Getting ~30 cents more but much less subscribers isn’t really a good deal though. I don’t see any kid who plays Roblox in my country (Netherlands) getting access to a credit card. They always get cash, go to a store, buy a Roblox giftcard for themselves and play that way. Parents do the same. It’s the most secure way, and imo also the most ethical way (and likely the most profitable).
3 Likes
Oh yeah absolutely. I do not anticipate it will do well at all; it’s difficult enough for a child to get Robux, especially in a strict household. There is no way they are going to ALSO get a RECURRING subscription that is USD unless they have REALLY nice parents.
I was just pointing it out as a matter of showing how Roblox is clearly CAPABLE and WILLING to give developers a system where they can get more money per transaction, but they choose not to.
We’ll get $0.30-$0.50 more per transaction, for sure, but we might get 10 or less subscribers lol.
2 Likes
Pretty cool update!
You can probably now make players get something similar to builders club in experiences. Overall, it sounds neat!
I just have a couple questions:
1. Will there be API to extend or pause/resume subscriptions?
- There may be a scenario in which an in-game feature has broken or some other issue, in which a developer may want to extent the length of a subscription as a remedy.
2. Will there be API to award free temporary subscriptions?
- This is similar to the first question, but more intended for giving subscriptions away as some benefit. A few examples include having the first month be free, having free benefits during an event, awarded from a code or prize, etc.
3. Will there be a way to refund subscriptions (without deleting them)?
- In case the subscription does not provide what was intended or there was some issue. Would a player be able to refund mid subscription? Would a developer be able to refund for whatever reason?
4. What happens if a subscription is ended early?
- What happens if a player cancels their subscription early? Does it remain until their next payment cycle?
What happens if a developer temporarily or permanently removes a specific subscription tier for whatever reason?It seems that players will get refunded if a developer deletes a subscription. It seems as though player enforced refunding is very dangerous, with the potential of debt, if they refund after the given 30 day hold period (which I don’t believe should be allowed in the first place).
5. Will there be a way to translate all transactions in-game to real world currency?
- This question is less related to subscriptions. But I do wonder if there will ever be a way for developers to optionally display the price of something in real world currency, whether that be exclusively USD or whatever the local currency is.
6. Will this subscription system be applicable for anything else, such as plugins?
-
As it’s been talked about before, selling plugins on Roblox is a big loss. Though perhaps subscription based plugins would make it more worth while.
-
(Although I would prefer if developers kept an expensive one-time purchase option in addition to the option of paying a smaller amount monthly.)
7. Will there be a way to track a user’s consecutive subscription activity?
- I think a system like this would be great for the purposes of awarding loyal subscribers. Aka, loyalty incentives.
I understand that a good amount of this can be done using other methods, but I’m still wondering if any amount of this will be built-in rather than having to manually do it some other custom way.
3 Likes
Deleting the subscription refunds all players.
1 Like
Yes, and according to the documentation, it also seemingly allows the developer to in-theory go into debt if they cash out too early. 
Subscriptions have an API to do this for them, I highly doubt any other asset types would receive this treatment as they are all purchasable with Robux.
1 Like
I think being able to refund out of the hold window should not be allowed. That seems ridiculous to me that somebody can refund after their full usage of a given subscription, especially when given a very generous 30 days. Developers should not be allowed to go into debt, this easily opens up dangerous exploits that can affect people’s well-being.
I wouldn’t expect something like that to go anywhere else. I would just like a built-in way to convert prices for players. While I don’t think all developers should be forced to do so, I do think it’s better for the consumer to see what they’re actually paying when they’re attempting to buy something. But that’s more of a morality thing.
I know it’s easy enough to make your own conversion method, but it doesn’t account for the variation that you can buy Robux at. The different conversion rates complicate things, so it would force you to choose the lowest conversion rate for the highest accuracy.
1 Like
Why cant subscriptions be in Robux too. Personally I wouldn’t pay in USD for an ingame subscription, but with Roblox I would.
1 Like
Why are we only getting 24% of the revenue?? lol??
and in no world is a parent giving their kid their credit card for a monthly game subscription for ROBLOX.
3 Likes
this was almost a good feature until i saw you could only pay for subscriptions in real life currency, add robux subscriptions too or i have no reason to use this
The only thing I can ask about this is: Why $ (or local currency in general)?
There are people who got their Robux either from donation games or by their earnings from experiences or clothing and not by buying them.
With that in mind, the subscription currency must be set to the developer’s option. The developer should be able to pick if they want to sell it in real life money or Robux.
1 Like
Really good feature but would be really cool to make it with robux OR developer choice.
That’s about how much we’ve always gotten. You can buy 400 R$ for $5.00 USD, but you only get $1.40 USD to DevEx 400 R$, that’s 28% of the cost. But what makes it worse, is there’s also a 30% cut. So if a player buys something in your game for 400 R$ ($5.00 USD), that then becomes 280 R$ ($3.50 USD). Convert that 280 R$ into USD via DevEx and you get $0.98 USD, which as a reminder is 28% of $3.50 USD. So if you look at things from start to finish, $5.00 USD becomes $.98 USD (19.6% of the original).
So in short, Roblox takes an 80.4% cut from all sales. Now this percent varies a bit based on if the player has premium and what purchase bundle they chose, this math is only done based on the 400 R$ for $5.00 USD bundle. All of this is actually made worse if selling UGC, where UGC creators only get 30% of their earnings, if their UGC content is bought anywhere than from their own game (which is the only way for them to get the full 70%).
However, this system does allow for promoted sales by selling other UGC creator’s content within your own game, and you getting a cut (40%) of those sales. However, I do think that the UGC creator should get the larger 40% cut, while the seller should only get 30%. If you were wondering, an accessory worth 400 R$ bought with $5.00 USD in the catalog or some place other than that UGC creator’s game will only get them 120 R$ ($1.50 USD), which ends up being $0.42 USD after DevEx, which is only 8.4% of the original $5.00 USD (aka, Roblox gets a 91.6% cut if sold in the catalog and not by another player).
If you’re wondering, the DevEx rate is still 24.4% for these subscriptions for the first 3 months. Then, if the player is still a subscriber (and on PC) after 3 months, it becomes 29.7%. This means that subscriptions technically give the best conversion rate (after 3 months).
Now before you get upset, it’s important to realize the cost of Roblox itself. Roblox provides many expensive services, that other engines simply do not, all for free. This includes things like DataStores and servers (with cross-play). This makes it possible for developers of any size to be able to create a complete multiplayer experience, all for free. It basically allows the platform to exist the way it does.
(However, I will say that this pricing model only works for experiences. I don’t think it works for asset sales like plugins. But I do think that subscription based plugins may be more worthwhile to develop.)
2 Likes
I think this should be in robux, not IRL cash.
IRL cash subscriptions are a good idea on paper, but I can see this becoming a source of headache down the line. Imagine how many kids are going to run up their parents’ credit cards with subscriptions to every single game they play - it will add up to be way more than the basic ROBLOX subscription!
Then you have to deal with people cancelling the charges on their credit card statement, etc…
At least if they run out of robux, the subscription will stop, like it does for VIP servers.
1 Like
Big question, will description be changeable in the future?
Seems like a huge flaw imo. What if I’m making a membership, where more content gets added to the game and I want to add extra info for that subscription? Do I just need to cancel and create a new subscription everytime I do so? Would this cause all players current subscriptions to be removed?
1 Like
cc @JJVCOB @JustNylo @fouroul94 @CoolJohnnyboy
Saw a lot of people asking about Robux based subscriptions, this was the reasoning mentioned at RDC:
https://twitter.com/joritochip/status/1700557376687140902
1 Like
Then why do VIP servers not fall under the same catagory?
2 Likes
I think the reason for this is specifically so if anything changes, the user would in fact need to resubscribe. I think this is better for the consumer. However, you can also just change the description in-game and change what the subscription gives. But I wouldn’t recommend doing this without some sort of warning or creating a new subscription, unless the benefits are only positive. The reason for this is because these purchases are recurring and automatic.
Although I think it would be nice to also track how many consecutive months/payment cycles a particular player has been subscribed for, that way developers can use loyalty intensives.
thank you for letting me know, but yeah i’m with OutlookG i don’t see how this is any different from VIP servers as those can have benefits to them as well. e.g. having special abilities that you can only use in VIP servers you own. just seems like a really silly reason not to do so or at least provide users the option between both. i think it’s really just more of a decision based on greed rather than compliancy as roblox has made plenty of those sorts of decisions lately.
While I agree that this should support Robux, I don’t think it’s fair to say that this is out of greed when the conversion rate is the same as buying Robux at the cheapest level.
If anything, I’d argue that it’s more of greed in benefit of developers. While Robux may run out, subscriptions using real-world money will be able to continue charging. This difference is important because if subscriptions cost Robux, that user would then have to worry about making sure they have enough Robux in their account each month. Where as using real-world currency insures that you have enough and pay for it each month (if you don’t, you probably shouldn’t be paying for subscriptions anyway).
I think the best option here, if compliance isn’t the reason, is to allow users to pay either with Robux or real-world currency. Perhaps the developer would be able to choose which purchase method they want to allow (Robux, real-world currency, or both).
1 Like