Edit: there is a workaround to foce this on or off.
In a couple of games I support, mainly the Innovation Security Training Facility and Ultimate Mining Tycoon. Reports came in for both that users were unable to join the experiences. This is an example screenshot when joining from the website:
And from the Roblox app directly:
The screenshots from above are from the ASUS ROG Ally running Windows 11, and other reports exist for the ASUS ROG Ally X. I assume this was changed for the upcoming changes to the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X with the handheld UI, but this change breaks for people using handhelds, like the ROG Ally, as a desktop with a keyboard, mouse, and monitor using a dock.
I haven’t tested this on my own hardware since I don’t have an ASUS ROG Ally, but I did change a game from having console disabled to enabled, and both issues went away.
Expected behavior
At least when in desktop mode (at least with a keyboard + mouse connected), I expect to be able to play Roblox games as expected from the Roblox website, as if it were a desktop or laptop.
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Thanks for the report!
Ahead of the launch of the new ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, yes, we did change handheld devices to be categorized as “Console”, so experiences should be published to “Console” to be playable.
We did this because the primary input for these handheld devices is the gamepad controller, as it is for consoles. We recommend that if you’d like your experience to be playable on these devices, make sure it works with gamepad controllers (you can use the emulator in Studio) and publish to “Console”, just like you did.
Of course, then our PlayStation and Xbox players will be able to play your experience too!
If you’d like to go even further, we recommend optimizing your experience for different platforms. Check out our Adaptive Design Guidelines for tips on how to make your experience feel great on every platform.
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I figured this is why. I really hope this can be reconsidered somehow for those who use their ROG Ally as their desktop (as in, using a keyboard + mouse + desktop mode). Because it is just a portable Windows 11 PC in a weird form factor (compared to the Xbox or PlayStation), using it as an alternative to a docked laptop has become fairly common (random Reddit examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). I personally know someone with this setup, and they lost almost all of their Roblox game library with no warning and no workaround (is there one?). If there isn’t some workaround, they are potentially going to have to buy a whole new computer just to play Roblox.
Our game is far from getting gamepad support, and a lot of smaller games just don’t bother right now due to being a small part of the gaming pie on Roblox.
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I hope they rollback this change, or atleast make it work with docks, as I literally cannot play a huge part of the game library on Roblox due to this.
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