Back in September, we started allowing developers to add subscriptions within their experiences– creating new ways to earn on Roblox through subscription-based offerings and business models.
Today, we have some exciting news for developers who integrate subscriptions within their Roblox experience before December 15, 2023. We know this is a busy time of year for developers, so we wanted to provide some extra benefits for those who choose to add subscriptions before the holiday season.
Here are the new benefits for incorporating subscriptions before December 15, 2023:
The platform fee will be reduced to 15% on subscriptions (usually 30%) for developers who create active subscriptions by December 15, 2023. This discounted fee will last through March 15, 2024.
Your experience may be spotlighted on our Discover page in a dedicated subscription section for a limited time, potentially increasing awareness and driving users to your experience.
You may also have the opportunity to be reposted on our marketing channels if you post images or videos of your subscriptions and tag @Roblox on Twitter.
We will share additional documentation in the coming days to help you easily convert existing Passes into subscriptions, allowing existing Pass-holders to keep their benefits but new purchases to be subscription-based. In the meantime, please check out our tools, API docs, design guides, and videos to learn about all the ways you can implement subscriptions and engage your users in new and exciting ways!
*This discount will start when users are able to purchase subscriptions in November. Those who create active subscriptions before December 15, 2023, will be paid out the fee savings in a lump sum in April 2024. This discounted fee will apply to all subscriptions sold or renewed through March 15, 2024. To receive the discounted platform fee, you must be in compliance at all times with the Roblox Terms of Use and Community Standards.
Pathetic, instead of doing this how about you solve the problems raised in the initial announcement post around robux payment methods and changing the refund policy.
Is there any news about adding more control for developers? Currently I’m on the fence about adding certain subscription ideas I have due to the fact players need to be in the game for me to check if they still have an active subscription. We should be able to check that even if they’re not rejoining the game every month.
My concern with this is still Roblox’s branding of “Platform fee” here.
The platform fee is not 30% or 15%, because the number of Robux provided when run through dev ex results in a developer cut of either 24.4% or 29.7%.
Not to mention the increased price for purchases on Apple or Google Play, which is already accounted for by Roblox’s dev ex conversion rates, hence this is being taken from developers twice in the case of subscriptions.
This more accurate information is hidden in the documentation rather than mentioned in the announcement posts.
Take YouTube for example, they make it clear exactly what share creators get from the get go, when they say “Youtube’s share” etc. that includes their platform costs, their profits, etc.
Here, in your announcement you mention a platform fee, without noting the dev ex conversion rate of Robux, and when you check the documentation, you separate out “platform investment”, “platform hosting” etc. from “Roblox’s share”.
Most players on Roblox do not realise how small a share developers get when they spend their money in games, most seem to presume its similar numbers to Youtube or Twitch, when it isn’t close.
I would have less issue with the payout structure if it was clearly advertised to both developers and players, rather than entirely avoided in announcements such as this.
Edit to include numbers:
If a user spends $10 on a subscription, a developer receives either:
699R$ With 30% “Platform fee”
849R$ With 15% “Platform fee”
When converted with the Dev Ex program, this results in:
699R$*0.0035=$2.45
849R$*0.0035=$2.97
This does not include the increased prices for mobile subscriptions.
Giving users more ways to monetize is nice, but it seems more in favor to Roblox than to the individuals.
Honestly I find it a bit gross that a subscription is being added into local currency rather than Robux (I assume because you can pull money out of an account that the person doesn’t have, but you can’t give a negative robux balance?).
Games cost enough money on and outside of Roblox already
Is there any chance that we will be able to check the status of player subscriptions for players that are not in-experience in the future, this is a current limitation that has blocked many of my exciting use-cases for subscriptions.
What a decoy… If you need time or don’t want to implement Robux as payment method, then say that up-front. Spotlighting on Discovery and Twitter is nice, but that’s just trying to avoid the real problem.
You literally use Robux for private server subscriptions already. I don’t see any concern why you can’t use Robux as alternative as well for subscriptions.
