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Roblox is arguably the most popular gaming platform in the world. From brand activations to amazing user experiences, here are some of the main reasons why it's turned from game platform to metaverse leader.
Roblox plays an increasingly important role in the creation of the metaverse as we see it today. Among their robust creator tools, open access platforms, and highly interactive social environments, Roblox offers their community of millions the chance to create virtual worlds and then compensates them with actual cash payouts. Few other game platforms reward user-generated content in this way, making Roblox one of the leading metaverse platforms today.
Let’s take a look at some of the innovative ways this game is offering real value to this emerging market. Because suffice it to say, everyone has their eyes on the Roblox metaverse.
Roblox is more than just a game with characters running through objectives to reach an end goal. What makes it so popular is that it’s technically a game platform. In other words, a series of tools that exist on servers all around the world where users can create their own games.
As of Spring of 2022, the Roblox community has created over 40 million games. This is what makes it stand out from the competition. Especially when it comes to the metaverse, where it’s all about taking user-generated worlds and cross-populating them with users from other worlds. This makes the entire experience feel like the digital representation of our real life.
While many metaverse companies are dead set on developing future technologies like augmented reality peripherals, decentralized platforms and virtual reality devices, Roblox is focused on continuing to expand their existing platform. Basically, they’re subscribing to the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mentality. This doesn’t mean they’re not snatching up new tech (they are) but the acquisitions are meant to bolster their existing game features.
Take the 2021 purchase of Guilded, a voice, chat and community organization platform. While collaboration efforts haven’t been disclosed, Guilded’s technologies could offer meaningful steps in Roblox’s plan to create seamless communication channels for their users.
Similarly, Roblox acquired Loom.ai for their ability to create incredibly realistic avatars — which the company already has for both DreamWorks and Lucasfilm. This new tech will allow for some impressive new features. As Roblox CEO David Baszucki put it, “Loom.ai will accelerate making human co-experiences more immersive and personal,” he continues, “adding world-class facial animation technology as part of Roblox’s efforts to provide expressive emotive actions to avatars that will enable deeper connections for our community.”
With 40 million games to play, you may be wondering if Roblox can actually host enough users to occupy these virtual worlds. With dozens of servers located around the world, millions of players are able to join games no matter where they are. As of early 2022, there are over 200 million users per month. This surpasses Minecraft, which sees around 170 million active users per month.
Compare these numbers to Horizon Worlds and Horizon Venue, Meta’s VR platforms, which only see a combined 300,000 users per month as of February 2022.
This may surprise some video game fans, but none of Roblox’s content is created by the developers themselves. That’s right, 100% of the games, character skins, in-game items and virtual worlds come from user-generated content. This is done through Roblox Studio which allows literally anyone to take their most imaginative virtual ideas and bring them to life in-game.
Alongside the studio is a community-driven marketplace where creators can develop and even sell virtual assets that can be used by others in their games. Once the games are created, they go into the Roblox world where anyone can hop in and play.
Craig Donato, chief business officer at Roblox, acknowledged their reliance on community-engagement in a GamesBeat interview by saying this: “Ultimately we believe the metaverse as a phenomenon will be a community-driven phenomenon, a bottom-up phenomenon.” This speaks to Roblox’s unique position and why they lead the metaverse race so far. Their strategy is simple: empower the community and watch them take off.
Robux is Roblox’s in-game currency. Users can purchase items to customize their avatar, access user-generated games and buy game passes for more unique items. This money doesn’t just go back into the pockets of the game’s developers, but to the community developers as well.
Through the user-generated content that we mentioned above, community devs can create games and then sell access to those games to the community at large. Furthermore, Roblox’s game passes allow devs to create special armor or abilities, even grant a player special access to an area in their game. This doubles down on their ability to monetize their creations. Not to mention expanding the Roblox metaverse.
Roblox paid over $250 million dollars to their creators in 2020. This is throughout the 40 million games that exist on the platform. Popular games like Adopt Me! and Tower of Hell have been visited a combined 30 billion times.
Users aren’t the only ones benefiting from the Roblox metaverse. Brands are eager to get in on the action as well, and luckily for them, the game presents plenty of opportunities for activations. Thanks to the robust creator tools in Roblox Studio, developers can create assets on behalf of brands for marketing purposes.
These activations can be something as simple as digital billboards that sit within the landscape of a popular game. For example, billboards from Super Biz can house static ads or GIFs that portray products. There are also opportunities for fully fleshed out virtual worlds created for brands such as Spotify Island with its own mini games and even a virtual representation of K-Pop singer SUNMI for fans to interact with.
With certain games garnering millions of visits, some activations have the potential to be incredibly lucrative. Some of the biggest corporations in the world, such as Samsung and Hyundai, alongside artists like Charli XCX and David Guetta, have been featured in the Roblox metaverse.
Immersive and social. These are the words Donato referenced in a separate 2021 interview with Emerging Tech Brew when talking about the unique Roblox metaverse experience. “When you read a lot about metaverses in the press, I think we naturally gravitate toward immersion being the problem,” he clarified.
Donato would go on to say that the social aspect of metaverse gameplay has been the focus for Roblox. They’re focused on integrating voice chat technology, avatar customization and perfecting their Robux economy. While other companies are focused on future technologies, Roblox has spent over a decade listening to its digital community and adopting their needs.
With video games leading the metaverse charge, it’s pretty clear Roblox is way ahead of the pack. This is thanks to their robust game platform that’s been around since 2006 and now features some of the most creative developer tools in the industry. They’ve been honing their own metaverse long before it was a common catchphrase.
As long as they continue pushing beyond the needs of typical gamers and move toward implementing improved tools for their users and developers, the Roblox metaverse is here to stay.
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