Walmart jumped into the metaverse this week with two new spaces in Roblox, the non-blockchain metaverse game which claims 52 million daily active users.
“Walmart Land” and “Walmart’s Universe of Play” are a testing ground for future expansion into the virtual reality worlds, the retail giant’s Chief Marketing Officer, William White, told CNBC.
See also: Walmart Extends Run of Digital Expansion With New Roblox Pact
Business cases will eventually include online purchases, pushing people to visit real-world stores and product placement for other brands in its metaverse “immersive experiences.”
However, White told CNBC that for the moment, Walmart is content to focus on “driving relevance in cultural conversation … developing community and engagement … [and] moving the needle [on] brand favorability” as it figures out what works.
The company did say in a Sept. 26 release that its toy-focused Walmart’s Universe of Play comes “just in time for those oh-so-real holiday wish lists,” so there is a path to the point of sale. Patents it filed earlier this year include those for virtual goods, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and an unnamed virtual currency.
Noting that its customers are “spending loads of time” in Roblox, White said, “We’re focusing on creating new and innovative experiences that excite them, something we’re already doing in the communities where they live, and now, the virtual worlds where they play … We’re showing up in a big way — creating community, content, entertainment and games.”
Nike Earns Big
Nike was one of the first brands to jump into the metaverse, launching Nikeland — also in Roblox — featuring games, entertainment and, of course, virtual sneakers and other goods via NFTs.
And it is selling them. Dune Analytics found that Nike had brought in more than $185 million in NFT sales as of Aug. 22, according to Quartz. Dolce & Gabbana had $26 million, while competitor Adidas raked in just $11 million, despite having 50,000 sales to Nike’s 67,000.
Read more: Nike Buys Digital Fashion, NFT Startup RTFKT
In December, Nike bought NFT studio RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”) to up its already intense NFT game.
Disney Is Coming
Last week, Disney revealed extensive plans for a virtual world, listing a job for that it is looking for a senior attorney “to work on transactions involving emerging technologies, including NFTs, blockchain, metaverse and decentralized finance,” or DeFi.
That comes after CEO Bob Chapek pronounced himself “blown away” by company teams’ experimenting with the metaverse and virtual reality, describing it as “the next great storytelling frontier.”
Metaverse Cybersickness Growing
As more companies plan to bring corporate meetings from Zoom into an immersive, 3D metaverse work environment — ranging from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to companies like BMW and Deloitte — trouble is looming in the form of cybersickness, a digital version of seasickness that studies are finding is far more frequent when wearing virtual reality headsets.
It’s not a trendy condition: Clinical studies about it have been posted by Nature, Neuroscience News and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“Despite the technological advancements in Virtual Reality (VR), users are constantly combating feelings of nausea and disorientation, the so-called cybersickness,” the abstract of the Nature article said. “Cybersickness symptoms cause severe discomfort and hinder the immersive VR experience.”
Related: Consumers Are Getting Sick of the Metaverse — Really
An Emirate’s Embrace
The biggest city in the United Arab Emirates played host to a metaverse conference this week, making progress on the country’s plan to make Dubai a global hub for the metaverse.
Learn more: Dubai Ramps Up Efforts to Become Global Metaverse Capital
Attendees included Meta, blockchain-based metaverses Decentraland and The Sandbox and big name companies interested in the virtual reality worlds, including Accenture, Mastercard and the Boston Consulting Group.
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