Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

matthewball.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

351–360 of 590 posts

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

#351

Post by spywaregorilla »

hansvm wrote: post #302
wavemode wrote: post #4

> Though Roblox isn’t profitable, there are some significant caveats to the situation. Over the last twelve months, operating cash flow—a far more important measure than accounting-defined profits—were $650MM, about 20% of revenue. Roblox has been cash-positive for at least twenty-four quarters. This feels like an example of the phenomenon highlighted in another recent post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41263…

> if cash flow ever does stop increasing, they can always get back to sustainability by pumping the brakes on reinvestment spending This is a point that's sometimes less obvious with cash flow games. It's possible to have positive cash flow even with negative unit economics, _even when no economy of scale can sufficiently improve those unit economics_ [0], so long as you have enough growth and a good cash flow situat…

Isn't uber is profitable these days with no qualifications?

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

#352

Post by ryandrake »

maxsilver wrote: post #303
simpaticoder wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kids have recently become interested in Roblox. I installed it on the PS5 but honestly I don't get the appeal. The games we tried are of very low quality. It doesn't have the complexity or interest of Minecraft. It doesn't have the polish of Astro's Playroom (or Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, which they are too young to play). It reminds me a little of Fortnite's non-battle-royal games, but much worse. Can you giv…

It's less about the games being high-quality, and more the games being community-created and user-driven. Roblox isn't a competitor to Astro's Playroom or Ratchet and Clank. Roblox is like, the next generation of ActiveWorlds, or like a user-generated version of Uru. It's a 3D Chatroom that solved the problem of "what do you do when people want something to do, while standing around chatting in the 3D chatroom?" by s…

> It's less about the games being high-quality, and more the games being community-created and user-driven.

There's also the socialization part. My kid's friends are all on Roblox. They don't get together IRL because a lot of them moved away when their parents had to move, and others just live way across town and "meeting at the park" is so 1980s. When new kids come to school, they share their Roblox and Fortnite usernames and that's where they hang out after school to socialize.

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

#353

Post by Mistletoe »

outside415 wrote: post #277
paulpauper wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roblox's salary ranges from $140861 in total compensation ... Levels.fyi collects anonymous and verified salaries from current and former employees of Roblox. does not seem like fu to me

They pay very well for senior roles . Like $700k+ tc

Beginning to see how they aren’t profitable…

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

#354

Post by _coveredInBees »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #344
_coveredInBees wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, I dunno. My son plays a bunch of Roblox and has spent a net $10 for a few custom avatar mods. While there is certainly a pay to win aspect for some games within, there is also a ton of "free" games to sift through, and since all of them are competing for players, they still have to make the experience compelling enough at the free tier. We've had conversations about the pay-to-win aspect, and even though he has s…

both should be regulated, this type of predatory gambling-like behavior shouldn't be allowed for kids under a certain age

Sure, I don't disagree with that at all. I'd love to see that happen. I was just pointing out that most of the industry is far worse than what I have seen with Roblox personally.

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

#355

Post by darknavi »

modeless wrote: post #128
chad1n wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Minecraft Bedrock (iOS and all mobile/console versions) do support assets and executable code as well.

They are called "Behavior Packs": https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/minecraft/creator/document...

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

#356

Post by wredue »

mrmetanoia wrote: post #321
GNOMES wrote: post #312

My kiddo has easily spent 500+ on Roblox across birthday/Xmas gift cards/chores. I can't stand that almost all of the games seem to have a pay to win aspect, or are heavily advertising every chance they get. As a gamer dad, I try to show my kid better games to play, but because they aren't free, his friends can't play. Just drives him to keep playing and wanting more Robux. It's compounded when his favorite Youtubers…

I've mentioned this in other comments, but I sat in with my nephews on a Roblox session, then stayed after to check things out on my own. There's an astounding number of adults on that platform saying some of the most horrible things. The games are like you say, and there's some that are indeed the model of what I expected: games that kids and amateurs made with their tools. Car jump games. Simple platforming. Basic…

Games in general have been a target of hate base voice chat.

You get these people everywhere.

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

#357

Post by bitfilped »

jack_pp wrote: post #349
CuriouslyC wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So... Paying people to write software inhibits them writing software?

Doesn't inhibit them but makes the activity not pleasant because your mind is attaching the work itself to external motivation. You don't do it because you want to (for the pleasure of it), but for a paycheck and humans don't enjoy activities like that if they're not starving.

This is how every other job in the world works, you work for money.

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

#358

Post by dagmx »

ffgjgf1 wrote: post #350
dagmx wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft have charged for non-individual use for longer than they’ve had the free version. I should have perhaps used commercial non-individual use rather than just commercial. https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/d/visual-studio-enterprise-s... Meanwhile Xcode is free and has been since the Project Builder days on Next. I’m not personally saying one is better value or not. Just that the companies have put different valu…

Did MS ever make any significant amounts of money from selling VS/MSDN compared to how much the availability f 3rd part software benefited Windows sales/increasing market share? Also you didn’t actually necessarily need it to publish software on Windows. While if you want to develop for iOS (and even macOS these days) you still need to pay the $100/300 yearly fee (which is there entirely for gatekeeping and not an ac…

To your question, that’s exactly my point. Without access to a companies books, you don’t know how they fund things. Take this as my response to your other reply as well.

You don’t know if Microsoft chose to fund certain parts of their development with the profits from VS enterprise or not. None of us do.

Even, for arguments sake, if we say that they could make it all free and still afford it, it would still affect priorities of what gets developed.

Again, I’m not saying one is right or wrong. I’m just arguing that it’s a lot more nuanced than any of the comments here suggest. Nobody has enough facts outside the companies bookkeeping and leadership to make these hardline claims.

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

#359

Post by xhkkffbf »

riwsky wrote: post #348
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seriously don't understand how Roblox isn't being investigated for predatory practices. Because if you held game companies responsible for deliberately fostering addiction in their customers to earn a profit, we'd have scores of industries behind them in line to be brought to heel the same way and the stocks for tech companies, game companies, tobacco companies, casino companies, alcohol companies, etc. etc. would…

We did that for tobacco, though? It was a huge public health win?

Actually, it's mixed. The states now get such a huge chunk of tobacco money that they're incentivized to keep people smoking. The more they smoke, the more the state gets.

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

#360

Post by nazka »

latexr wrote: post #318
GNOMES wrote: post #312

My kiddo has easily spent 500+ on Roblox across birthday/Xmas gift cards/chores. I can't stand that almost all of the games seem to have a pay to win aspect, or are heavily advertising every chance they get. As a gamer dad, I try to show my kid better games to play, but because they aren't free, his friends can't play. Just drives him to keep playing and wanting more Robux. It's compounded when his favorite Youtubers…

> As a gamer dad, I try to show my kid better games to play, but because they aren't free, his friends can't play. Considering how much you said your kid has spent, that money could’ve been spent on buying copies for all their friends and you’d still have plenty left over.

I upvoted you but after thinking about it actually, you will find that this will attract kids that are friends for the money and start weird dynamics in the social bubble of his son. But your idea is right! Maybe he could have done gaming sessions at his house or who knows what to better spend this money on other games.
Post reply on HN