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Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

matthewball.co

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Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#121

Post by jack_pp »

jack_pp wrote: post #100
ElCapitanMarkla wrote: post #88

My kids have started playing Roblox recently and they have started asking for some Robux so they can buy crap... I really don't get how so many people are into spending dollars on this stuff. Everything they wanted was ~$10-20 NZD and it was just throw away stuff, like a costume, etc. And then it's only useful in that one game you have brought it for. It blows my mind that it ever got this popular.

Because kids aren't utilitarian. They want shiny things impulsively now in whatever niche game they are playing at the moment. Or want to keep up with their friends who got cool stuff to keep status. Doesn't matter to them that they'll switch games in a week and lose everything.

To add to this, for them money is like ice cream, comes from parents rarely and gives them temporary pleasure. That's why I think it is good to pay your kids for chores or good grades so that they start learning financial responsibility early. Sure they'll blow their money on useless stuff at first but then they'll have none for some other thing they wish they had money for and will learn to choose more wisely in the future

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#122

Post by diatone »

justinclift wrote: post #93
itake wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why is it wild? Microsoft keeps 30% of xbox store sales. Apple, Google, MS, etc. play a massive part in attracting users to the platform.

Visa and Mastercard provide entire global payment platforms, yet only (generally?) take a small fee per transaction. Apple seems to do a lot less, but wants ~1/3 of every transaction.

Apples to oranges. Card networks have more than three stakeholders to work with per transaction, apply fees indiscriminately from milk to digital music subscriptions, and operate at truly staggering volumes.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#123

Post by pjmlp »

Aeolun wrote: post #64
TulliusCicero wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a lot of ways it reminds me of BW/War3 custom maps.

Sorta, except that everyone is racing for money.

Turns out supermarkets don't take pull requests, and not everyone wants to live in a community farm, doing NGO like work.

Or placed in a less snarky way, capitalism spoils ideals.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#124

Post by matusp »

ElCapitanMarkla wrote: post #88

My kids have started playing Roblox recently and they have started asking for some Robux so they can buy crap... I really don't get how so many people are into spending dollars on this stuff. Everything they wanted was ~$10-20 NZD and it was just throw away stuff, like a costume, etc. And then it's only useful in that one game you have brought it for. It blows my mind that it ever got this popular.

Yeah, this should be discussed more in my opinion. This entire business is just exploiting kids. I'm pretty worried about how my kids will behave when they get older and they will start to get bombarded by the Algorithm with all this "popular" staff.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#125

Post by surgical_fire »

ffgjgf1 wrote: post #108
justinclift wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visa and Mastercard provide entire global payment platforms, yet only (generally?) take a small fee per transaction. Apple seems to do a lot less, but wants ~1/3 of every transaction.

Steam also takes 30% despite all platforms it operates on being entirely open. So it doesn’t seem to be that unreasonable

There is competition in that space though. A PC game developer can self distribute, can use alternative storefronts (e.g.: GoG, Epic), etc.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#126

Post by justinclift »

diatone wrote: post #122
justinclift wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visa and Mastercard provide entire global payment platforms, yet only (generally?) take a small fee per transaction. Apple seems to do a lot less, but wants ~1/3 of every transaction.

Apples to oranges. Card networks have more than three stakeholders to work with per transaction, apply fees indiscriminately from milk to digital music subscriptions, and operate at truly staggering volumes.

You're right. Visa and Mastercard seem to do a lot more, yet charge a very small fraction of the amount.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#127

Post by Animats »

danielheath wrote: post #47
andyferris wrote: post #22

> Unlike other social platforms, Roblox’s revenue is nearly all via user spending rather than advertising. As such, Roblox pays 25% of its revenue to Apple and Google (30% of transactions on those platforms) whereas Facebook, Snap, et al pay effectively 0. Note that Facebook, which has structurally lower costs to service users than Roblox and is far more mature, has an operating margin of roughly 40% — if the company…

I also hadn't thought about it before, but when you present it that way it's dazzlingly clear - thank you! Get money from your users: 25% platform tax Get money from advertisers: No platform tax

The ad platform takes big fees.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#128

Post by modeless »

chad1n wrote: post #117
modeless wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apps should be self-contained in their bundles, and may not read or write data outside the designated container area, nor may they download, install, or execute code which introduces or changes features or functionality of the app, including other apps. Roblox is in clear violation of this clause, downloading and executing entire games written in Lua. Apple does have an exception to this policy for HTML5 games and…

You can make the same argument about Minecraft since servers download you texture packs, data packs or skins. I don't think that Apple should stop these apps, that's their game model.

Roblox games are not comparable to texture packs or skins. They are complete games with assets and executable code, or at least the fancy ones are. Maybe data packs are more similar but it seems like Minecraft for iOS does not support them.

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#129

Post by Ekaros »

nradov wrote: post #50
kamikaz1k wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that true of games but not other businesses?

Almost all games have an inherently limited lifespan. How many games released 20 years ago are still selling well today? Games aren't like other software where you can keep enhancing the product and keep getting new sales. Thus games developers have to focus more on maximizing short term revenue rather than building a sustainable business around particular products. There are a handful of counterexamples like Madden…

Maybe not 20, but still long time CS2(CS:GO really like Windows 11) launch 2012, DOTA 2 2013, LoL 2009, World of Tanks 2010. And more. All still making money and surviving...

Re: Roblox is the biggest game in the world, but is unprofitable

#130

Post by low_tech_love »

jrm4 wrote: post #18

There's something weird and sad about Roblox for me as an old-timer who still has silly dreams about free/open software internet utopias for just fun? There's so much creative (programming etc) energy in that place and, for what? short rant over

I get you perfectly (I play Roblox with my kid almost everyday) but I have another opinion. When I think about what it accomplished, I think Roblox is pretty amazing; actually one of the most amazing software ever made. It accomplished in practice basically what lots of people have been trying to do for decades, since the MUDs from the 70s, and what Zuckerberg wasted billions of dollars with. Sure, most of its content is total crap, but the same could be said of many other great things (the internet for ex.) If you dig a bit you can find really nice puzzle games (“obbys”) for example that require two or three people to collaborate, and there are actually kids there waiting to collaborate with you. So the point is, yes it needs active filtering, but the engagement of players and developers is unprecedented and pretty exciting.

My main criticism right now is this idea of jumping on the LLM buzzwagon. It’s sad that they don’t understand that their success is 100% human-driven, and that using LLMs beyond QoL stuff will be their downfall. The moment we get fully AI-generated games and worlds, it’ll be over.

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