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

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

#311

Post by axus »

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

Looking at the pages and pages of crap games in Roblox is a bit reminiscent of a long list of horrid software on a dialup BBS.

Everything popular seems to start as a clone of non-Roblox games, and then goes off on it's own direction from there.

Not Roblox's fault, but it's not a good place for kids to make friends; any kind of contact information must be censored. They can play there with friends made elsewhere.

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

#312

Post by GNOMES »

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 play...

Seriously don't understand how Roblox isn't being investigated for predatory practices. I imagine they can hide behind the fact users are making most of the mini games, and they are just providing a platform.

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

#313

Post by MuffinFlavored »

Guzba wrote: post #63
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…

Roblox is dilution-maxxing, stock based comp is up 10x since EOY 2020 whereas revenue is only up 3x. SBC is also ~ 1/3 of revenue. It's pretty cool to get shareholders to pay your employees so you can be called "operating cash flow positive" as if their comp isn't an expense.

> SBC

stock-based compensation

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

#314

Post by ToucanLoucan »

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…

> 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 all implode.

There's no danger of that of course because we long ago decided as a society that we're fine with vulnerable populations being put through an economic woodchipper to fuel our retirement funds, and that's been status quo for so long that I sincerely doubt there's any way to actually change it.

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

#315

Post by dagmx »

actualwitch wrote: post #257
ffgjgf1 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by “only”? You can really expect companies to behave irrationally. Pretty much every company funding Linux development do it because they expect this to benefit them somehow.

"I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think we’ll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people. If that’s true, then it will be good to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality." - Gabe Newell https://www.neowin.net/news/valve-co-founder-windows-8-is-a-... Take a wild guess when they started pushing steam…

Yeah, the existence of SteamOS, Steam Machines and eventually Proton were a hedge against Microsoft’s perceived shift into locked down distribution .

I think a lot of folk have a hard time reconciling that there may have been non-altruistic intentions behind something that is enjoyed today.

Similarly, Steam itself was a hedge against physical distribution to cut out the middleman. It wasn’t originally envisioned as a store for anyone but Valve.

But here we are today, and both have positive side effects that actually have outlived the original design.

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

#316

Post by GNOMES »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #314
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…

> 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…

Understand your point, but Epic (Fortnite) and games like Fifa have gotten sued or major slap on the wrists for the same practices

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

#317

Post by _coveredInBees »

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…

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 several hundred dollars saved up, he has never once asked to spend money on pay-to-win aspects of Roblox. I'd argue that almost any modern videogame / mobile game is equally if not more "predatory" with the pay-to-win side of things. Just look at the menu screens in any modern first person shooter / battle royale type game. Those look far worse than anything I have seen in Roblox.

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

#318

Post by latexr »

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.

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

#320

Post by TheRealPomax »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #211
TheRealPomax wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

50+ million daily active users pretty much instantly invalidates that claim (hell, even a million daily actives would have, AAA games dream of these numbers =) It's not for you and me, we just see a garbage "game", but holy shit is there a large demographic that loves what Roblox gives them.

Just because something that sucks is popular doesn’t invalidate the claim that it sucks (and Roblox does suck hard). Junk food is terrible for your health and is also very popular.

Except "bad for your health" is an objective biological fact, whereas saying something sucks is entirely subjective, so that argument too is invalid from the outset. You think it sucks, vastly more people don't. You're welcome to your opinion, but that's all it is.
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