[Limited Availability] - Transfer your Experience to your Group

[peraldon (Jed)]

Hello Creators,

We know that collaborating with others to create Experiences on Roblox is incredibly important to you, and helps drive the success of your content. We are hard at work overhauling the collaboration management tooling we offer today across the platform so that this will be easier than ever for everyone.

Whilst we’re excited to share more with you in the future for this (maybe you’ve seen hints on our Creator Roadmap?), we’re also aware there are some acute pain points felt today by people on the platform.

Because of this, we have decided to expedite a limited, paid version of ownership transfer, which Roblox will facilitate manually and you can now request today. In the future, you will be able to easily transfer ownership of many asset types on the platform for no cost, and we will be taking iterative steps between now and then to get there, but it is important to unlock this capability for Creators who really need it today to help their businesses and studios thrive.

During this initial phase, you may pay to transfer ownership of an Experience that is currently owned by your own personal Roblox account or a Group that you own to another Group that you also own.

To do this, you will need to:

1. Ensure you have a Group that you own that is ready to receive the Experience.

2. Fill out the form below and PM it to @experience-transfers.

3. Wait up to one week for your request to be committed to the queue - we may have some additional clarifying questions.

4. Once we get to your transfer request, we will reach out and find a time for transfer that works for you.

5. Purchase a Game Pass for 30,000 Robux after being asked to by us via Private Message (see FAQ for more information).

6. During the transfer, the entire experience will be inaccessible to you or any players; the transfer will take up to a few hours.

7. Once we have validated the transfer was a success, we will let you know, and you and your players can get back to business!

Private Message template to send

Please use the following as a template when requesting a transfer:

Title: Experience Transfer Request - {Name of Experience}

To: @experience-transfer

Body:

I am requesting a transfer of my experience to a Group that I own. I certify that I have read all of the DevForum thread, agree with the provisions, and understand the caveats.

Experience link:

Group link:

Ideal times of the day and week for transfer (within PST business hours):

Caveats

1. This process is not reversible, so please make sure you are fully committed before starting the request.

2. Privately owned animations will break during this process - they will have to be re-uploaded to the Group. We can provide sample code to make this a transition easier.

3. Any funds generated by the Experience before the transfer will remain with the old owner. All funds generated by the Experience after the transfer will be placed within the new Group.

4. Existing Private Server subscriptions will pay directly to the Group fund after the transfer, rather than automatically being handled by Group payout percentages. You can continue to run manual payouts to distribute the funds from Private Servers to your collaborators.

5. This is a manual process, and the transfer may take longer than anticipated. Should this happen, our team will work to resolve any issues, but this may lengthen the transfer process by a number of hours (and therefore the time your Experience is not available to edit or play). We will validate the success of transfer every time once completed.

FAQ

Why do I have to buy a Game Pass if it will be free eventually?

• We have expedited this offering as we know there are a few Creators who really need this today for the success of their business. Each ownership transfer requires manual work on our end, which we will be looking to decrease and automate over time.

  In the meantime, the paid offering helps us to recoup costs on these transfers as we move towards a free in-product feature in the future, meaning you will see the cost drop over time - eventually to nothing.

When will you support other types of transfer?

• We want to focus on fixing ownership transfer properly as part of our larger strategic initiative for improving collaboration management. Depending on responses from Creators, we may expedite other transfer types and offer them as manual processes.

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Thanks to everyone who has helped us build this, as well as our brave guinea pig testers! @Fantasy_2015, @BobaMuncher, @meguminspire84, @Nosniv42, @forkythetoyy, @Quenty, and @Alex347_XD

[TwentyTwoPilots (twonty)]

Huge thanks to all involved in getting this project ready for us. I’ve been one of those obnoxiously beating this drum for the past couple years and I’m thrilled to finally be able to take advantage of this!
Thanks again!

[Ukendio (Marcus)]

I am genuinely excited for this, how long is this opportunity available for? And are we limited to transferring one experience per request?

[peraldon (Jed)]

Hey,

We currently don’t expect to withdraw this opportunity until we can offer an in-product replacement that is self-serve, so I wouldn’t worry too much about this!

For multiple requests, feel free to fill out the form multiple times in 1 thread for ease of communication.

Thanks

[wish_z]

Definitely need this - though @experience-transfers is not a valid group so I assumed it is @experience-transfer

[OneEDM (EDM)]

@peraldon

meaning you will see the cost drop over time - eventually to nothing.

So when this initially launches publicly will there still be a price attached to the transfer? Or is the gradual reduction of cost leading up to the public release?

[peraldon (Jed)]

By the time it is in-product and self-serve, it will be free - most likely it becoming free will happen at the same time as us enabling the in-product version of that. The team is working on this, but I can’t speak to any timeframe right now.

[TheGuyWithAShortName (Sam Huckaby)]

Is this just for account → group transfers or are you also able to do group → group transfers?

[TheNexusAvenger (Nexus)]

@peraldon

During the transfer, the entire experience will be inaccessible to you or any players; the transfer will take up to a few hours.

Any idea if the outage time is expected to decrease as this eventually becomes free/generally available?

[PeZsmistic]

Massive thanks for this, long time coming and tremendous complexity I’m sure.

I have a few questions; I’m worried about discovery related behavior after moving experiences - does my priority in Roblox search stay the same? What happens to google priority? Does my game still show up as it does on the Roblox homepage with no change in who or where it’s shown?

Also, I have a lot of animations given I do many custom characters. Can you release the code meant to help with this migration so I can assess if it will work for my situation?

Finally, want to note that the downtime hurts a lot. I run a small game and I’m not sure if it will come back from zero players depending on what else also secretly changes. Will this eventually improve?

Also, it’s very scary not knowing what will break after the experience is moved, animations being one detail, but what else could break? Audio? Certain code references? How is one meant to fix this without closing the experience and killing private servers (not sure if this happens), or getting bombed by dislikes?

[peraldon (Jed)]

Is this just for account → group transfers or are you also able to do group → group transfers?

@TheGuyWithAShortName - Right now, this is only User → Group transfer. We will continue to open this up in the future.

Any idea if the outage time is expected to decrease as this eventually becomes free/generally available?

@TheNexusAvenger - This is already an upper estimate for today, but it will continue to decrease as we work to bring this in-product, yes.

I’m worried about discovery related behavior after moving experiences - does my priority in Roblox search stay the same? What happens to google priority? Does my game still show up as it does on the Roblox homepage with no change in who or where it’s shown?

@PeZsmistic - The transfer has no impact on discoverability on the platform, nor should it have any impact for discoverability off the platform (ie SEO).

Also, I have a lot of animations given I do many custom characters. Can you release the code meant to help with this migration so I can assess if it will work for my situation?

@PeZsmistic - The solution here is fairly simple; we suggest using a tool like this to get animations over to the target Group. Then when referencing animation Ids in your codebase, you can just have a map between the old Ids and the new Ids, and make your decision based on Universe owner Id and type.

Finally, want to note that the downtime hurts a lot. I run a small game and I’m not sure if it will come back from zero players depending on what else also secretly changes. Will this eventually improve?

@PeZsmistic - Ideally the downtime is only a few minutes, but yes this will improve. It will most likely always require a minute or two though, even once self-serve.

Also, it’s very scary not knowing what will break after the experience is moved, animations being one detail, but what else could break? Audio? Certain code references? How is one meant to fix this without closing the experience and killing private servers (not sure if this happens), or getting bombed by dislikes?

@PeZsmistic - We’ve already tested this on Experiences of all kinds, including public ones with active player bases, so are pretty confident that all the bases are covered. Either way, our engineering team will be around to help validate that everything continues to work as intended after the transfer. If we weren’t at least reasonably confident on this, we wouldn’t have released the option yet!

Thanks for the questions all,

[VAC9]

Very Nice post, I know some people who will definitely be using this. Looking forward to the future of this update!

[CatzRule_81 (Catz)]

Interesting feature, I can see why some creators would love this feature. Games like Pinewood Computer Core finally becoming group-owned would be a massive help.

On a slightly off topic note. Why is this unlisted? For context, I’m here from the Bloxy News twitter account.

[Simbuilder]

Hi Simbuilder with a request for Vehicle Simulator to go to Summit Studios on Roblox!

I also wanted to express how previously I had to structure the business due to this limited transfer powers in the past.

I had to host the game on my account and use Developer Exchange to cashout to a company bank account and do distributions from there which made for a straight forward but tedious process. However, after years of operating this business with CPAs and years of business development it does have many pros and cons.

Hosting games by Group Owner on Personal Avatar
Pros:
Complete Version Control and Game Testing PRIOR TO LIVE
As the owner of the game, I HAVE TO BE THERE every time we do an update and can oversee QA, Game Quality and do Reversions if NEED BE.
EVERYONE gets paid in their countries local currency from Bank of America.
Less prone to shark attacks, takeovers and sabotage.

Cons:
Reduced Ability to Pay Developers in ROBUX
CEO is required at every update event (anyway)
More time consuming and requires a knowledge of Accounting + CONSTANT COMMUNICATION

Hosting games by Group Owner with Robux Payouts + Group Features
Pros:
Robux Percentage and Robux Distributions without extra fees
Quicker paydays with individual DevEx per hired Developer
Can use Group Funds to run ads, upload sounds, trailers, ect.
Taxes are easier as Roblox cuts 1099s to each Developer/Contractor.

Cons:
Leader or CEO centric Business Bank Accounts are disempowered, as it is hard to communicate revenue allotments with team members who expect fair/equal pay when it should be based on work, plans and effort/difficulty of work.
Developers can Publish to Group Game if Permissions allow, which if NOT COMMUNICATED can break entire games in Development cycles resulting in data loss or other issues.
Company Bank Account looses out on revenue for Accounting by Bank Statements

Where now the only difference for most people is who the game is by, example: Simbuilder or Summit Studios; whereas in the corporate world a lot of things can go wrong in attempt to claim the throne, company keys, branding, ect.

I created Vehicle Simulator back in highschool as a prototype, as a tech demo and then hired help to grow the project. I handled everything including business formation, finance, tax reporting, while managing from 2 up to 18 contractors a year with full time dedication to the project despite what hapless Developers say about me now that I fired them / saw them quit. I am true to my word and have been paying out based on the agreements and conversation. Many Developers who I’ve worked with are still grateful so you get a mixed bag when working on big games anyway, which is partly why I worry about the Group Approach as MAJORITY IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT.

That is why I work on a virtual business model to help destress and clarify complicated scenarios based on my experience in dealing with multiple failed COUPS, EXTORTION ATTEMPTS, DEFAMATION, and even perjury of justice including lost game update logs, Twitter history, and back talk deleted that would otherwise be used in a case.

In effort to make management EASIER for EVERYONE, it is my wish Roblox institutes this into the platform as a distributed model to the Group Owner to manage with verified formation of the LLC or other legal document. It is called the Virtual Business Model and is available in closed alpha testing upon inquiry.

This is my two cents from a hell of a rollercoaster ride since 2017 of Vehicle Simulator’s success.

[Simbuilder]

I want to add that as Studios get more advanced and require subscription fees from Applications and Softwares, it is hard to decide WHO pays for this. Previously I PAY EVERYTHING that isn’t related directly to labor which Developers forget and think I’m more greedy than I really am in requiring more expenditure to run the business for automations and workflows in the management softwares chosen.

[itspvrz (chris)]

Glad that Roblox is adding more useful features for creators.

[Legelix (raycast)]

This could be so useful in the future! Say, what if a hacker, hacks a developer’s account and transfers the game over to their group, could it be reversed?

[Awo_kein]

As specified in the initial announcement, it will take just over a week for this process. At which point, unauthorised entrance to your account would have likely been noticed by yourself:

@peraldon

• Wait up to one week for your request to be committed to the queue - we may have some additional clarifying questions.

If you failed to notice a hacker in your account initiating this request (which will probably be in your emails too) then as also specified the process is not reversible and therefore the game will likely not be put back onto your account.

@peraldon

This process is not reversible, so please make sure you are fully committed before starting the request.

That being said, if the hacker attempted to transfer the group to their own account after moving the game to the group, then you should* be able to get the group back by filing a request to Support - Roblox.

*Note that this isn’t guaranteed. ROBLOX’s support team will do their own research into verifying the validity of the report. You also are only given this opportunity once, so if you have already used it in the past it is unlikely they will help you again.

[kni0002]

Awesome opportunity for people who want to more easily pay for devs!

I did hope and post on the forum for such transfers to be possible in the past few years so I could transfer my game as it was in its infancy of development. But now its basically done its best I keep my games on my profile since I have zero need to distribute funds to others hehe