Roblox to Allow Developers to Charge Players in Fiat, Expand Payment Options
Date: 2024-09-09 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: BUSINESS
Roblox Corporation has unveiled a number of updates to its gaming and development platform, including changes to its payment policies.
In a move aimed at attracting more developers and expanding the platform’s capabilities, Roblox will now allow developers to charge players in fiat currency, rather than just its traditional virtual currency, Robux.
The announcement was made at the annual Roblox Developer Conference held in San Jose, California.
According to Roblox CEO and founder David Baszucki, the new policy will first be rolled out on desktop platforms later this year, with plans to expand to other platforms in the future.
Roblox Announces Partnership with Shopify
In addition to these changes, Roblox also announced a new partnership with Shopify.
The integration will allow players to purchase physical goods directly inside Roblox’s digital worlds.
The company plans to test the feature with select creators, brands, and e-commerce partners before expanding its use early next year.
The move aims to improve the Roblox ecosystem by connecting virtual worlds with real-world products.
Developers on the platform will be able to take advantage of a new revenue-sharing model that will be introduced with these updates.
Under the new system, the share of revenue that developers receive will vary depending on the cost of the paid content.
For example, for content priced at $9.99, $29.99, and $49.99, developers will receive 50%, 60%, and 70% of the revenue, respectively.
This tiered approach is intended to incentivize developers to offer more paid content on the Roblox platform.
Roblox shares have risen significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic as younger audiences flocked to the social gaming platform in droves.
However, the stock has fallen by about 40% in recent years.
The move to fiat transactions could revive interest in the platform by addressing user fatigue with virtual currency and giving users a more familiar payment method.
The move could also differentiate Roblox from other major gaming companies like 2K and Electronic Arts, which primarily use virtual currencies to support centralized transaction systems.
The Rise of Blockchain Use in Gaming
As previously reported, Proof of Play CEO Amit Mahajan expects blockchain use to grow significantly for gaming applications.
Mahajan, who previously developed the popular Facebook game *Farmville*, sees a future where thousands of individual blockchains power specific applications.
He views blockchain as an advanced database and believes that using chains as data stores is key to scaling applications.
The trend of using specialized blockchains in games is not unique to *Pirate Nation*. Other games that run on networks like *Avalanche* also use their own dedicated subsets, such as *Shrapnel* and *Off the Grid* with the *GUNZ* network.
*Treasure* is also building its own network based on *Arbitrum* called *Treasure Chain*, with dedicated game networks called "Infinity Chains."
Meta, meanwhile, is looking to revolutionize gaming in the metaverse by integrating generative artificial intelligence (AI).
A recent job posting at Meta reveals that the company intends to explore and develop "entirely new types of gameplay" in the metaverse using generative AI in virtual, augmented, and mixed realities.
