Alternate Publishing Requirements for Roblox Kids and Select

[Coatesultimate1]

Thanks for the update, Nick. I appreciate us not being left in the complete dark before this goes live. Here’s what I’m understanding from this FAQ:

@skywise84

What exactly is a “highly engaged player”?

• Before a game can reach younger audiences, we need to confirm it meets our policies for Roblox Kids and Select accounts. To do this, our Realtime Multimodal Moderation system reviews player engagement, using signals like account age, play history, and platform spend to verify that it is genuine and comes from highly engaged players.

  A highly engaged player is a user who has met a minimum purchase amount anywhere on Roblox in the last 60 days. They don’t need to spend anything in your game. This spend creates a real cost to abuse and makes it much harder for bad actors to generate fake engagement at scale. Your highly engaged player count grows as these users spend time in your game over a 60-day window.

  Highly engaged players play all kinds of games, including ones that are free to play, so your game doesn’t need to be monetized for players to count toward your total.

  We’ll adjust these criteria over time to capture more genuine players, always with safety as the priority.

This doesn’t really answer what “exactly” is a highly engaged player, but it does give a little more insight. I will not pry for what the specific metrics are; it would likely lead to rampant abuse (namely botting services that bad actors could use to meet the requirement easily), so I’ll just assume that real players are needed, they have to play roblox for a while, and that they have to spend maybe $10-15 on the platform in the last 2 months, as that would imply parity with the Creator Rewards definition of an “Active Spender”. Developers could also potentially use Analytics Service with the new spending and tenure status signals to get a better idea of who’s highly engaged. I don’t believe developers should struggle to find these players unless there’s some deeper problem with their game. What I was more concerned with is the total requirement, but…

@skywise84

Will the highly engaged player requirements change over time?

• Yes. We took an intentionally conservative approach at launch to make sure our safety systems have enough data to accurately evaluate games. We’re working to expand eligibility so more compliant games can qualify in the coming weeks and months. We’ll share an update on requirements before the global launch in June.

Thank god. A lot of people have been worried that the 500 players requirement would stay up to the full launch, and this requirement just seemed out of reach for most games, even successful ones. If the requirement is lowered to 100, I’d be satisfied. Maybe even 200 if the conditions for a highly engaged player get loosened in the future. The current metrics devs are reporting could also just be incorrect and tied to some internal issue, but that hasn’t been clarified by any staff.

@skywise84

Will I lose my publishing fee if my game loses eligibility?

• No. The refundable publishing fee will be automatically refunded 90 days after your game becomes eligible for Kids or Select accounts. If your game never reaches eligibility, it’s still refunded 90 days after your initial payment date. The only exception is if your game is permanently removed from Roblox due to severe Community Standards violations.

Cool, I don’t have much to say. Even if the fee wasn’t refunded it’s still very competitive relative to other platforms.

@skywise84

What if I need my game to reach Kids and Select users before reaching the ‘highly engaged player’ requirement?

• We’re exploring a fast-track option for creators who want to maximize reach before meeting the highly engaged player requirement bar. To ensure the highest safety standards, this option will include a pre-launch review with a higher upfront fee than our standard publishing flow. Like our existing refundable publishing fees, this fast-track option will be recoupable for experiences that meet our community standards. We’ll share more details prior to our global rollout of Kids and Select accounts.

This sounds great. Even if the fee is $25, $50, or even $100, I predict it will still be worth it to reach the wider platform quickly. I would prefer if this was released before the global rollout of kids and select, but as long as the highly-engaged players requirement isn’t disruptive for most developers, then the people can wait.

@skywise84

What happens to uncopylocked games?

• We know many of you use uncopylocked games to share templates and learning resources with other creators. We’re looking into options for how these are shared and discovered on Creator Store. We don’t have a specific timeline yet, but will have more to share in the coming months.

Game templates on the creator store? That sounds pretty cool, perhaps even a decent earning opportunity since models can be sold now. I am still concerned that a lot of uncopylocked games will become unavailable, though. Especially since roblox’s track record with game preservation is not great…

@skywise84

I paid the publishing fee but should have received a free Plus subscription. Can I get a refund?

• Yes. The free Plus subscription rolled out one day later than planned, which caused a small number of eligible creators to pay the publishing fee unnecessarily. We’re processing automatic refunds for everyone affected. No action needed on your end. The Robux will be back in your account within a few weeks.

Nice for the affected developers, I don’t have anything to add.

@skywise84

How do these changes impact games available exclusively to playtesters?

• “Private” games are now restricted solely to creators with Edit permissions. To share with anyone else, including those with Playtest permissions, you need to meet the new publishing eligibility requirements. Set your Audience to Limited > Playtesters to share your game with those with Playtest permissions. Playtesters who are Trusted Friends of age-checked game owners can access the game regardless of age, as long as the game’s content maturity questionnaire has been completed. Games published to any of the Limited audiences will not be visible publicly in search or on the home page.

This does not change much of the current problem from what I can tell. People are being forced out of their playtesting positions just because they want to protest the data-driven dystopia we’re heading towards. It’s so saddening to see that this is what roblox has become but I know that they didn’t have a choice in this regard.

Overall, I now believe that roblox *won’t* completely fall apart in the coming months, so that is definitely reassuring to hear.