Walmart hails major milestone as it drops Immersive Commerce SDK for Unity game developers

A Walmart Immersive Commerce SDK for Unity game developers has officially been launched.

This enables them to integrate Walmart products, or their own merchandise, via the US retail giant's marketplace, directly into their projects.

In a LinkedIn post, Justin Breton, Head of Brand Experiences & Partnerships at Walmart, said: "This has been a long time coming. Last year, we beta tested the SDK in Walmart Unlimited on Spatial and the No Boundaries brand shop on Zepeto, experiences where players could explore digital worlds and discover contextually relevant physical products, without ever leaving gameplay."

He added: "Gaming is no longer niche, youth skewing, or device specific. Today, it’s a cross-generational, with players spanning Gen Alpha through Boomers, and mobile gaming serving as the largest on-ramp, both in reach and time spent, touching billions of people each month."

The SDK unlocks a new opportunity: Moments of inspiration to purchase for players, surfaced naturally in context; New monetisation models for developers beyond ads and in-app purchases; The ability to create and sell branded merch at scale with Walmart.

And Unity is the perfect partner to help bring this vision to life, Breton noted, supporting, as it does, more than one million developers, powering over 70% of mobile games, and reaching nearly 4B gamers every month across devices. "They’re also invested in the continued growth of their developers."

Breton commented: "This isn’t about dropping our full catalogue into a game. The real unlock is curation, relevance, and creativity, all done by someone gamers trust, meeting players where they are and introducing products in ways that feel additive, not interruptive, to gameplay."

"This launch represents a major milestone in gaming, but it’s just the beginning. I’m so proud of the teams who brought this to life and grateful to have played a small part alongside partners who believe that the future of commerce will be built inside culture, not adjacent to it. Shopping is officially showing up where people play! And the possibilities of commerce in gaming are endless."

2026 RTIH Innovation Awards

Commerce in gaming will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards will open for entries in April. They celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Thursday, 15th October.

Check out our 2025 winners here.

Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”

“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”

He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”

Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.