For this week’s Metaburst, we’re taking a closer look at the happenings from RDC, the Roblox Developer Conference, which took place over the weekend. Many gathered in San Jose to network, attend panels, and listen to speakers. The Innovation Awards also took place on Saturday night. Read on for the highlights:
ROBLOX TO CLAIM 10% OF ALL GAMING REVENUE
Did you know that Roblox could capture 10% of all gaming revenue? That’s what Roblox’s CEO David Baszucki predicted during his keynote speech. Roblox currently has over 79 million daily active users. Baszucki stated his ultimate goal is reaching one billion! It’s through that goal that he hopes the company can achieve that 10% revenue share. He didn’t specify an exact timeline, so it’s hard to weigh in on how practical that goal is. But in his speech, Baszucki outlined several ways the platform will expand its ecosystem.
SHOPIFY & ROBLOX PARTNERSHIP
Roblox will add new e-commerce functionality through Shopify. This new partnership means that anyone using Shopify can integrate their products directly into experiences. We’ve covered different e-commerce tests Roblox has performed with Walmart and Fandango over the last year and this seems to be the culmination of those tests. Come early 2025, it will be a lot easier for users to shop for real world items inside Roblox. There are age restrictions though, only US users aged 13 and older can make these purchases.
NEW SOCIAL FEATURES ON ROBLOX
Roblox has big plans to improve their social interactions. One of them is the new Party mode: this feature will allow friends to chat together over text or voice. They can then hop into the same game together and keep chatting! There will be options to teleport the party to the same starting location and even wear the same colors to feel like a true team.
Roblox will also be adding Communities, which is an upgrade to their current Roblox Groups. Communities is modeled more closely to a subreddit with opportunities to have forums so people can discuss tips and tricks. They’ll also be able to better engage with the developers to report bugs and other issues.
Another big announcement is their plans for a Battle Royale/Sports mode that could serve up to one hundred players! This is an area that Fortnite has dominated for years, but developers have figured out a way to make it possible on Roblox. Because so many people play on mobile, the goal is to be able to deliver this functionality on devices with RAM as low as 2 gigs. Once this becomes a reality, Roblox could see a ton of new players.
Those were the biggest highlights from RDC but there were a lot more announcements worth taking a look at. All of these developments, if rolled out successfully, will continue to cement Roblox as a central gathering place for multiple generations online. Who knows, maybe Baszucki will reach that 10% revenue sooner than expected! Come back next week for more news from the metaverse.
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