimited" features characters inspired by Spatial community members as well as real-life Walmart suppliers.
The next two parts of Walmart Unlimited will be released in April and May 2025 on the Spatial platform.
"Gaming is one of the biggest forms of entertainment on earth, reaching more than 3 billion people spanning diverse backgrounds and interests," said Justin Breton, director of brand experience and partnerships at Walmart. "Building on our reputation as pioneers in immersive commerce, Walmart’s collaboration with Unity broadens our ability to engage with new customers by adding value to the gaming industry for both gamers and developers."
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'Walmart Unlimited'
Walmart increases metaverse commerce efforts
For the past three years, Walmart has been steadily growing its presence in the area of metaverse commerce.
The discount giant recently integrated e-commerce into its existing collaboration with global social networking and avatar simulation app Zepeto.
Walmart has also launched Walmart Realm, a 3-D virtual shopping environment curated by digital influencers and built upon the Emperia metaverse platform in partnership with Sawhorse Productions, in May 2024 and offered a back-to-college shopping experience in July 2024.
[READ MORE: Walmart creates metaverse shop for college students, influencers]
In November 2024, Walmart Realm launched a holiday update which includes four new virtual shops inspired by social trends from Pinterest and TikTok, with gifts and holiday ideas curated by influencers.
The retailer debuted in the metaverse by launching two new metaverse experiences on Roblox in September 2022 and announced in September 2023 that it would deepen its commercial activity in "virtual worlds," becoming the first entity to sell select physical items on Roblox.
Walmart’s IRL commerce shop in the experience enables Roblox users to check out the real world items chosen by its partner user generated content (UGC) creators, MD17, Junozy & Sarabxlla. The company has also tested immersive commerce in a variety of online worlds, including the Supercampus gamified Roblox environment.
Headquartered in Bentonville, Ark., Walmart Inc. operates 10,750 stores and numerous e-commerce websites in 19 countries.
