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Roblox is one of the most popular games in the world, with more than 70 million daily active users. A portion of the game’s popularity could be due to the creations of young individuals, including those under 18, a topic which Roblox studio head Stefano Corazza recently discussed in surprising fashion.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Corazza attempted to counter the negative perception surrounding this aspect of Roblox, saying, “Like, you can say, ‘Okay, we are exploiting, you know, child labor,’ 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.”
Corazza continued by explaining how exposing children to this at a young age could potentially lead to them landing a job in the future. “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,” he said.
He added that these individuals don’t “feel like they were exploited.” According to Corazza, many of these view this as the “biggest gift” because their content is being consumed by “millions of users,” and because of this, they “could retire.”
Corazza also noted that Roblox enables many children to learn how to code. “We have millions of creators in Roblox Studio. They learn Lua scripting, a programming language, which is pretty close to Python–you can get a job in the tech industry in the future and be like, ‘Hey, I’m a programmer,’ right?'” Corazza said. “I think that we are really focusing on the learning–the curriculum if you want–and really bringing people on and empowering them to be professionals.”
Corazza’s comments took some by surprise, perhaps prompting a subsequent statement from Roblox to Eurogamer. It reads in part, “The Roblox platform serves a broad community of creators. 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. 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.”
The company also noted that the “majority” of experiences that monetize are created by people who are 18 or older.
A previous report from People Make Games alleged that Roblox was “exploiting” young developers by paying them only a small portion of the revenue they generated. For every 1,000 Robux developers earned, they were able to cash out $3.50; however, it cost roughly $12.50 to purchase 1,000 Robux. The new statement from Roblox highlights that it absorbs costs such as payment processing, hosting, and so on. It pointed to a lengthy disclosure about its revenue split with developers and highlighted the $741 million that was paid out through its DevEx program in 2023.
Update: Shortly after this article’s publication, a spokesperson from Roblox reached out to GameSpot with the following statement:
“The Roblox platform serves a broad community of creators. 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.
“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.
“A recent survey into the reasons the creator community builds on Roblox found that the primary motivator for most creators is not monetary gain. In a survey conducted by Roblox and completed by more than 6,500 Roblox creators in Q4 2023, when asked about what motivates them to develop experiences on Roblox, having fun ranked 4x higher than monetization.
“For the subset of the creator community who wish to pursue monetization, Roblox offers a unique value proposition 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. You 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. In 2023, we delivered more than $741 million to the creator community through the DevEx program. We are always looking for more ways for developers to earn on the platform.
“For the experiences that monetize, the majority are created by developers who are aged 18 or older. Of the creators who are enrolled in the Roblox Developer Exchange (DevEx) program, the overwhelming majority are over the age of 18. 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.
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