I am about to introduce a very simple yet effective idea. When a developer sells a virtual item, Roblox takes a 30% tax and the developer gets the remaining 70%. (assuming all developers have Builders Club or Premium) But that is not the case at all times, as, if you sell an item for a price which is not a divisor of 10, the tax jumps.
For example, a shirt that costs 5 Robux earns its developer only 60% of the income, and 40% is taken as a tax which means Roblox gets 10% more with the only reason being Robux having to be an integer. This may seem like a little number, but on a larger scale, it can be a lot.
My request: Let the developers have the tenths and hundredths of their income. When I sell a shirt that costs 5 Robux, give me 3.50, not 3. This will benefit everyone in the community, and since Roblox is slowly allowing UGC hats, it may even be more effective than I can imagine.
Would be cool if it stored it as a double on the back-end for user/group R$ wallets, but still presented it as integers everywhere. That way there’s no difference for regular users, but you will get the fraction of the purchase eventually because it tallies up.
The fraction will only be relevant for like 5% of users at most (the ones that sell anything), so it shouldn’t be shown like that by default, that’s just confusing. It should show it as an integer but track it with a fraction. Maybe the sales details menu could show fractions, but most labels on the site should stay integer to prevent confusing players.
This would be a very cool feature. I always saw it this way as well, thinking these little amounts of (Rocents I guess) would eventually add up in the long term.
But personally I disagree with @buildthomas I think it would be completely fine and even more understandable and easy if it was just very clearly presented. I’d think the idea of knowing you have more robux in a decimal amount but not actually seeing but knowing it will eventually add up is a bit of a confusing and unnecessary concept.
If it’s that bad I’m sure there are other features, haha.
I do think having some form of cents or even mills subcurrency would be good for developers selling things since they do add up over time. Definitely not letting people sell things for fractions of Robux though! That gets out of hand really fast.
There’s actually an easy approach to this that makes us just as happy with only a small bit of the complexity and probably a marginal financial difference from Roblox’s side: just round up the value whenever there’s a fraction, rather than rounding down 0.5 to 0.
Deficit here is that someone could write a bot to displace huge amounts of currency with 80% efficiency if they repetitively buy and delete the item, but that should be rate limited against in the first place
I came up with this idea while thinking about higher DevEx rates. I mean, developers have been requesting that for so long with testimonies and stuff, complaining about not getting what they deserve. This could easily help.
Honestly, I don’t think a lot of things about ROBLOX 5 years ago applies now at all. ROBLOX has made so many improvements and advancements in the past few years, it hardly seems like a fair comparison. I doubt what was said there 5 years ago even correlates to ROBLOX today and todays ROBLOX situation.
And I feel like developers today on ROBLOX focus on development on this platform a lot more than before and I see a lot of developers starting to see ROBLOX as their professional job and career, which wasn’t as common before. I generally feel like before ROBLOX was seen more as a hobby. But here and now, I would completely understand why developers who focus on ROBLOX not just as their passion, but their career would care about profit, even down to a Rocent (yeah that’s catching on now lol at least for me)
Put it into perspective
ROBLOX has been around 13 years. A real game like development concept (or at least close) probably began around 2008-2009. And more professional like game development I saw started to rise around Late 2014-2015 (Only like 3-4 years ago) So that 5 years really just falls in the middle where it seems more irrelevant (at least in my opinion) 5 years out of 13 is big in perspective is all I am trying to point out.
EDIT: By the way, I am not against you or anything. I am just making this reply for future readers who may see it that way. Its really cool you tried to get this feature in before as well.
This 30% marketplace fee should mean what it says and display what it means. It should happen behind the scenes automatically so we don’t have to think of it. The idea of Roblox keeping track behind the scenes, while displaying integer Robux makes the most sense.
Well, I believe developers should be able to see their exact amount of Robux. I obviously can’t speak for other developers, but I know for me I would rather see what I have earned rather than just letting ROBLOX make it easy for me. I see where you’re coming from, but I don’t think the idea of “not having to worry about it” really makes sense too me. Its profit, money, I should worry about it.
I agree with this part. With ROBLOX becoming more professional for developers, this whole rounding system seems a bit ridiculous. I get the numbers can get a bit more into the decimal zone when you start taking exact 30%, but I know I’d rather see it then “just know it”. As Aorda said,
If this extra Rocents of Robux can lead to be a lot on a larger scale, I’d prefer to be fully aware of it.
I agree that’s why this is important and we’re ultimately on the same side arguing for the 30% fee to be a flat fee, not to be different percents based on certain price points.
I don’t want to worry about it meaning I don’t need to know my current Robux balance to the nearest tenths or even hundreds place. I want a trusted relationship of developer to Roblox and Roblox to developer where it is programmed in to make sure Robux sales get as close to a 30% marketplace fee for the merchant as possible over the long run.
As someone who didn’t realize Roblox rounds the way they do, I think it’s actually pretty bad. I’ve been missing out in the way I price my items.
If the system isn’t going to be changed, at least show us on the configure page the exact value we will receive before rounding, and then make it clear whether that number is going to be rounded up or down. I always assumed it was rounded up, and it’s frustrating knowing I could have gotten more money had I priced differently.
I agree. I mean just seeing these small numbers make such a big difference and being openly ignored just leaves me disappointed with how things are currently handled.
@TheAmazeman
I completely agree we have been on the same side this whole argument. Our only disagreement is how Robux should be displayed. But yes, essentially this whole thing really is about how Roblox rounds Robux, and right now it’s not being done correctly.
(“how Roblox rounds Robux” try saying that 10x fast, a real tongue twister)
Then I thought, maybe they take less than they actually should because the 30% tax is closer to the lower option (25%) than the higher option, (50%) and I was right. For example, selling your item for 31 Robux would earn you 21.7 Robux if Rocents were a thing, but it earns you 22 Robux (around 29% tax) with Roblox’s tax system.
I don’t know whether it has been always like that, but it looks like the tax is rounded to the nearest value rather than the highest now.
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