Meta-me-this - Walmart is getting serious about the metaverse

[Lightwreather]

Summary

Walmart appears to be getting ready for a leap into the metaverse. Recent trademark applications indicate the company is looking to establish its own NFTs and cryptocurrency, according to a report from CNBC.

 

Quotes

Quote

The retail giant filed for several trademarks on December 30th, suggesting plans to start selling virtual goods, including electronics, toys, appliances, sporting equipment, apparel, home decor, and more, as noted by CNBC. There’s mention of offering customers a digital currency, as well as the opportunity to buy and sell NFTs. Meanwhile, another application details possible “physical fitness training services” and “classes in the field of health and nutrition” that could take place in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality environments (VR) — the company made a separate filing for the use of its name and logo in VR and AR.

As pointed out by Bloomberg, Walmart also filed trademarks for the names “Verse to Home,” “Verse to Curb,” and “Verse to Store,” a hint that Walmart may be preparing a virtual shopping experience

“Walmart is continuously exploring how emerging technologies may shape future shopping experiences,” Walmart spokesperson Carrie McKnight told The Verge. “We don’t have anything further to share today, but it’s worth noting we routinely file trademark applications as part of the innovation process.” 

 

My thoughts

Welp, more metaverse stuff. Even walmart's gotten onto the Hype train. Great. So, these are trademarks at the moment so, they do have a chance at coming out into the world (real or virtual, does it matter at this point?) but there's an equally likely chance they won't (also depending on how this metaverse thing does or doesn't turn out). Ah well, nothing much we can do about it right now, so have fun with this one

 

Sources

TheVerge

CNBC

Bloomberg

[adarw]

can someone please define the metaverse? i dont want to know what you can experience lies, i want practicality, cause right now there is none.

[Zodiark1593]

3 minutes ago, adarw said:

can someone please define the metaverse? i dont want to know what you can experience lies, i want practicality, cause right now there is none.

An attempt to rebrand the Internet?

[poochyena]

Metaverse VR expectations:

 

Reality:

[Mark Kaine]

17 minutes ago, adarw said:

metaverse

internet 2.0

 

[dizmo]

Makes sense. The potential profit vs the expense, it would be stupid to not dip your toes in the water to see how it is.

 

Personally I love my theory of this just being the completion of a full circle simulation. Where we all start living in a virtual world, only to eventually realize that's what we'd been living in all along. *cues Outer Limits music*

[poochyena]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Makes sense. The potential profit vs the expense, it would be stupid to not dip your toes in the water to see how it is.

yep. It might just be a fad, but when you have near unlimited money, why not take the chance and assume its not a fad? The risk is low and reward possibly high.

[RejZoR]

2 hours ago, adarw said:

can someone please define the metaverse? i dont want to know what you can experience lies, i want practicality, cause right now there is none.

Mumbo jumbo buzzword to describe VR and regular internet botched together somehow. Because walking slowly through virtual store with horribly bad graphics and dealing with floating menus and text is so much better than a webpage shop that we all use now. Only thing we need is Ugandan Knuckles running around the store screaming at you he knows da way to the toys section... It's just stupid and unnecessarily clumsy.

 

If stores wanted interactivity, they could already offer that by providing 3D item viewer where you could spin an item around in 3D and pan and zoom at it the way you want it and not just have a flat static 2D image of poor resolution, possibly with a basic disassembly into bits that come within the box exactly and possibly even the device itself if it has detachable components. That, assuming the stuff would be done correctly could elevate shopping experience faaaaaar above this metaverse trash. But it would require a lot of work and frankly, I don't think any store is willing to commit to that. Not even ones with massive resources.

[NumLock21]

15 hours ago, poochyena said:

Metaverse VR expectations:

 

Reality:

Is this a real game?
A VR game where you can shop at Walmart?!

When is this game going to be on sale?

 

 

[poochyena]

3 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Is this a real game?
A VR game where you can shop at Walmart?!

When is this game going to be on sale?

Sorta. Its "real", but you can't actually download it and buy stuff, it was a demo, basically
https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2022/1/5/22868323/walmart-metaverse-shopping-video-viral-old

[NumLock21]

3 minutes ago, poochyena said:

Sorta. Its "real", but you can't actually download it and buy stuff, it was a demo, basically
https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2022/1/5/22868323/walmart-metaverse-shopping-video-viral-old

I see it requires VR equipment which I don't have. So that means I can't try it out.

I think I'll wait until the non VR version comes out and when it goes on sale on Steam.

 

Or better yet, just physically go into a real Walmart.
 

[BuckGup]

16 hours ago, adarw said:

can someone please define the metaverse? i dont want to know what you can experience lies, i want practicality, cause right now there is none.

The metaverse is not virtual reality, like VRchat, it is reality virtually. As technology has grown we have created virtual equivalences and now they are starting to become significant. Its simply how the world is evolving 

[sof006]

What a load of crap

[Elijah Kamski]

When you do everything seriously in VR, soon everybody will be flocking to reality, because everybody wants an escape from the world.

 

Anyways, looks like Walmart simulator might be a real thing after all.