When a Roblox user buys digital accoutrements for their avatar, objects to fancy up their virtual spaces, and the like, the company keeps about 30% for “platform fees.” Essentially embracing the now-familiar “creator economy” model, the company began more actively encouraging developers to make monetizable experiences on the platform-and taking a cut of the proceeds. Instead, Roblox doubled down on that community, and on the idea of its metaverse as a place where people spend money. For a time the company experimented with an advertising model, ultimately deciding that this didn’t mesh well with the community that was taking shape.
ROBLOX 2015 CLIENT SIMULATOR
A kind of physics simulator that kids could use to make objects and spaces with digital blocks, it attracted “nerdy kids” (Sousa means that as a compliment) in the 12-to-14 age range. In its earliest days, Roblox resembled a “learning tool,” says Justin Sousa, senior director and global head of developer community at the company. And it took years of experimentation and course correction. Devising the right set of digital building tools, crafting the right incentives, and actively cultivating a sprawling developer community is itself a creative act. Or, you could argue, Roblox created all of it. The number of these options that were created by Roblox itself is close to zero. Sign up for a Roblox account today and you’re presented with a blizzard of options for exploring its version of the metaverse. What’s much newer is its current operational model, which revolves entirely around encouraging third-party developers-from the creative teenage amateur in her bedroom all the way up to studios stocked with game veterans. Roblox may seem like a recent phenomenon-it went public in March 2021-but the enterprise has been around since 2004.
ROBLOX 2015 CLIENT HOW TO
The question is whether Roblox can figure out how to make money, too. The upshot is that the Gang Sweden-which Holmström says is profitable, with rapidly growing revenue-is one of many examples of a third party that has figured out how to make money on Roblox. (That’s a development that has attracted criticism from advertising watchdogs.) Branded experiences from a Hello Kitty café to a Chipotle “burrito building” game to “music-themed islands” from Spotify to “ Gucci Town” have become a routine feature of the ecosystem. Plenty of other studios are pursuing similar models on the platform. The company also builds custom environments for clients like Vans and supercar-maker McLaren. Its games generate revenue through the sale of upgrades as well as items like virtual clothes and gear. With 67 employees, it has created more than 15 games, including the bona fide, million-player-a-day hit Strongman Simulator (which involves visiting a virtual gym-like environment and performing various feats for strength and energy points). The Gang Sweden is now focused exclusively on Roblox. And as a usage surge fueled partly by the pandemic showed signs of cooling down, Wall Street lost enthusiasm for the Roblox story its share price has dropped by more than half since its November peak. In 2021, it reported a loss of about $490 million on $1.92 billion revenue. They basically are that ecosystem.Īnd yet, as remarkable a job as Roblox has done cultivating this community, the company remains well short of profitability.
While these are mostly young people who grew up on the platform, it’s hard to overstate the importance of these user/developers to the Roblox ecosystem.
A good chunk of those users are earning money from their creations, to the tune of $538 million in 2021. And, perhaps most remarkably, over 10 million Roblox users have built experiences and games for others to enjoy-nearly 30 million of them, in fact. Many spend Robux-an in-platform currency you can acquire with actual dollars-on experiences as well as on digital wares to individualize their avatars or hangout spaces. The studio realized the Roblox audience is engaged with the platform because it’s giving them what they want.Īnd that audience is not to be taken lightly: 54.1 million average daily active users spent a combined 11.8 billion hours on the platform in the first quarter of 2022. The young Roblox audience, however, preferred a bit of hand-holding, with clear directives and activities. At the same time, the Gang’s game was complex, leaving a lot up to users to figure out. But lots of tween Roblox users were really on the platform to hang out with each other, almost like it was a social network turns out there’s a lot of free-form loitering in the metaverse.
For starters, their game was heavily goal- and competition-oriented-you know, like a game.