{"id":14299,"date":"2022-09-10T14:42:25","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T14:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/09\/10\/roblox-is-ready-to-grow-up\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T14:42:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T14:42:26","slug":"roblox-is-ready-to-grow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/09\/10\/roblox-is-ready-to-grow-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Roblox is ready to grow up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/9\/9\/23343459\/roblox-age-guidelines-metaverse-ads-developer-conference-announcements<\/a>
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Roblox rode a wave of pandemic-era growth to a seven-fold value increase<\/a>, an exploding user base, and a wildly popular Lil Nas X concert<\/a> with tens of millions of attendees. That success largely all came thanks to Roblox\u2019s core user base of young and highly engaged players.<\/p>\n

Now, those kids are getting older, and Roblox is trying to grow up, too. The all-ages, user-generated gaming platform is announcing plans today to add age guidelines to its games and significantly expand its advertising business as it works to court an older demographic, expand its revenue streams, and still support the needs of its millions of young players.<\/p>\n

The changes are a major step in how Roblox thinks of its users and how the company approaches advertising. Roblox \u2014 and the millions of people creating games for the platform \u2014 will soon have a new way to make money and the opportunity to target a slightly older demographic. Roblox\u2019s ability to become a billion-person platform with thousands of creators supporting themselves on it will depend on whether it can translate these new features into growth and profit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got started out, the majority of the people on our platform were under 13. We\u2019ve crossed a huge threshold now where the majority are over 13,\u201d Roblox CEO David Baszucki told The Verge.<\/em> \u201cWe\u2019re very optimistic that long term, this type of technology is going to support people all around the world and in a wide range of ways of connecting and being together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Up until this point, Roblox has perhaps been mostly known for its popularity with children \u2014 at one point, the company said<\/a> over half of US kids under 16 played Roblox. Now, as its user base gets a little older, Roblox is looking for ways to keep them coming back and give advertisers more targeted ways of reaching the 52.2 million daily active users.<\/p>\n

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A Roblox billboard ad.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: Roblox<\/cite><\/p>\n

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At the company\u2019s annual developer conference today, Baszucki announced a slew of sweeping changes to the platform, among them a new immersive ads system that will allow advertisers to reach players in millions of games \u2014 or \u201cexperiences<\/a>\u201d as they\u2019re called on Roblox. Until now, creators purchased banner ads using the in-game currency Robux, often resulting in nonsensical meme-like<\/a> creations made to entice players to visit and play their games. High-profile brands have ventured into Roblox, too, by working with developers to create custom experiences: there\u2019s Gucci Town<\/a> and Spotify Island<\/a> and even a virtual Chipotle restaurant<\/a>, among others. <\/p>\n

The new ads system, meanwhile, is a way for brands to advertise across Roblox experiences through interactive billboards, posters, and other surfaces. Working initially with a group of selected companies and developers, the new ad system will allow creators to drop 3D ads into their own experiences \u2014 like a billboard in a sports stadium or on top of a cab in a game \u2014 and to get a cut of the ad revenue. In addition to ads within user-created experiences, brands will also be able to have \u201cportals\u201d that act like a tunnel between games, taking players to a new branded area in Roblox like a shoe store or a coffee shop. The company will begin testing immersive ads by the end of the year, with a full launch planned for next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn effect, Roblox, where appropriate, will have 3D ad units that act as a massive ad server for all of these brands,\u201d Baszucki says. \u201cWe\u2019re very careful with who these brands are initially. But long term, this will move more and more to a self service model for appropriate brands for our platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A portal ad for Vans takes players into a branded experience.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: Roblox<\/cite><\/p>\n

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Advertising in the metaverse is as of yet unproven, but brands are already eyeing it as the next place to target potential customers. In-game purchases on platforms like Roblox and Fortnite<\/em> might offer a sign of the money to be made in the metaverse: Fortnite<\/em> made $50 million<\/a> off skins from just one partnership with the NFL, for example, and in Roblox, some players paid thousands<\/a> for virtual Gucci products. But Roblox \u201cbookings\u201d \u2014 the amount players spend on Robux, of which the company gets a cut \u2014 missed estimates last quarter<\/a>. Roblox went public<\/a> last year following an explosion in popularity during the pandemic, but its stock has fallen, and it\u2019s not yet profitable.<\/p>\n

The push to bring more ads to Roblox is coming while there\u2019s scrutiny of how the company handles the advertising already happening on its platform. In a Federal Trade Commission complaint<\/a> filed earlier this year, watchdog group Truth in Advertising says branded Roblox experiences are poorly identified, making it hard to discern whether a game is sponsored, especially for young kids. With immersive ads, Roblox will move with \u201cextreme conservatism,\u2019\u2019 Baszucki says \u2014 brands will only be able to reach players 13 years old and up, and Roblox will disclose when experiences contain ads.<\/p>\n

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