Non-RPG General News - How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers

[Redglyph]

People Make Games investigates the Roblox phenomenon. Ars Technica further comments on the video.

Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers

On Roblox, kids learn it's hard to earn money making games

New report claims that the massive video game platform can exploit young developers.

Roblox has become a video game titan, in recent years dominating the world of kids' gaming and earning $454 million in revenue last quarter alone. A new report argues that success is built on exploiting young game developers, many of them children, who are making content for the game.

As a platform, Roblox provides gamers the tools to both create and play an almost unfathomable array of "experiences," from climbing an enormous stairway to running a restaurant to escaping a prison. Tens of millions of these games live on Roblox's browser--hundreds of times more titles than exist on Steam. Every day, 43 million people play those games, mostly kids. Some of the most popular experiences have received billions of visits and earn their developers millions annually.

According to a new report, however, this model--which powers much of Roblox's enormous success--may take advantage of young game developers. Published Thursday by People Make Games, a YouTube channel by independent games journalists, "How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers" takes a deep dive into the promise of "making it" on Roblox and alleges that the platform actually sets kid developers up for failure.

More information.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I have never heard of Roblox before.

 

[Redglyph]

I have never heard of Roblox before.

Me neither, it reminds me of how hard the Chinese struggle to make their games known in what seems to be a saturated market. Except it's much worse in this case, I'm glad my kids didn't touch that.

 

[Ripper]

It seems to be very popular with the kiddiewinks. Seems like a rancid system for wheedling microtransactions out of children, to me.

 

[JDR13]

Glad I'm not the only one who wasn't familiar with this. It's hard to this platform has "Tens of millions" of games. Seems crazy that the name doesn't get mentioned more.

 

[Shagnak]

Glad I'm not the only one who wasn't familiar with this. It's hard to this platform has "Tens of millions" of games. Seems crazy that the name doesn't get mentioned more.

I only know about it because my kids and every one of their friends play on the platform on occasion. And all of my friends' kids play on it too. It's crazy popular.
My kids never spend anything on it, but I have heard of parents buying their kids gift cards so they can waste virtual money on giving their avatar angel wings or whatever the fuck.

 

[Carnifex]

Chalk me down as another bloke that's never heard of this, nor am I likely to ever use it.

 

[Morrandir]

I had heard of it when I was looking for games for my kids. For reasons I can't remember I decided against it.

 

[fadedc]

I work with kids and when I ask the younger ones what games they like, Roblox is definitely the top choice.

 

[Zephyr]

Fads like this often don't have a long shelf-life. Kind of like Fidget Spinners, etc. Unfortunately, the overlords of this behemoth will have made a crap-ton of money off the kids before it all fades and is replaced by the Next Bug Thing.

 

[fadedc]

Fads like this often don't have a long shelf-life.

I just looked it up and Roblox was released in 2006. It's actually really impressive that kids are still talking about it today. Apparently it really took off during the pandemic as well.

 

[Airi642]

Roblox makes me so mad because a system that allow kids and teens to make and play games sounds like the exact thing I would have loved when I was younger, but instead they take advantage of kids and force them to spend money advertising their games with the hope of making it big. I was especially upset learning that you couldn't get paid real money until you made $1000 worth of Roblox money, that just seems so unattainable for the average kid.