On the annual Roblox Builders Convention, the corporate introduced on Friday a collection of adjustments coming to the platform within the subsequent few months and years. Most notably, Roblox is including extra methods for creators to earn cash by means of their experiences, and the corporate is unveiling a mission that may energy generative AI creation on the platform.
The corporate is introducing a brand new program that may give creators the next share of income for his or her paid experiences on the desktop. Creators will now obtain 50% of the income for paid experiences that value $9.99, 60% for experiences that value $29.99 and 70% for experiences that value $49.99. The change marks a big improve in income sharing, as creators at present 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 modification will encourage extra conventional recreation builders to convey their video games to the platform.
The corporate additionally introduced that it’s partnering with Shopify to permit creators to promote bodily merchandise straight inside their experiences. Roblox plans to pilot this integration later this yr with choose creators, manufacturers and e-commerce companions.
To additional assist creators, Roblox goes to roll out a “Price Optimization” instrument that may run assessments to assist builders establish the very best worth for in-experience purchases. In some circumstances, the instrument could counsel 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
By way of AI, Roblox introduced that it’s engaged on a 3D foundational mannequin that may energy generative creation on its platform. The mannequin shall be open supply and multimodal and permit creators to generate 3D content material utilizing textual content, video and prompts.
“A creator could say I want to create a world that is in the Scottish Highlands with castles and a stormy day, with a dragon background, and I want all of this in a steampunk steam style. And then the output will be the full scene creation,” Bronstein mentioned.
He famous that generative AI is at present targeted on footage and movies, not 3D creation. However, in Roblox, you want 3D objects, so in the event you see a tree, it must behave like a tree and in addition be seen from all sides.
Bronstein famous that Roblox isn’t making an attempt to interchange the inventive course of however as an alternative focuses on enabling extra individuals to develop and create video games. As an illustration, you might be an excellent developer however battle 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 velocity up the method of recreation growth.
Plus, simply since you get an output, doesn’t imply that you’ll implement it immediately. Builders will doubtless fine-tune and modify the AI-generated content material, Bronstein mentioned.
As well as, Roblox revealed that it’s rolling out a brand new know-how known as “Harmony” that may assist builders mechanically optimize their experiences for various gadgets and community situations.
Making Roblox extra social
Whereas Roblox already has social options that enable customers to work together with one another, the corporate is introducing new methods for customers to take action.
For starters, it’s including “Party,” which is a brand new method for a bunch of buddies to maneuver round Roblox collectively as a bunch in a personal chat. If a consumer is beneath the age of 13, they will chat through textual content. If a consumer is older, they will use voice chat. Customers in a Occasion can chat with one another even when they’re enjoying completely different video games, and if all of them wish to play the identical recreation, they will ship invitations to one another.
The corporate can be introducing boards later this yr 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 individuals to find new music, Roblox will roll out a brand new “What’s Playing” and “Music Charts” characteristic the place individuals will be capable of discover trending songs from breakout artists. Roblox can be planning an integration with music distribution service DistroKid to present artists a technique to add and share their music on the platform.
The entire options introduced right this moment are a part of Roblox’s bold objective of getting 10% of all gaming content material income worldwide stream by means of its ecosystem. Though the corporate didn’t present a timeline for when it goals to achieve this objective, Roblox believes the adjustments it’s introducing will assist it obtain the milestone.
