Amazon’s new “Amazon Anywhere” shopping experience lets you shop for real-world goods inside of games and virtual worlds. The company shared some details of the experience on Tuesday, and you can already try it inside Niantic’s just-launched Peridot game.
In Peridot, once you’ve linked your Amazon account, you’ll be able to buy things like shirts and a Peridot-themed pillow right inside the app. (With the shirts, you can even specify things like fit type, color, and size.) Once you’ve made your selection, the app will show you the final price and an estimated delivery date before you check out.
“We’re creating a new landscape for shoppable entertainment and digital experiences while continuing to meet our customers where they are, with the products they love,” Amazon’s Steve Downer, VP of consumer electronics at Amazon, said in a blog post. “Most shopping in virtual worlds is currently limited to purchases of virtual currency and in-game digital items, with no easy path to purchase physical products. We want to change that.”
Personally, I can’t think of a time I’ve wanted to shop for physical goods while playing a game — even during the very bad Metaverse Fashion Week — but it seems Amazon sees an opportunity here. While Peridot is the first game to include an Anywhere storefront, the company has a dedicated page for developers who want to build their own Anywhere experiences to learn more about the feature, which is currently invite-only.
Anywhere isn’t Amazon’s first in-game feature: it launched an Alexa-powered voice control tool, Alexa Game Control, with Dead Island 2. I briefly tested it ahead of Dead Island 2’s release, and while it worked well enough, it wasn’t a reason to buy the game.
