Creator Store: Buy and Sell Plug-Ins with Real-World Currency

[grilme99 (brooke)]

This feature is great for plugin creators. I’m excited to see how the new revenue model will incentivize innovation on the creator store!

[2jammers]

On other open markets assets/plugins can be 5x the price you mentioned. It’s supposed to be about supporting the creator and not the end user. Learning unreal engine will only cost you more if you want any extra plugins or assets

[AborayStudios]

Aaand poof! There goes all of your young developers! We didn’t need them anyway, right? We’re only here for the giant supercorporations and the gazillions of dollars! It’s almost as if Roblox was oriented for children to… create and play games made by “millions” of other “users!” It’s a great change, because the engine is so up-to-date and 1:1s UE5 and Unity that we’re going to start attracting all of the professional adult developers!

[2jammers]

Your claim is quite ridiculous on the note that the team is looking for better solutions.

[OneEDM (EDM)]

@crayzdesi4

• You will still be able to publish, acquire, and distribute free assets. The launch of the real-world currency system does not force all assets to be priced. Free assets are not subject to the same country restrictions as paid assets.

Why do I have to fully set up a Stipe account including providing W-8/W-9 tax forms just to sell free plugins? This seems unnecessarily restrictive.

Update:
Stripe onboarding is not required for free assets: the wording was confusing and is being updated. Thanks for the quick reply @crayzdesi4

@crayzdesi4

Hi! Apologies for the confusing wording here, we are making a change now to provide more clarity.

You do not have to onboard to Stripe to distribute free assets on the Creator Store. You will need approval only to distribute priced assets.

[TheRealANDRO (ANDRO)]

Oh yes, one of the worst updates to come out in recent years.
First of all, I would like to repeat some of the last things that I’ve said in the last post:

• 1. A TON of developers are now left out in the dark due to their country not being supported.
• 2. Even if they aren’t in those countries, the requirements to be able to become a seller are ridiculous. Sorry, I’m still not giving out my private information just to be able to sell a plugin. If I do it, I’ll do it on websites like itch.io (not an advertisement) where I have a lot more freedom in my hands. And, you have to be over the age of 18 too which will eliminate tons of young developers from the market.
• 3. Let’s talk about the economy. Inflation is unfortunately real and the value of USD is quite different in many countries. In many countries, the ability to obtain a plugin is extremely hard due to the inflation in those countries, Robux was the only option for these developers in those countries due to it being not directly affected by the inflation. For a normal dev in the USA, paying 15 bucks is pretty easy, while if you’re in India, Japan, or Turkey, it’s like spending your entire month/week’s allowance.
• 4. It may look like this change has good parts in it. Now many developers will be able to get paid a lot more from their plugins and the real worth of their plugins will be a lot more visible… Right? The thing is, if you eliminate half of the developers from the market, and make the entire market now based on USD instead of Robux, you’re basically either removing half or most of the customers. The sales will plummet, and sure the devs will earn more… but at what cost? If my plugin is now being sold like 3 times a month, I’m not earning more than before lol.

One of the worst changes I’ve ever seen, there are far better solutions out there that could’ve benefitted everyone, but you guys decided to go with the most lazy option there to ever exist. For a platform that advertised itself as a place where everyone around the world regardless of their status would come play and create, you sure have done quite the opposite.

[AborayStudios]

Here, let me put this in green text for you…

• Roblox wants to move towards more mature and modern development
• their engine is decades out of date and scares off any actual professional developers and companies
• their current player base of developers are people who have been developing since they were young, and that line has been coming along until now.
• • Young developers now have restricted access to development tools because of the required real-world payment

This makes Roblox as a whole unattractive for young and professional development

[MeaxisDev (Meaxis)]

I have a credit card, I have a lot of USD, and yet I will most likely not buy plugins anymore. Roblox, one of the reasons people like this platform IS its microeconomy, and heck, it’s probably one of the reasson Roblox Corp even makes profit.

Please stop trying to move away from the microeconomy when it is obviously working and giving some people jobs or sources of income. This is stupid.

[pyxfluff (Pyx)]

My point was more so that the experience has been bad for players for a looooong time now, and it seems to be headed that way for developers, with them shoving ID verification, USD, and other stuff so far down our throats it’s getting impossible to avoid now. I don’t like Epic and Unity has a bad company (who also owns an advertising agency and sketchy privacy policy), but at this point I need a backup in case Roblox gets worse.

[2jammers]

Which are all improving so your argument is not sufficient. The first point is not even a bad one

[TheNexusAvenger (Nexus)]

Finally! Now plugins can actually made with some degree of revenue. Ditching Robux was needed to make plugins remotely worth it. The race to the bottom we had of <500 Robux plugins made robust plugins really hard to justify making because there was literally no path to paying for the time over making a game.

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@pyxfluff

Edit: have checked out the store. A lot of the plugins are now super overpriced (thanks again for forcing $4.99 minimum!) and now the only thing i can say is “why didn’t i pick these up for cheap!”, not “this is so good, i can now spend real money instead of robux i earned from a game!”. It’s insane how different Roblox is now. I stopped being a player years ago when that was ruined, now they’re coming for developers? Time to learn unreal engine…

Cough

@TheNexusAvenger

Why do you want to price plugins that cheap? This is a 1-time purchase for a development tool to help make you money, not an avatar item. Plugins take days, weeks, or even months to make and exist to aid in development. We don’t need the same race to the bottom that UGC has gone through.

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@AborayStudios

Aaand poof! There goes all of your young developers! We didn’t need them anyway, right? We’re only here for the giant supercorporations and the gazillions of dollars!

Cough

@TheNexusAvenger

???

You don’t need paid plugins to create a game. In the past couple of months of working for Virtual Valley Games, a group that does pull in a decent amount of money with several games, I have used only 1 plugin: a simple weld plugin, which has been free for well over a decade. Premium plugins help with development, but they are in no way required.

[2jammers]

That’s fine, I agree that ID verification is a bad method. Although complaining about plugin prices is just crazy at this point

[AborayStudios]

No. They aren’t improving. Fortnite, a game within a game engine, has already come out with another Roblox, and it’s doing better while having similar device support to Roblox. I want Roblox to quit making excuses and give developers some freedom for once.

[lol738236 (BEAR5)]

I have to completely agree. I live in Brazil and the value of USD is high to the point you almost see no Brazilian users paying for premium (unless you’re rich or a famous youtuber) due to the prices being not accessible for people who live here. I’m already not able to put UGC items in any group due to premium being expensive, now i have to worry about plugins also being expensive for me. I’m a bit disappointed about this change.

Although i can still get free plugins, i frequently use 2 important UI plugins that i paid with Robux, and now if anyone else wants to get them, they’d have to pay it in USD

[TheRealANDRO (ANDRO)]

@TheNexusAvenger

???

You don’t need paid plugins to create a game. In the past couple of months of working for Virtual Valley Games, a group that does pull in a decent amount of money with several games, I have used only 1 plugin: a simple weld plugin, which has been free for well over a decade. Premium plugins help with development, but they are in no way required.

That’s the point, you don’t need plugins to create a game. Then why are their value being set so high? For something that doesn’t hold too much of a value, why is it priced in the way it is? Your above statements would be true in a place like Unity/UE, but not here.

[Subcadet]

I don’t see how this is a good change for the platform…
Having Plugins cost USD locks many developers out of buying plugins which will make the sales of plugins plummet losing those creators more profit in the long run.

Launching this without other regions already supported as well seems like a bad move.
Overall, I think this update should be reverted as it wasn’t thought out and seems pretty rushed.

If this change isn’t reverted, I hope some groups step up and release free plugins for those developers who aren’t able to pay in USD.

[USADevForum1]

Nobody wants this change.

Make it optional.

[ImAvafe (Avafe)]

Great update! I’m looking forward to the growth of premium developer resources. Hope this comes to models soon! But as others have said, allowing full access for users -18 is crucial for many.

[2jammers]

@TheRealANDRO

Then why are their value being set so high?

Because you are capable of making them yourself? If it’s not in your interest to do that then you will have to pay the price.

[Tomi1231 (Chilly28)]

@crayzdesi4

We’re excited about how this will allow creators to earn over 3X the revenue share per sale.

Per sale. I am expecting sales to go way down with this change…