.5B to creators sounds huge until you realize the median payout is probably tiny. The top 1,000 averaging .3M while most earn pennies—classic platform economy.
A handful of people use Roblox to make milllions - if they pay out $1.5B total, and the biggest 1000 developers average $1.3M, then the entire rest of their 3.5 million developers average $60.
Furthermore Roblox “taxes” their “developers” at various points.
It’s been a while, but I believe there’s a percentage fee on the premium currency spent on the game, then there’s another percentage fee when you cash the premium currency out for real money.
My son plays a lot of Roblox (1 hour a day at my place , way more with his mom).
At first I had a really bad impression about it because I thought it was just another microtransaction hell with pedophiles lurking around.
In the end, hés not really spending money and there are some pretty good and different games on the platform.
I also appreciate the fact that Roblox made him accept that you can play graphically simple games and have fun on cheap hardware.
So, while I’d prefer if he only played single player games on Linux or Playstation like me, I think Roblox is better than what people are saying.
I’m not saying it’s good for the game industry or consumer, but it’s almost better than an Nba 2k with its constant microtransactions despite paying for the game already…
I’ve never thought of Roblox as being bad. I think it as being dangerous (for the reasons you state), but I also think of it as a “for us by us” kind of deal. Meaning it’s a place and a game(s) for kids.
My son isn’t allowed to play it in our house (if he goes to visit family or friends I don’t make restrictions on that), and I have the same rule for pretty much all online games including things like Fortnite. This is mostly because of voice chat.
I do think the benefits you list are an important part of the conversation that don’t get brought up much.
The voice chat isn’t activated on my kids account as hés clearly too young. I didn’t have anything to do to disable it, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable if he wasn’t playing Roblox in the luving room where I can see what hés playing.
Also he loves it when I watch him play so we get to share and discuss a lot about the games he plays.
I guess Roblox is a game where you have to have good parenting behind.
It is more fucked that the exploitation is targeted at kids, but it also really mirrors the general scammyness of the online economy at large (i.e. a gold rush with a few winners making it big and millions working for free hoping they’ll eventually tap in to a big ore that’ll make the platform rich and pay them a pittance).
Yes just like every other industry. It’s the Pareto Principle or the 20-80 rule. 20% of the businesses in an industry earn 80% of the revenue. Not a hard rule but it comes close to that ratio in many industries.
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.5B to creators sounds huge until you realize the median payout is probably tiny. The top 1,000 averaging .3M while most earn pennies—classic platform economy.
TIL Roblox makes billions of dollars
A handful of people use Roblox to make milllions - if they pay out $1.5B total, and the biggest 1000 developers average $1.3M, then the entire rest of their 3.5 million developers average $60.
They claim 150M daily users.
Furthermore Roblox “taxes” their “developers” at various points.
It’s been a while, but I believe there’s a percentage fee on the premium currency spent on the game, then there’s another percentage fee when you cash the premium currency out for real money.
It’s sadly the biggest gaming platform in the world…
My son plays a lot of Roblox (1 hour a day at my place , way more with his mom).
At first I had a really bad impression about it because I thought it was just another microtransaction hell with pedophiles lurking around.
In the end, hés not really spending money and there are some pretty good and different games on the platform.
I also appreciate the fact that Roblox made him accept that you can play graphically simple games and have fun on cheap hardware.
So, while I’d prefer if he only played single player games on Linux or Playstation like me, I think Roblox is better than what people are saying.
I’m not saying it’s good for the game industry or consumer, but it’s almost better than an Nba 2k with its constant microtransactions despite paying for the game already…
I’ve never thought of Roblox as being bad. I think it as being dangerous (for the reasons you state), but I also think of it as a “for us by us” kind of deal. Meaning it’s a place and a game(s) for kids.
My son isn’t allowed to play it in our house (if he goes to visit family or friends I don’t make restrictions on that), and I have the same rule for pretty much all online games including things like Fortnite. This is mostly because of voice chat.
I do think the benefits you list are an important part of the conversation that don’t get brought up much.
The voice chat isn’t activated on my kids account as hés clearly too young. I didn’t have anything to do to disable it, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable if he wasn’t playing Roblox in the luving room where I can see what hés playing.
Also he loves it when I watch him play so we get to share and discuss a lot about the games he plays.
I guess Roblox is a game where you have to have good parenting behind.
I’ll just leave this here and let you folks make up your own mind about child exploitation.
Good link!
It is more fucked that the exploitation is targeted at kids, but it also really mirrors the general scammyness of the online economy at large (i.e. a gold rush with a few winners making it big and millions working for free hoping they’ll eventually tap in to a big ore that’ll make the platform rich and pay them a pittance).
deleted by creator
Yes just like every other industry. It’s the Pareto Principle or the 20-80 rule. 20% of the businesses in an industry earn 80% of the revenue. Not a hard rule but it comes close to that ratio in many industries.
deleted by creator