On Monday, the chief marketing officer at Walmart announced “Walmart Land” and “Universe of Play”. Two new exciting and innovative worlds, inspired by Walmart, have just been released in the popular online game Roblox. Big Box Store Group, Inc., a network of grocery and discount shops, has gone virtual and enetered Metaverse.
Online critics have called Walmart Land “out of touch,” “bizarre,” and “hellish,” making it one of the most criticised metaverse moments since disgraced former UK health minister Matt Hancock’s terrible avatar or Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg’s disastrous Paris picture.
Young Walmart shoppers may participate in two online Roblox worlds where they can play games, win virtual toys, attend fashion contests, and gather virtual stuff (brazenly called “Vertch”).
Walmart is trying out the metaverse for the first time as part of its ongoing effort to attract a younger customer base.
To Walmart US’s chief marketing officer, William White:
We are delighted to be one of the first large retailers to do this since it is another step in reaching our consumers in unexpected ways and in the areas where they are spending their time.
What Are Walmart Worlds?
Walmart Land is an amusement park for kids that has Walmart-themed rides and locales spread throughout an island designed to resemble the Walmart logo.
For the aforementioned “verch,” such as Walmart-themed apparel and branded goods, players may use their tokens at the Hub Store in Roblox.
Now more than ever, the metaverse is the punchline. As hundreds of new, high-quality, immersive experiences are published every month for gamers, most of the efforts by major businesses to provide anything they consider to be on par with these have mostly failed. The Walmart Land is not an exception.
On Twitter, one dissatisfied customer said,
Walmart is the most empty IP I can imagine.
That’s because there’s no recognisable brand. Just inexpensive shelves where stuff is for sale. They should create some kind of cartoon mascot first. Puzzled by the sudden proliferation of Walmart branding across Roblox.
In the words of one commenter,
Never understood marketing bozos from adult (boring) businesses.
They are squandering heaps of dollars on lifeless, out-of-touch entrances into whatever media/trend/platform is attempting to target youngsters.
Roblox Background
Given that Roblox attracts 52 million unique users every day, Walmart isn’t the first major corporation to recognise potential in the platform.
The video game has a variety of different settings, including “Nikeland,” “Spotify Island,” and others designed by Ralph Lauren and others. Nikeland is so famous among Roblox’s older users that it was included in the game’s year-end blog article.
Roblox has a market cap of over $21.2 bln, but its stock price has dropped by about 66% this year, in line with the performance of other online video games.
