Hello and welcome back to The Game Business Micro.
It was another pretty quiet week for video game industry news, although there were plenty of headlines coming out of Roblox, and whole lot of discussion points generated by this year’s BAFTA video game awards.
Regular readers will know this Micro is for paying subscribers of The Game Business (unlike our Tuesday and Thursday shows, which are free for all). Now, last week we announced our speakers for The Game Business Live (including EA’s Laura Miele, Naughty Dog co-founder Jason Rubin and leading analyst and Epyllion CEO Matthew Ball). The event takes place in Downtown LA on Monday, June 8, and tickets are available now. Paying TGB subscribers can come for ‘free’ (and by free, I mean as part of your subscription). All you need to do to register is click on the link at the bottom of the email.
That’s it! Let’s take a look at the news.
Roblox makes more changes to strengthen child protection
In Brief: Roblox has added two new age categories in a bid to better protect younger players online. The firm has added the Roblox Kids category, which are for 5 to 8 year-olds. This category prevents use of chat tools and users can only access games labelled ‘minimal’ or ‘mild’. The second category is Roblox Selects, which is for children aged nine to 15. This category features games labelled ‘minimal’, ‘mild’ and ‘moderate’. Chat is available but in ‘default mode’, which allows for text conversations but not voice. It can also be turned on and off by parents.
What You Need To Know:
Roblox utilizes age checking technology to determine the age of the user, and therefore which age category they fall into.
Roblox is also adding new parental controls including the ability to block specific games, manage direct chat, and approve games that are not otherwise available to an age bracket.
Roblox is coming under increased pressure over being a perceived danger for children. Perceived risks include grooming and the exposure to inappropriate user-generated content.
This week, Roblox paid $12 million to the state of Navada, which was challenging the company over not doing enough to protect young people online.
My Take:
Roblox wants 10% of the global video game market. It’s quite an incredible goal, and you wouldn’t bet against it on its current trajectory.
Last year, two games on its platform - Grow a Garden and Steal A Brainrot – attracted well over 20 million concurrent players, which made them two of the most played video games in the world. Last summer, Roblox had almost 50 million people playing on its platform at the same time.
It’s continuing to invest heavily in its platform. Last week, it announced new AI tools that will allow creators to ‘build a game with a single prompt’. It also added a new subscription service to bolster revenue and increase engagement.
