Hi Creators,
We’re excited to announce that the Licenses catalog is now live! With it, we’re thrilled to reveal the first partners embarking with us on this journey: Netflix, Sega, Lionsgate, and Kodansha! These partners are bringing with them some heavy-hitting IP, enabling you to create awesome experiences centered on some of the biggest household names out there.
As we highlighted in our May announcement, our vision is to empower all creators to easily use the franchises and creative works they love in their experiences through licenses from Intellectual Property (IP) holders. Until now, finding and negotiating with IP holders has been a significant hurdle, limiting partnerships to only a select few. That’s why we’re launching the License Manager and Licenses catalog.
For IP Holders, the License Manager offers IP management, including registration, proactive scanning for IP usage, and licensed IP. These new tools enable eligible rights holders to offer creators a Roblox-specific, Full Experience license for IP, that specify content standards, the maximum content maturity, and revenue share to use the IP.
For creators, the Licenses catalog lets you browse all available licensable IP and apply for the IPs that interest you most and be notified when an IP holder reviews your application. Check it out today to see the 7 IPs that are available today with 2 more coming soon! We’ll be adding new partners and IP later this year, so stay tuned!
You can learn more about these new IP tools in our new creator docs.
Meet Our Founding IP Partners
Sega
Sega, a major gaming partner with a rich history of innovation, is joining this launch and will begin offering “Like a Dragon” (a.k.a. “Yakuza”) for licensed use to Roblox creators.
‘Like a Dragon’ is a dramatic-adventure game series created by RGG Studio, based in Japan. Launched in 2005 with the goal of “making a game for adults they can truly enjoy,” it plunges its protagonists into the scheming, shadowy world of organized crime. You’ll experience a full-blown crime suspense narrative, filled with meetings and farewells alongside characters each carrying their own burdens and motivations. Set in a bustling city district, the series packs in all sorts of entertainment—from clubs and karaoke to mahjong and pachinko.
Now, that same richness of setting and story is coming to Roblox: a fan-developed world built under official license from RGG Studio. Whether you’re already a devoted Yakuza fan or have never played before, we hope players around the globe will dive in and enjoy this vibrant new take on the series.
Lionsgate
Lionsgate, the world’s largest independent film and television studio, is known for its diverse portfolio of films, television series, and blockbuster franchises that captivate audiences globally. Recognizing the potential of reaching the massive and engaged audience on Roblox, Lionsgate is working with creators to build immersive digital experiences on the platform, with IP licenses available today on the Licenses catalog for “Saw,” “Now You See Me”, “Divergent,” and “Twilight”.
Netflix
We’re also excited to announce that Netflix, a leader in storytelling renowned for critically acclaimed original series and films, is extending its popular series, starting with Stranger Things and Squid Game, on Roblox.
Kodansha
Kodansha is a Japanese global publishing powerhouse with IPs spanning manga, anime, and literature. Roblox boasts a large, engaged anime fanbase, reflected in its many manga-themed experiences. Recognizing this potential, Kodansha launched a $1.5 million contest last year, empowering creators to build “Attack on Titan” adaptations for Roblox.
With the full support of Kodansha and the original creators, we’re excited to share “Blue Lock” and “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime” will be coming soon to the Licenses catalog.
Apply to Partner With an IP Owner Today
Applying for licensable IP is simple – just find an IP you’re interested in in the Licenses catalog, click “Apply for License”, select an experience you’d like to include in your application, review the terms and content standards for the IP you’ve requested and submit your application. You’ll be notified on Creator Hub once the IP holder reviews and either approves or declines your application. You can read more on how to apply in the creator documentation here.
It’s important to note, once an experience is under the terms of a Community License, the license can’t be canceled for that experience, however IP holders can initiate termination in a few exceptional cases outlined in this creator documentation article. Once in effect, the revenue share set by the license will automatically be split between you and the IP holder for that experience.
What’s Next for Licensing on Roblox
This journey with our creators and IP partners is just beginning, and we’re excited to see the resulting collaborations and experiences on Roblox. Through the end of this year and next, we will be improving the product based on community feedback, and hope to open up License Manager to more eligible IP holders. We’ll also begin introducing additional license types, offering greater flexibility to bring IP to Roblox. We’ll do this maintaining the goal to make navigating IP licenses straightforward and ultimately keep the experience of building Roblox fun!
Please check out the FAQs and leave any questions or feedback on the License Manager and Licenses catalog below!
FAQs on Licensing for Creators
We’ve been listening to all of you since the initial announcement and we’d like to address some common questions. Overall, our goal is to make working with IP owners safe and simple for all creators, whether you have a lot of expertise using licensed IP or this is your first time working with intellectual property.
Read our FAQs below
How much creative freedom do I have with the IP?
- Each agreement for licensable IP comes with a set of content standards for how an IP can and can’t be used – and each license’s standards will be different depending on the IP owner’s needs. As long as you operate within the bounds of the Roblox Terms of Use, and the license and its standards, you have creative control on how to use IP in your experience, and follow your creative vision. An IP holder can request changes through Roblox if you are deviating from those standards, and can request to terminate a license if you consistently do not follow those standards.
How will IP holders be verified?
- Initially, we are launching with licensable IP from Lionsgate, Sega, and Netflix. We are partnering with these highly trusted, thoroughly vetted IP holders to ensure your comfort and confidence when using their licensed IP This also allows us to learn with the community and with IP holders as we evolve the platform.
- We aim to open the License Manager up to more IP owners, and they’ll need to provide evidence of their intellectual property ownership such as trademark and copyright registrations .
Can I be verified and offer a license for IP that I own?
- Yes! Once we expand License Manager to all eligible rights holders, any creator who has evidence that they own an IP can offer licensed use of their IP. You’ll be able to register IP through the License Manager, provide the necessary proof of ownership, and a letter of authorization to offer licensed use for the relevant IP. With that said, any IP holder that violates our policies will not be able to participate.
What protections will I have as a creator from an IP owner who is trying to inaccurately claim IP in my experience?
- If an IP owner offers a license for your experience, you’ll have 7 days to dispute the offer, selecting from a set of reasons that tell the IP owner why the license isn’t needed. (for example, if you removed the IP from the experience)
How will disputes be resolved?
- If Roblox determines that your experience contains content matching reference content uploaded by a rights holder, the owner can claim your experience and offer the creator an agreement to make licensed use of that IP. Creators have two opportunities to dispute claims by verified rights holders; if the rights holder and creator cannot resolve the dispute and the IP owner still believes that the experience contains their IP, they can pursue other options, such as submitting a DMCA notice.
How does this interact with the DMCA process?
- One of the goals of this effort is to offer IP owners an alternative to DMCA takedowns. The current DMCA process will continue as contemplated by law, but we want to make it easier for IP owners and creators to form partnerships and create more opportunities. As before, you can still file counterclaims in response to DMCA notices that you believe are inaccurate.
What happens when an IP holder chooses to withdraw permission to use certain IP
- An IP owner can choose to withdraw permission to use certain IP. for a number of reasons, like if a creator consistently doesn’t follow their content standards. In this situation, you will receive at least 30 days advance notice before the IP is no longer licensed. During that time you should work to remove the IP from your experience or take down the experience entirely. Following that 30 day period the terms and any revenue share will immediately be removed from the experience.
What information will be shared with IP owners if I apply for a license?
- When applying for a license, only publicly available information about the experience you’re applying with will be visible to the IP holder before they approve.
- If you are approved to use the rights holder’s IP, they will receive metrics on the experience using the licensed IP including the number of visits, average of seven day active users (7DAU), and an anonymized list of transactions if a revenue share rate is set in the terms governing the license.
Are terms of each license the same, or can they be negotiated?
- All IP holders start with a standard template and are able to customize it in a few ways: like providing content standards on how the IP can be used in an experience, choosing a revenue share rate, and setting eligibility requirements for applicants. The license will be granted to Roblox, which will in turn, grant a sublicense to the creator. We want to keep this a simple process for all creators, so there are no complicated negotiation steps.
How will I communicate with IP holders whose licensed IP I have been permitted to use?
- During this initial launch, IP holders will be able to ask Roblox to contact you if they want to request any changes to an experience using their licensed IP to comply with their content standards. We’ll notify you to ensure that you can make the necessary change.
How will I be notified if a license changes?
- You’ll be notified on Creator Hub, email, and Roblox Inbox any time (a) the status of a license is changed; (b) your request for a license is approved or denied; or (c) IP used in the experience is no longer licensed. You can always check your active licenses through the License Manager under the Intellectual Property tab.
Can I only use licensed IP in full experience adaptations?
- Yes, currently licensed IP is only for full experience adaptations of that IP. This means that the IP must be central to the experience and excludes scenarios like experiences with one level based on the IP. We’re currently exploring other license types beyond full experience licenses, and will share more here in the future.
We also addressed some other FAQs in our original announcement – if you have any other questions, please comment down below!
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