In response to Developer’s Feedback on Developer Exchange

[solar_DEV]

I don’t agree. Increasing devex serves multiple purposes:

• Prevents developers from abandoning the platform
• Gives dev teams more money and thus their ability to hire more developers and outside contractors
• Attracts new developers to join the platform and create games
• And so much more.

The increased devex indirectly leads to more quality because it stimulates competition and motivates developers.

[nenen]

Yeah, the transfer (or firing?) of the VP doesn’t necessarily mean anything good for anybody here. (or bad)

I do wonder why this happened, Hopefully it’s not because of her attempt at more transparency. . . Even though it’s far from perfect, I’m sure we all appreciate this response.

[buildthomas]

@nenen

I do wonder why this happened, Hopefully it’s not because of her attempt at more transparency

She just moved to a different company, nothing sinister.

[nenen]

@Roblox

Unfortunately, this isn’t a one-step process or a problem with a simple solution, but we are gradually taking steps towards our goal of increasing the portion that goes towards developers.

I’m glad that the it IS in the plan to increase the portion towards developers, But we really need some more fair treatment in a lot of ways.
I mentioned a lot of the fees and the outright Marketplace tax as a problem and important part of the picture regarding DevEx in my forum post (you can see it above), so I hope that the entire system actually gets revamped. (Even if it’s slowly but surely)

[UnderMyWheel (Wheely)]

@GoldStorm950

I was not offensive in the post at all, and it got taken down. Not only mine but @C_Sharper s post got taken down too. Roblox doesn’t like it when people speak the truth?

I cannot speak particularly to your post as I haven’t seen it, but @C_Sharper’s post was not taken down. It was automatically ignored as people in the community have flagged it since it is a rant full of false accusations against the platform and company. This thread is a topic meant to discuss the developer exchange rates, not rant about marketplace fees and customer support.

@GoldStorm950

I seriously hate how you guys will reject a devex.

Developer exchanges are only rejected when you fail to meet the requirements. I cannot speak on why @C_Sharper was declined, but this is most certainly not the place to bring it up.

@GoldStorm950

All that time you spent working for our platform, all the time you put into this, you get nothing.

This is just a factor of life. You can put years of work into something, but that doesn’t automatically mean it will or even should be successful. Roblox provides free development tools, one-click publishing, severs, etc to make game development as easy as possible. The company does not ask for anything in return, so any work you do to benefit just the platform and the company, such as making free plugins, is at your own expense.

[wravager]

tldr: DevEx is a privilege, not a right.

DevEx
1. Participating in DevEx., in our sole discretion, may allow eligible users of the Service to participate in the DevEx. Users participating in the DevEx may redeem Robux for U.S. currency from us based upon an exchange ratio and other requirements, procedures, and limitations established by us in our sole discretion from time to time.

2. Reservation of Rights. , in our sole discretion, have the absolute right to manage, modify, suspend, revoke, and terminate the DevEx without notice, refund, compensation, or liability to you, except as otherwise prohibited by applicable law. If you do anything related to the Service that is against the law or otherwise not in line with these Terms or any of our policies, we reserve the right to deny, suspend or terminate your access to the DevEx (whether or not you have a transaction in process).

[UnderMyWheel (Wheely)]

This is not the proper topic for finding out why your developer exchange request was rejected. The topic was posted to specifically discuss the developer exchange rates, not the support team and the rejection of developer exchanges.

[T0ny (Tophat)]

If your Dev Ex was rejected, it could be that the Robux you earned was not acquired through eligible means. This could mean a number of things. Maybe someone purchased the Robux and then bought their own group asset in order to transfer said funds to a group before giving you a payout. Or the Robux was simply bought.

From my understanding only Robux that you earn from players contributing to a game by making in-game purchases with Robux count towards DevEx. Accepting commissions in Robux is truly not the way to go IMO unless you’re trying to spend it on the platform or other games.

[Zyleth]

I mean, 90% of my commissions pay me via Robux and I’ve never been denied a DevEx. So I’m pretty sure that’s not a reason, the purchase of ineligible Robux is a reason though. Also, clothing sales count as eligible DevEx funds too.

[Ulferno]

At least roblox has replied to us, and I now realise how much they pay to payment processors etc.

[Alkan]

If they didnt have a good reason for rejecting you, they should now. You aren’t ready to develop professionally for roblox if this is how you insist on carrying yourself. Have some more tact.

[Zyleth]

@UltraaaDev

I now realise how much they pay to payment processors etc.

Where is this information? I’d love to read it

[Ulferno]

@baublebi

over 24% of what we collect goes to pay app stores and payment processing engines;

They mentioned it here, that 24% goes to said places.

[wravager]

So where was the announcement during the speeches this morning or is that planned for later today?

[plasma_node]

Not sure if it’s this but David Baszucki said in his opening speech that they would be looking at paying developers per hours of play; and that they wanted to get the top 1,000 developers to an income of at least $30,000 per year.

[IdiomicLanguage]

@plasma_node

get the top 1,000 developers to an income of at least $30,000 per year.

Pretty close, but he added a qualification on that group of 1,000:

I wanted to give you a little hint of something that’s coming. […] There are thousands of developers who, when they get started, are more focused on fun and engagement than just monetization. So as we think about “how do we get to that billion dollars in one year” and what is the best, systematic way to have money flow into this Roblox community, we’re more and more starting to think that we also want there to be rewards for the amount of time people spend in your game. We have a goal of getting the top 1,000 developers, based on time spent, to an income of $30,000 a year. We’re thinking of doing this in a systematic way that also rewards our top 20 devs in exactly the same way. […] This is the big think that we are thinking about and this will probably roll out in the next 6 to 12 months.

Which means the top 1,000 will be earning much more from in game purchases.

He also said this:

Our new internal mission is at some point, in one of these next few years, to have our developer community, in sum, earn over a billion dollars from the Roblox platform. And that’s our new goal. And we think we’re going to hit it someday.

We believe, by 2022, we’re going to see one studio on Roblox getting into the $40-50 million dollars of cash zone. And to do that one of these studios may need 100 people to build and maintain their game.

And finally, some of you since 2007 have been saying, “What’s up? Like, Roblox games are all user generated, why can’t we make avatars?” We are making a 100% commitment to a user generated content catalog.

Justin Sousa (Head of the Developer Community) said this:

We are on track to payout $100,000,000 in DevEx by the end of 2019. So I hope you are not spending it all on hats.

[XLifeRebornX (SimulatorDev)]

Thank you for being transparent with us! However, you mentioned about the App Store that some percentage goes to cover the App Store don’t all the robux transactions that kids buy Robux from you can cover the cost of the App Store?

[UnderMyWheel (Wheely)]

Your question is worded a bit weird, so I’m not sure if I am giving you the right answer since I may have misunderstood what you’re asking.

But essentially, Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store take quite a large percentage from every in-app purchase for premium and Robux.