
two & half gamers session #3 – Is Roblox evil mega corp or money making machine?
Welcome to our #3 episode of two & half gamers! In this episode we covered various topics:
- Our view on Roblox
- Rewarded interstitial Ads
- And many more news from gaming world
Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lančarič
Roblox
Steam hosts 55K Games vs Roblox 20 Mil “experiences” 47,3 Mil DAU Half of the users are aged 12 and under Current Market cap 38 Bil $ Roblox Cut 75,5% Roblox takes a 30% cut of every transaction on their platform Discoverability Robux Minimum Withdrawal to real life money 100K (1000 $) Second life comparison (10$) Withdrawal only possible with Roblox monthly 5$ subscription On every 1$ revenue of roblox only 17% make it out Historic example of “Company money Scrib” Workers spend their money at the company Workers become afraid to break company rules as company rules over their “money” This dependency increase friction on quitting the system Illegal in US 1938 Platform Capitalism – business model based on unsustainable expansion in order to monopolize a platform Experience based payouts Roblox “editor knowledge untransferable “Make serious cash” claim removed from the website after video Roblox moderation – shut down official forums in 2017 because they couldn’t moderate them Roblox Collectible Market Tie ins with Brands Collectibles that are sold for limited time skyrocket in value from 10 to 15K $ dollars Roblox still takes a 30% form all of the transactions Roblox Black market
Rewarded Interstitial ads – 6 months in
Around 6 months ago Google and Facebook announced the roll out of Rewarded interstitial ads. An interstitial ad that pops up and users can opt out of and thus forgo the reward Admob are pushing very hard on this format which is still in Beta Facebook were pushing it but not so much anymore Don’t monetize with this format! You’re opening yourself up to unnecessary stress and risk Only FB and Admob support it – thus you’ll get lower prices FB on iOS is pretty much non-existent so you have no competition Calling it now that in 12 months they won’t exist.
Please share feedback and comments – matej@lancaric.me