On Roblox Kids Learn Its Hard to Earn Money Making Games - Essay
# Information
- Source: Cecilia D’ Anastasio
- Tags: #metaverse #games #creators #business
- Notes:
# Highlights
How Roblox is Exploiting Young Game Developers
“With most of the games on the platform being made by minors and ==a revenue split that’s just one third of the industry standard==, we looked into whether these young developers were in fact being exploited.” (Traditionally, game stores have taken a 30 percent cut of revenue that publishers earn on their platforms, and hand 70 percent over to the devs. Roblox gives developers just 25 percent, plus payouts based on engagement.)
People Make Games’ analysis of Roblox’s economics highlights the chasm between Roblox’s promise as a way for kids to become game developers and the reality: ==It is very challenging to make money on Roblox, and Roblox profits from people trying.==
Roblox provides a lot for its developers: server space, marketplace infrastructure, cross-platform capability. Roblox Studio is, like the game, free. Developers can make money through Roblox with its Developer Exchange program, or DevEx, which gives developers 25 percent of a game’s earnings. (Part of Roblox’s justification for this split is its huge investment in infrastructure for these devs.) Roblox’s VP of marketing told AListDaily in 2018, “From the very beginning, it was about having kids develop games for other kids.” DevEx’s terms require users to be 13 or over.
It wasn’t easy. To withdraw money earned through microtransactions in a game, a developer must earn a ==minimum ==of 100,000 Robux, the platform’s in-game currency. Buying 100,000 Robux through Roblox’s store costs $1,000.= Selling 100,000 Robux back to Roblox earns you just $350. ==Withdrawal is not even possible unless these developers pay a five-dollar monthly fee for a Roblox Premium Subscription.== (Second Life and Entropia Universe, which also allow players to sell items, respectively have $10 and $100 minimums for withdrawing money.)
Smith believes ==this setup disincentivizes users from withdrawing Robux. They’re devalued off-platform, so why not spend them on other Roblox games?== Smith compares Roblox’s currency to mining camps’ company scrips, a now-illegal currency used by miners to purchase goods at company stores. Miners were encouraged to spend their money on their employers’ goods because, elsewhere, the scrip was moot.
A Roblox spokesperson tells WIRED that ==“building experiences on Roblox teaches the fundamentals of coding, digital civility, and entrepreneurship and has helped many begin their careers in STEM.” ==Roblox gave developers $129.7 million in the second quarter of 2021, and according to the spokesperson, over 600 developers earn over $85,000 a year from their Roblox creations. The company also hosts programs and offers Developer Relations professionals to help developers succeed.