Walmart adds new features to its mobile app that puts AR shopping experiences right in customers’ pockets (Walmart).
This Week in ARExperience
June 30, 2022 by Jon Jaehnig
- Upload VR reported that there is now an on-headset version of “Side Quest.” Side Quest is a platform for onloading non-Meta apps to Quest-line headsets. This can be a way to explore independent projects, or to essentially turn a Quest into a PCVR headset. However, this requires “linking” your Quest to a computer either over a shared WiFi network or with cables.
- The only hitches to the beta app are that you need to sign up as a developer and you still need a computer connection to install the app on your headset. So, if you had problems keeping your headset connected, this might help. If you had problems installing the app in the first place, it the new version might not save you.
- In other Meta news, the company announced “Meta Pay.” As of right now, it does sound like Meta Pay is just a rebranded version of “Facebook Pay.” However, a Facebook post by founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg set up a more grandiose roadmap, calling the platform a “digital wallet for the metaverse” that would allow users to buy “all sorts of digital items.”
- Games Beat reported that VR-enabled social platform Rec Room has reached 75M lifetime users in the six years since it launched. Further, the platform has reportedly paid out over $1M dollars to creators this year. The benchmarks are an important milestone for the company, as well as another use case for content creator ecosystems adding value to immersive worlds.
- Skyrim VR, Phasmophobia, Half-Life: Alyx, and Beat Saber are among the many PCVR games currently marked down for Steam’s Summer Sale, which ends on July 7.
- Walmart released a view-in-room AR tool for its mobile app that works when shopping online. The app is currently limited to select home décor and furniture items, but the retail giant plans on enabling more items soon. The same update uses AR to make product information more easily available when shopping in-store, and can even suggest other related items.
- This comes shortly after Lowe’s made 3D assets available to immersive world builders. Both mark some of the biggest names yet to find ways to brings XR into brick-and-mortar retail whether for consumer engagement, information, or actual shopping for physical goods.
- Speaking of brick-and-mortar brand activations in XR, Wendy’s dropped a trailer for the next addition to the “Wendyverse” Horizons world. What we’ve seen of the game, “Sunrise City” looks kind of like a breakfast-themed version of Fall Guys.
- AR gaming giant Niantic released a blog post and teaser trailer announcing “NBA All-World.” This is just a “soft launch” announcing the opening of pre-registration for the game, so we still don’t know much about it. But, it’s from Niantic and the NBA, so it’s probably going to be great.
I didn’t shake the tree to find those non-gaming examples, but this article definitely could have just been gaming news. It’s true that Side Quest isn’t just games, and Meta Pay won’t just let you buy 3D lollipops in VR Candy Crush, but even most of the market activations that we’re seeing this week are largely games and game related. Way to go Walmart, keeping things professional.
