Roblox and Walmart change gaming forever

Roblox and Walmart are working together to change retail--and gaming--forever.

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Today, Walmart announced that gamers can now buy real-world products right within Roblox. The feature is part of the Walmart Discovered experience on Roblox, which gamifies a visit to the big box retailer in a fanciful and colorful way.

Only this time it's more than a simulation--users can buy actual physical products directly within the Roblox client. Yes, you can actually shop for goods right in the virtual Walmart Discovered level. There's three items up for sale: a Sparkly Golden Tumbler for $15, a Fantastical Flower Bag for $20, and a pair of Radiant Headphones for $50. Each item comes with a "virtual twin," a more lavish and exciting digital version of the product.

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This new development could change gaming forever, and pushes the industry more towards the idealized version of the metaverse--a digital world where you can buy, sell, play, and watch within a unified ecosystem of products, services, content, and experiences.

Today's introduction of real-world items into the Walmart Discovered experience is just the beginning for this new e-commerce trend. We will likely see this expand to other big games, potentially even Fortnite, which remains one of the most popular and highest-earning video games ever made.

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The possibilities here are pretty widespread. Fortnite could team up with Walmart or another retailer like, say, Target or even Amazon, to sell exclusive products within the game itself.

This could also tie into the User-Generated Content (UGC) economy within Fortnite, as it does within Roblox--real creators designed those digital trinkets that come free with your real-world product purchases within Roblox.

As more retailers become diminished over time and move to e-commerce platforms, and as more games become digital-oriented products, this new gamified e-commerce trend could help replace those experiences on some meaningful level for consumers while introducing new ways to monetize across a widespread ecosystem of services, content, and products.