Why USD donation is not an option? The announcement says USD buying and selling will be available for other countries and minors soon.
Hi everyone,
We appreciate your feedback and want to address some of your comments and concerns.
Pricing in real-world currency in Creator Store
Put simply, our motivation for moving Creator Store to real-world currency is to maximize the revenue share for asset creators.
Plugins accelerate creation for our entire community, and Roblox does not intend to profit from their creation or sale. Pricing plugins in real-world currency allows us to give 100% of net proceeds on Creator Store transactions to creators, bypassing the platform fees (30%) and the DevEx rate that Robux revenue is subject to. We expect this change will lead to an increase in the volume and quality of tools you’ll see on the Creator Store, and we have already seen amazing new offerings from our community.
We explored many alternate options, but real-world currency offered the best path to maximize revenue share for creators. We are also exploring alternate payment options for Creator Store, in addition to continuous improvements to the DevEx process platform-wide.
Support for younger creators
Your support for plugin creators under the age of 18 has been heard loud and clear. We are actively working on this request, so please stay tuned for announcements.
Support for buyers and sellers in more regions
While the assets will appear in a USD price, our payment processor, Stripe, will calculate taxes (sales tax, VAT, etc.) based on your location and convert currencies when charging your payment method. We’re also working hard to enable transactions in more countries. Creators in Brazil will be able to sell assets in the coming weeks, and we aim to onboard more countries in the coming months.
Resolving bug reports
- An issue with Stripe checkout prevented purchases from creators in certain countries, including the United Kingdom, Hungary, Romania, Netherlands, and Canada. This issue was resolved yesterday, and all impacted plugins should now be purchasable.
- Thanks to a report from @Wolf1te, we identified a bug that temporarily removed pricing for a small number of plugins. This bug was also fixed yesterday, and we are canceling transactions for all impacted plugins.
- We are working through a few rough edges on our transactions report page and will be making additional improvements in the coming days. Please rest assured that we have records for each Creator Store transaction, and the issues you are experiencing are specific to the front-end display. We are also working on a CSV export feature for this data.
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Sorry for the late reply, was up late and had to get up early this morning and couldn’t stay up late.
To your point, I feel like that will flip the script and make it, so Robux is useless and USD is powerful, which judging by the countless Robux items that Roblox has to offer would be kind of useless for starting a game and having monetization for Robux whenever the Creator Store is only using USD and they are soon to be expanding to models, etc.
At that point, I feel like that will give people more of a reason for people to have stuff they can buy for USD in their games, so they can afford it. Not to mention, what if they can’t (reasons already explained)?
To this point, the problem will lie on, we won’t make enough to ever match those prices because of the fees that Roblox puts on us, not to mention, what if a person can’t do USD for various reasons (reasons that have already been discussed and are still a problem)? What do we do then?
Right now, if I spent money on plugins for Roblox Studio that I have now, I would probably be at around ~$-100 to $-200 depending on the plugins’ cost (plugins cost are not set in stone, so it basically is a rough estimate)
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Relight was posted 2 days ago, it would be way too obvious to prop it up to the front page immediately. The algorithm for the plugin marketplace is obviously truly broken, it cannot be denied, there are things on the marketplace that should not be there, page 5 for example has an animation stealer: https://create.roblox.com/store/asset/8069283885/Animation-Stealer-V2?pageNumber=5&pagePosition=26
Another animation stealer disguised as a spoofer on the page 2:
There is preferential treatment as you have been invited and been to RDC, and most likely, due to the popularity of your plugin and your statement saying you are a Roblox “business partner” you are probably in a group that gives you a direct communication line to Roblox representatives. Regardless of this, it’s not a big deal that you do have preferential treatment, as it is expected, but inherently it gives you a bias.
The issue everyone has with this update is that the execution lacked the foundation needed for it to work. I outline some of things that should be in place already, but aren’t:
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The algorithm is broken for the front page of plugins, there is no form of categorization for optimizing your search for plugins, sometimes plugins don’t show up without a direct search.
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The API’s for plugins are a nightmare to work with, and some are not very well documented.
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They’ve mentioned that they are adding Creator Store Analytics, however that should have happened before this release happened, currently there is no way to tell your sales data without downloading your previous transaction history and filtering for that specific plugin, which is a huge hassle considering the previous method directly told you the sales figure. If you are transitioning to a new market type it is essential that the data should be there to look at when it happens.
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Piracy is now more than ever going to be rampant when it comes to plugins, especially due to the nature of the consumers (a lot of them may be programmers) who are getting your plugins, at this moment it takes one line of code to dump the entire source of the plugin, and if you aren’t a programmer, it can be found as an rbxm in the file system, so there is no way to secure your plugin if you are selling it for currency, and you may say “that’s why we have DMCA complaints” however Roblox has no system for detecting pirated local plugins.
Giving developers 90% of the proceeds requires a different currency, otherwise you’ll get an influx of burner plugins used for Robux tax evasion. Which I think a lot of people aren’t getting here, so no Robux is not an option, sorry guys.
All and all this isn’t a bad change, however it is missing everything before it that needs to be there in order for it to prove successful.
Edit: I also forgot to mention, at this moment there is no way to have plugins being sold from a group, this is also really disappointing that it was not included in the release or mentioned at all, now I’m forced to make it free, otherwise I lose my whole userbase 
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I was really surprised to see that people were unhappy about this update. Lots of the fantastic plugins I use were purchased on Gumroad and not here. It did not even occur to me how this would restrict younger developers until I saw the comments!
So… No Robux fallback?
who wouldve thought honestly. im stranded now from the paid plugins as a whole.
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No better way to kill of the Roblox development scene than immediately putting gunshots in the kneecaps of every future young and aspiring developer.
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How was the previous system fair for Roblox developers? A significant amount of the money made from plugins was taken by Roblox through tax and DevEx. It was not fair at all to them.
You should always do your research before buying a product. If you are spending $5 dollars for a, “not very well made plugin,” that is no ones fault but your own. Take a look at this thread:
Plugins are only there to assist the development process. Many professional game developer companies will not use plugins or will create their own internal ones. In most Computer Sciences courses you will take in an academic setting, you won’t be using frameworks or plugins to create your code, because they want to teach you fundamentals without the helpful nature of libraries or plugins. You should be able to create a game just fine without plugins, it is not removing an essential part of studio at all.
What about the indie plugin developers not making a fair amount of money from their work? The creator ecosystem is larger than just games. This change should help incentive talented developers to spend time developing high-quality plugins. I am confident that this update will bring us many great plugins from more developers we haven’t seen yet.
I am not trying to dig at you personally, but you have a perspective that I see a lot of developers have on this topic. The “doom and gloom” of Roblox updates so to speak. Everyone keeps saying “bad Roblox update” to changes, but the changes always work out fine. I think it’s healthy to say your concerns and I agree that you have some valid arguments in your post, but overall I think this update is good so far and we should let the system play out and re-evaluate in the future.
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Subscriptions are USD only for a reason;
- App Store Regulations (Roblox doesn’t want to be kicked off like fortnite)
- Legal Regulations (Theres alot of them for subscriptions)
- It’s generally not feasible to run a subscription with Robux as you lose out on the automatic payout
Creator Store purchases are USD only for a reason;
- Robux is not an option as this will incentivize undercutting and the various other issues brought up here
- More open to developers coming onto the platform for the first time (especially brands, which roblox sorely needs to stay afloat)
There are reasons for why these two are priced for USD. These reasons do not apply to the various other items on Roblox, so no they won’t start costing USD.
I mean I might be wrong about this as I don’t really know what can be considered as a ‘subscription’ but what about Private Servers? They work similar to subscriptions, you pay a monthly amount and get something in return (in that case the private server).
You’re saying that subscriptions are in USD for regulations, how come private servers which work pretty much the same aren’t?
I believe in terms of legal or accounting for Roblox internally, private servers are not counted in the same way game subscriptions are (don’t ask me why, i dont know).
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Problem: Taxation
Solution: Remove Tax
Not Solution: Make plugins purchasable by USD$ only
You’re missing the point. The consumer base for those plugins will decrease severely. This will increase dissatisfaction amongst the consumers and decrease sales of plugins and increase piracy rates of said plugins. This will lead to situations where bad actors will distribute plugins with malware in it and put in risk those who use them - most of them being kids and teenagers who know little about computer security. Who cares about being an irresponsible financier when you don’t even have any money to be responsible for?
Can you make good games on roblox without plugins? Yes. Can you make all types of good games on roblox without plugins? No. At least it’s a ‘no’ if you think that the biggest action responsible for taking your time is doing things that plugins already do - Archimedes, Moon Animator, etc.
I don’t know about game studios outside of roblox but ‘in’ roblox? No. No. No again. I’ve worked for a plenty and all of them use plugins that are on the marketplace. I’ve actually never heard of anyone using their own private plugins for anything in the groups I’ve worked with. Perhaps you did. I haven’t.
Plugins that generate code on roblox marketplace are irrelevant as they make a small portion of plugins on the market.
Again, depends.
Well now they won’t earn anything LOL. The biggest plugin makers before the USD update were making sales 2-5 times every day with prices starting from thousands of robux. It only gets worse the further down you go in the marketplace. Now with the USD$ only update it’s only gonna get worse. I already warned you guys about this but you are none the wiser. Rich get richer. Poor get poorer. The ride never ends!
And ironically the plugin section has the smallest base of clients, which you know, will definitely negatively impact sales now that the plugins are sold only via USD$.
You’re right about that one. If you want to sell your plugin, then now it has to be better than others to make any good sales.
Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.
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This is not a solution.
I am not sure about that. It is much more convenient for new developers to purchase plugins with USD vs Robux. Before, a new developer would need to spend USD to buy Robux, then use the Robux to buy the plugin. It is much more direct.
This is the fault of the user. 
You should always do research before downloading products. That is not at all Roblox’s fault.
Yes. The plugin is there to assist you. What if the plugin is no longer supported? Does the game need to be abandoned?
This applies to more than just generating code.
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Only point of yours I can somewhat agree with.
I have no hopes of making money on this platform anyways so I may as well give up tbh.
The solution is not to remove tax. It doesn’t work like that. How are we removing the DevEx fees which are something like 65%? That doesn’t solve anything. Special DevEx for plugins feels weird.
Monopoly money is not a solution for this.
Again, here’s my stance: ExperiencersInternational :lidl: 🇵🇸 (@experiencer) | Lethal Lava Land
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I’m not sure what to say about this, honestly. Everybody already knows Roblox strives to make everything accessible for people of all ages, and is known for supporting and doing more stuff for their younger audience. This is definitely not supporting anybody, but people that can make money from a job, from commissions (which can be talent hub but that’s a different conversation for a different thread), or anything else, but for younger audiences, I don’t think this is the best and probably is forcing some to not even buy plugins at all.
The main point here is, you are limiting the majority of this platform (younger kids or people that can’t get USD or a payment handler), from making beautiful plugins and that can grow your skills.
Every single day, I check Community Resources in hope to support these people that might cannot use these payment handlers (Paypal, stripe, etc) and I give them feedback and if their plugin is for sale with some robux, I go ahead and buy it to support them. Now, I cannot because at that point, I’ll be bankrupt by the time I finish.
On another note, what are you going to do with Robux whenever you get them via your game? You obviously cannot buy anymore plugins because they will be forced to either do real life currency or to be free. DevEx rates absouly suck, and robux to USD rates suck, so who will be doing that? What use will Robux giftcards be now that we have to spend money for plugins (or models coming soon) that we want?
These are all things that need to be fixed, before we introduce this and take out a whole currency that Roblox relies on.
I’ll be completely honest, if I were in my younger years (which I’m 19 right now), it’ll turn me away from the platform immediately, no questions asked because I simply could not do it and I wouldn’t think my parents would buy me $100 (or more/less depending on the plugin) which will add up in the long run.
To the Roblox Staff that made this, I mean absolutely 0 hate to you. I think the user interface design is amazing and that this could be in our future, though right now, I think this need a bit more research on and some other things need to be lined in play here.
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Yall should revert this decision or at least add robux as a payment option again 
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What should younger creators do right now until you guys find a solution to this problem?
This is a big concern on both sides of this, each is the same exact thing. The problem is deep in the value of Robux to USD, and USD to Robux because if you take away one of them, the value doesn’t add up or stuff becomes useless. It’s the way that Roblox is built.
Honestly, I think my point here is extremely valid (not to toot my own horn) . I think this is a good solution and a good start to a very addressed problem, but I feel like it needs a bit more research and development with people from the community before it is fully released.
Thank you guys, for releasing this (except it is too early, but it still shows) and showing us you guys knowing about these issues, that means a lot to me, and I’m sure other creators appreciate it too! This shows a lot to old Roblox, and it shows that Roblox still is listening and still is opened to feedback. 
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Make it so plugin developers can chose to sell them for real money OR robux
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As a young plugin creator, I have created numerous innovative and even groundbreaking plugins that are overshadowed by less well made ones that are simply popular. Now that I’m only able to offer it for free or for prices nobody will buy, all of my sales are down the drain.
Rather than trying to give developers more money for plugin sales, perhaps you should EVALUATE the plugin using AI to determine if its a good plugin. That or use basic metrics on stuff like complexity, use, and rating (with a quick MAJOR boost for recently released unknown plugins that are determined to be potentially innovative such as mine)
I am having trouble having my genius plugins to explode. Roblox, stop focusing on the mega plugins and invite innovation. Give us small innovative guys a chance! My plugins are simply brilliant and extremely underrated, being better than 90% of the massive ones.
For example you know the Trello website? The website where you can create tasks? I MADE A ROBLOX PLUGIN that replicates that functionality! (Task Creator: Productivity) This is simply brilliant but roblox has constraints against innovation and does not allow such plugins to blow up. For example the plugin has only few sales while some random lighting plugin which just sets your lighting to futuristic has millions.
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One of the worst updates in a long time, thanks!
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