At the annual Roblox Developers Conference, the corporate introduced on Friday a sequence of upcoming modifications coming to the platform within the subsequent few months and years. Most notably, Roblox is including extra methods for creators to earn cash via their experiences, and the corporate is unveiling a venture that may energy generative AI creation on the platform.
The firm is introducing a brand new program that may give creators a better share of income for his or her paid experiences on the desktop. Creators will now obtain 50% of the income for paid experiences that price $9.99, 60% for experiences that price $29.99 and 70% for experiences that price $49.99. The change marks a big enhance in income sharing, as creators presently earn about 25% of the income for his or her paid experiences.
Roblox chief product officer Manuel Bronstein informed TechCrunch in an interview that the corporate believes this transformation will encourage extra conventional recreation builders to deliver their video games to the platform.
The firm additionally introduced that it’s partnering with Shopify to permit creators to promote bodily merchandise instantly inside their experiences. Roblox plans to pilot this integration later this 12 months with choose creators, manufacturers and e-commerce companions.
To additional help creators, Roblox goes to roll out a “Price Optimization” software that may run exams to assist builders determine one of the best value for in-experience purchases. In some instances, the software might recommend that builders decrease the worth of an merchandise to get extra gross sales, benefiting each the developer and gamers.
In the identical vein, the corporate goes to start out experimenting with regional pricing suggestions to permit builders to tailor their costs to native markets.
Powering generative AI creation
In phrases of AI, Roblox introduced that it’s engaged on a 3D foundational mannequin that may energy generative creation on its platform. The mannequin can be open supply and multimodal and permit creators to generate 3D content material utilizing textual content, video and prompts.
“A creator may say I need to create a world that’s within the Scottish Highlands with castles and a stormy day, with a dragon background, and I need all of this in a steampunk steam model. And then the output would be the full scene creation,” Bronstein stated.
He famous that generative AI is presently targeted on photos and movies, not 3D creation. But, in Roblox, you want 3D objects, so should you see a tree, it must behave like a tree and likewise be seen from all sides.
Bronstein famous that Roblox isn’t making an attempt to exchange the artistic course of however as a substitute focuses on enabling extra folks to develop and create video games. For occasion, you might be a terrific developer however wrestle with the creative necessities for recreation creation. The 3D foundational mannequin goals to make it simpler for anyone to get began on the platform, whereas additionally serving to present groups pace up the method of recreation improvement.
Plus, simply since you get an output, doesn’t imply that you’ll implement it straight away. Developers will seemingly fine-tune and modify the AI-generated content material, Bronstein stated.
In addition, Roblox revealed that it’s rolling out a brand new expertise referred to as “Harmony” that may assist builders robotically optimize their experiences for various units and community situations.
Making Roblox extra social
While Roblox already has social options that permit customers to work together with one another, the corporate is introducing new methods for customers to take action.
For starters, it’s including “Parties,” which is a brand new approach for a bunch of pals to maneuver round Roblox collectively as a bunch in a non-public chat. If a consumer is underneath the age of 13, they will chat through textual content. If a consumer is older, they will use voice chat. Users in a Party can chat with one another even when they’re enjoying completely different video games, and if all of them need to play the identical recreation, they will ship invitations to one another.
The firm can also be introducing boards later this 12 months to present customers a devoted house to share suggestions, focus on gameplay and report any points they encounter.
To make its platform a vacation spot for folks to find new music, Roblox will roll out a brand new “What’s Playing” and “Music Charts” characteristic the place folks will be capable of discover trending songs from breakout artists. Roblox can also be planning an integration with music distribution service DistroKid to present artists a option to add and share their music on the platform.
All of the options introduced right now are a part of Roblox’s bold objective of getting 10% of all gaming content material income worldwide circulate via its ecosystem. Although the corporate didn’t present a timeline for when it goals to succeed in this objective, Roblox believes the modifications it’s introducing will assist it obtain the milestone.
