If you actually read the article, this doesn’t line up with what the FTC is accusing Roblox of.
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- Replied to me? I think you meant to reply to the topic.
- Just my opinion, likely no, unless you’re using Discord bots to somehow feed Ads into Roblox.
This apparently was never allowed in TOS, just because you’ve been doing it (against TOS) doesn’t mean you’re entitled to continue doing it.
I wouldn’t think the majority of devs have been making most of their profits from this practice as it isn’t even a published option.
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Would this mean including the name of a youtube channel in game counts as something I’d have to remove? does the channel have to be my own?
No, this is about actual advertisements from actual companies like Disney.
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Good, no ads in - game.
I believe 3rd party ads were pretty niche - I knew they existed, and the sentiment around them was mixed.
Moreso because of the latest bad press events and community backlash instead of devs not being allowed to show ads for car insurance or whatever in their games.
Practically every game on this platform started out as, or still is, indie or made by one person. There are barely any actual companies on Roblox making games, and as far as I know they don’t reach the front page.
Premium payouts, gamepasses, dev products… just to name a few, are a better source of revenue as opposed to random ads splattered around on billboards and walls and ruining the aesthetic of the game like the legalised capitalist graffiti they are
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You’re right, barely any companies make games. But they buy them and hire developers to update them. Every sponsored event such as concerts is made by a company. And companies have silently infiltrated the top games, even if you haven’t noticed.
Here are a few games owned by or invested in by such corporations: All Star Tower Defense, Twilight Daycare, Military Tycoon, Ultimate Driving, Tower of Misery, Starving Artists, Cursed Islands, Robeats. Is that enough? That’s billions of visits right there, and those are just some of the bigger ones off the top of my head.
With all due respect, you’re pulling these assumptions out of thin air, do you work on a game that works with one of these companies? Because I do. Here is a real breakdown of Specter’s revenue from Apr 1-14: 44.3% third party ads, 28.4% sales, 27.3% premium payouts.
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Wait, who are these studios owned by?
That’s because it’s a corporation sponsoring Roblox. Those events’ whole purpose is to be an ad in a contract that Roblox has agreed to.
Also, can I ask where these 3rd party advertisements appear in your game? I’ve had a look around and haven’t found one yet.
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There are companys who do that professional and many devs get a huge percentage of their income through that. It is a big deal to shut those companies down.
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The 3rd party advertisements appear on billboards most of the time, check RoVille in example or hundreds of other games. I’d say at least 50% of the front page games are owned by companies like Gamefam, Voldex or Infinite Canvas. They also own games like Sonic Speed Simulator, Penguin Tycoon, Little World, Sword Factory, Factory Simulator, Dunking Simulator and maybe Weapon Fighting Simulator soon. Those were just a few examples, Gamefam alone owns hundreds of games on Roblox.
Buying roblox games is a big business today, many games got bought by companies or other persons, like Clicker Simulator or Anime Clickers.
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Those companies seem to be working as psuedo - game publishers for games that already existed by the looks of it. Their method of operations seems like they acquire each studio they make an agreement with under their brand (quite literally, their group holder - depending on the brand - becomes that group’s new owner) and then they enrol those developers to keep updating games for their new overlord.
I honestly don’t get the appeal. Maybe there’s a lump sum payment in return for a cut of the games’ total profits?
Anyway, this could get off topic - I’ll look into this situation more later on.
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Basically it’s kind of a reminder of last year’s TOS update…
Now, in my opinion, this is a hurting change and I would find it unnaceptable ! As said earlier, developers only got 17% of Roblox’s revenue in 2020, and we literally make this platform, even though that’s maybe for another topic, the fact that Roblox is once again removing our monetization options is becoming ridiculous !
Personally, I am still waiting for the promised DevEx increase or something to expand our monetization and I think a lot of us too, and if this never comes, I am leaving this platform and deleting my games, didn’t agree on PMG’s video on Roblox when it got out, but it’s starting to make sense now…
Now Roblox, please at the very least answer to some of the replies on this topic, but you probably won’t do that anyway, will you ?
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Yeah, from what I’ve heard, Gamefam controls a lot of stuff on Roblox, I don’t want Roblox to just be controlled by a few companies.
Is even buying Roblox games ToS compliant? (at least with Robux)
Meta is heading in a similar route to Roblox, they take 50% cuts by the looks of it, due to Roblox taking an 82% cut.
I don’t think we’re even including taxes taken by HMRC/IRS etc in the 18% figure that developers get to keep.
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Indeed, that’s just what we get after we DevEx, so the actual number will be even more horrific with taxes !
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So basically no more advertising games?
I didn’t know third-party ad networks are a thing that players on Roblox can insert in their experience…? Would be awesome if someone could explain clearly for people who aren’t from a dev background so we don’t get actions taken on our account without knowing what we did before.
It does not. The change was made at least 5 months ago. It’s just weird timing. The complaint is a more general thing than “some company that’s been technically breaking the ToS for months not complying with Roblox’s rules”
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This pretty much sums up Gamefam really well. I’ve worked with Gamefam before and can say that Gamefam has a lot of resources for analytics and marketing, they help games increase their revenue and player retention. Thus the game makes more money and in return Gamefam does take a cut of the game. It’s a win win for the developers and Gamefam. (That’s the general premise)
They usually advise the developers, however they don’t always make one of their accounts the group holder. They also still let the developers choose what direction their game wants to go in. You can check Sonic simulator and it’s owned by Shadow (the lead developer for the game)
Also they can help act on the developer’s behalf, like getting Licensing from other companies (Sega + Sonic)
All in all, Gamefam has connections with a lot of the top games, but I don’t think it will “Take over the platform”. It’s more of a publisher and there’s a good amount of those on platforms like steam.
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Really appreciated that you replied with all of this info.
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Developers got more than 100% of Roblox’s profit though.
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