UPDATE 05/04/2024: A Roblox spokesperson contacted PSU regarding this article with a long statement in which it claims the original piece below “is not representative of our full perspective on this topic.”
The statement continued to say “We always offer deeper conversations on topics unrelated to the interviews at hand and were surprised to see the story posted without taking us up on this offer.”
It then goes on to list “additional context we feel the original article missed,” such as the fact that when Roblox recently (Q4 2023) surveyed developers enrolled in the Roblox Developer Exchange (DevEX) Program at Roblox, (the program developers who want to monetize and make money from their Roblox games must be enrolled in), “having fun ranked 4x higher than monetization,” as to why Roblox developers make games on Roblox in the first place.
Roblox also says “people of all ages and backgrounds start creating on Roblox for many different reasons – to learn to code, to share their creations with friends, or simply for the joy of building. For many, using Roblox to build a game or virtual experience or virtual item is a form of creative expression.”
“Much like other forms of creative expression, such as learning to play a musical instrument, or filming and uploading your own videos to the internet, for many it is a hobby, for others it may eventually turn into a career.”
The spokesperson also points out that “Our developer and creator community includes individuals with a wide spectrum of professional capabilities and team sizes, ranging from young students and independent hobbyists, all the way to full-time studios. Roblox is also an educational tool and education has been part of the company’s DNA since day one. Today, educators around the world harness the platform to create immersive learning experiences that inspire creativity, collaboration and critical thinking.”
“We are proud of the positive difference that building on Roblox, with free tools available to all, has made in the lives of many in our developer community.”
The statement also claims that it offers “a unique value proposition” for those creators who do wish to “pursue monetization,” saying “As a user generated platform (UGC), the economics on Roblox are different from other gaming platforms. Roblox levels the playing field for developers by offering frictionless infrastructure, global distribution and development technologies at low upfront cost to developers.”
“For instance, unlike other platforms where developers incur expenses for app store fees, payment processing, storage, hosting, infrastructure, moderation and safety features – this is all covered by Roblox.”
It also added links to where those inclined can “learn more about the economic value proposition for developers and earning on Roblox, and the percentage breakdown of the Roblox share, here.”
“As our platform has scaled, our monetizing developers and creators have enjoyed meaningful earnings expansion over time through the Roblox Developer Exchange (DevEx) program, which is the means by which creators monetize their games and experiences. You can see how our DevEx has increased over the years in our supplemental materials, page 11.”
The statement also clarified Corazza’s estimate of the amount Roblox is paying out to developers to be “close to like a billion dollars,” saying that “In 2023, we delivered more than $741 million to the creator community through the DevEx program.”
And finally it reiterated what a PR spokesperson present at the time of Eurogamer’s interview said, that “Of the creators who are enrolled in the Roblox Developer Exchange (DevEx) program, the overwhelming majority are over the age of 18.”
It further added “the average age for top earning and/or engaging developers is around 25 years old. In 2023, more than 90% of the top 1,000 experiences by hours engaged in were owned by developers who were at least 18 years old.”
Lastly the spokesperson added a blog post from Roblox from 2022, about “how we support creators,” titled “Supporting and Protecting the Roblox Developer and User Community.”
In response to the statement, PSU also asked Roblox follow-up questions regarding this topic, such as inquiring what percentage of Roblox DevEx enrolled developers were enrolled prior to being 18, as the minimum age to enroll is 13, and asked what percentage of DevEx enrolled developers are between the ages of 13-18.
We also pointed to the fact that concerns regarding Roblox and child exploitation aren’t anything new, and asked how Roblox is addressing these concerns, and if it would consider restructuring the value of DevEx payouts for earned Robux to be greater, as Roblox developers have previously suggested.
At the time of publishing, Roblox has not responded, though we will update this article again once we hear back.
UPDATE 25/04/2024: Roblox did respond to our questions, and we have their responses and a follow-up report here.
Original Story:
Roblox, if you weren’t aware, is much more than a game. It’s a platform where anyone can make games, and then other people can play those games. It’s even possible to earn money from those games, if they’re popular enough.
A simple enough concept we’ve seen before in games, though none have been as successful as Roblox, which is one of the biggest games/gaming platforms in the world, with millions of users.
Roblox is also a very controversial platform, because as it’s been pointed out by People Make Games and other reporting, Roblox’s model looks a lot closer to child labour exploitation and a lack of moderation that make it an extremely dangerous place for kids to be, and a vast majority of its user base are in fact kids.
Roblox Studio head Stefano Corazza has however refuted the child labour accusations, because the money that creators can earn from their Roblox games are actually, a “gift,” as he calls it.
In an interview with Eurogamer during GDC, when asked about the accusations of child labour, Corazza said “I don’t know, you can say this for a lot of things, right? Like, you can say, ‘Okay, we are exploiting, you know, child labour,’ right? Or, you can say: we are offering people anywhere in the world the capability to get a job, and even like an income.”
“So, I can be like 15 years old, in Indonesia, living in a slum, and then now, with just a laptop, I can create something, make money and then sustain my life. There’s always the flip side of that, when you go broad and democratised – and in this case, also with a younger audience.
I mean, our average game developer is in their 20s. But of course, there’s people that are teenagers – and we have hired some teenagers that had millions of players on the platform.”
Corazza continued to say that the younger “teenagers” Roblox has hired don’t “feel like they were exploited. They felt like ‘Oh my god, this was the biggest gift, all of a sudden I could create something, I had millions of users, I made so much money I could retire.’ So I focus more on the amount of money that we distribute every year to creators, which is now getting close to like a billion dollars, which is phenomenal.”
A PR person from Roblox then stepped in to add that “the vast majority of people that are earning money on Roblox are over the age of 18.” Which is to say, it can’t be child exploitation, because they’re technically not kids.
Which, if that’s a distinction you have to make, doesn’t exactly put you in the best starting position. Corazza talks about the potential earnings Roblox creators can make, but there’s a wide gap of reality in between the ideal Corazza proposes and someone starting to work on a Roblox game today.
You don’t directly earn money from your game, you earn Robux, which can be cashed out once you earn 30,000 Robux. From that 30,000, your cash out is about $300 but once Roblox takes its cut and after fees, you’re actually left with about $105.
It should also be noted that it’s not exactly easy to make a popular game on Roblox, it’s a lot of dedicated development work that, outside of the Roblox ecosystem, is just regular, difficult game development work.
Also, as it is in the rest of the games industry, it’s not as easy as just making a good game. Creators have to spend their Robux just for a chance that their game could be listed on the main “Discover” page on the platform, which in no way is a guarantee they’ll actually see dividends from their spent Robux.
All of this is information People Make Games, More Perfect Union and others have already reported. PMG and More Perfect Union specifically have also spoken to Roblox developers about how it’s incredibly difficult to earn enough Robux and actually cash out. Most never do, because it never seems to be worth it.
Roblox is available on every major gaming platform, PlayStation included, but even Jim Ryan was at one point hesitant to bring Roblox to the platform, fearing that it would “exploit” players in the PlayStation user base.
The fact remains that every single game, from the most popular to the newly published on Roblox are all made by its users. The games that kids come back to the platform to play, the games that make it a valuable platform, don’t come from Roblox.
At this point, Roblox is so big it’s likely here to stay, for good. But to try and skirt around the issue of child labour exploitation by saying that most of those who earn money from the platform aren’t kids, still doesn’t address the ‘exploitation’ side of the phrase.
And even if it’s not the majority, that still leaves a number greater than 0 of kids who are being exploited for their labour on Roblox.
Source – [Eurogamer]