This is quite normal for big tech. Facebook, Google, Snapchat and the like all started like this. Amazon still has net losses. Most of the money either (a) goes back into R&D/expansion etc and can be used for a tax write off, or (b) they’re still fine tuning their revenue model. I would imagine it’s an amalgamation of the two.
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I’m personally unsure about this. Since chinese players may be “exposed” to players outside the county of China (Americans) and knowing the Roblox community some of the stuff China restricts might very well be spread through the Roblox chat.
Also another concern is Chinese mods banning foreign players for chatting restricted content to Chinese players.
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So with some of the rules listed here for UGC submission checklist for China:
does that mean games like Royale High is banned because because of Superstition content being banned?
does it mean that Arsenal is banned because you attack each other with guns and the violence can get intense at times?
With the rules, you can forget about adding traditional Halloween content because the Halloween theme is scary.
What is superstition content? Does superstition content contain stuff like faries, angels, devils, demons, magic, floating islands, or anything related to fantasy?
Does this look like superstition content?
In the picture, you would see a meeting hall, a floating island with vegetation that takes place in outer space with a lot of stars. If you look closely, you would see an angel and you would see an elf supernatural creature.
The Roblox China UGC submission guidelines should have examples of what is not allowed.
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Hey I found this and thought it might be relevant.
https://www.reddit.com/r/geopolitics/comments/i6j9i7/how_chinese_officials_hijacked_steve_saleens/
There’s a chance Roblox could lose half a Billion dollars if things go sideways, but obviously every investment has a risk. I don’t know how patents work, or even if they exist in China, but it might be a good idea to put some effort into securing Roblox’s patents. Just food for thought.
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From those rules it seems the red tint effect native to the client when the user dies must be removed, as well as their joints breaking as per no body parts flying apart nor red screen flashing mimicking blood. The oof sound effect can be interpreted as a last cry before death, and therefore should be removed as included under No Horror or Scary Content.
It appears the cost of entering the roblox china market is selling your soul and creativity to tencent / china’s regulation
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Actually, the reason for this backlash is that that’s not the case anymore. This post creates a large and secure financial incentive of up to $2.4 million a year for Roblox developers to work with the CCP. Roblox is encouraging developers to take part without explaining the disadvantages, and putting those who do not at a disadvantage. This is because the running costs for the developer operating in China are close to 0, so it is an easy way to vastly increase revenue that can be reinvested into the studio. Furthermore, developers in China have to take on less risk, as the market is less competitive and Roblox offers a guaranteed income as well as valuable free services for “fast track” developers including a free, guaranteed featured place on the China app.
Developers that choose to take the morally right choice do not have access to these funds or services and will therefore see less growth and profit.
While your argument is valid for their first announcement, the situation has changed severely for the worse, and we must do whatever we can to stop this.
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So… we should look on the bright side that we aren’t forced to operate in China (and try to uphold that right), but accept that we are disadvantaged if we don’t? I disagree. There must be 0 tolerance rule when dealing with countries with atrocious human rights records.
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Thanks Roblox for making this optional. But, as a lot of people have said, its money over morals. I do not want to partake in expanding to China due to the massive amounts of silencing government criticism and the huge amount of Human Rights violations.
I do not want to comply with a country’s government that does not respect their civilians and violates Human Rights. I do not really care on how much money I get from it, I just don’t feel like it is right.
Another reason I do not want to work with china, is because a lot of my information can possibly be directed to the Chinese government, which I do not want. Such as, my ip and information protection and does China or any parties apart from myself have access to do what they want with my work on this website.
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Thanks but no thanks, I would rather release a game to what is 1 billion users on roblox without having to wait and follow the restrictions so that the chinese government would allow it. Chances are this is going to fail as I don’t see why developers would change their whole entire game so it follows the regulations and can get a tiny bit more money by the around about 5,000 people that would play this. I would say this is a complete waste of time on both yours and the developers behalf.
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This is a great opportunity for me and all devs alike, while I do have some suspicions, I think it’s a great way to let in devs to participate with what Roblox is doing
It’s ok to have valid arguments about the incorrect practices of the government.
This opportunity will provide games for people in china to play, it does not mean that by opting into this you agree with their practices.
That’s a ridiculous claim.
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I personally do not see this going smoothly.
As much of a market there is in China, I feel that Roblox has always been about creating more than perfecting content to meet standards//Guidelines. One of the biggest things that makes Roblox Roblox is that you don’t have to be some big developer to make games, or host servers for it, having it be an apply-only system, I feel, removes some of that special spark of Roblox, and some of the creativity that could be.
Roblox implementing itself in China is certainly a step forward for the platform but considering the current market for games on Roblox, I personally do not see the games currently published on Roblox transitioning well to a much more regulated system.
The fact that its emphasized so much that there are strict guidelines for the platform is already a red flag for me and is why, even if I could, I would not participate in this program.
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Well said, well said.
I knew it would be strict but this strict is just absurd.
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It’s great to see Roblox expanding to different places. I would try to apply for this, but I wouldn’t apply due to the Chinese laws, and publish work for a country that doesn’t have basic human rights for some people. Thanks Roblox for making this optional, and not enforcing this on everyone.
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Thats a very ignorant thing of you to say, just because someone signs up for the program does not mean they chose the morally wrong choice or are a bad person, nor does it mean they believe in chinas ways.
(@Lua_Cappy)
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Perhaps it is related to this program, but as of today, this forum itself and Roblox’s blog can no longer be accessed from Hong Kong without using a vpn. It is incredibly inconvenient and I say this as somebody who lives in Hong Kong.
This is just speculation, but those living in Hong Kong may soon be forced to use Roblox China which we all know is going to be a severely restricted version of Roblox. I was previously going to ignore this program, but now I wish it burns to the ground. If you plan on entering this program, please reconsider your decision to support a program which restricts the creativity of developers.
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This is exactly my worries.
Publishing your game on Roblox China means giving up your rights to your content, in exchange of being able to market there. (The terms doesn’t even try to hide this fact.)
There are no warranties what-so-ever. They can simply leave you without any cash after leaving with the source code and content of your game.
Chinese industries have a bad history of doing this. With the sweet allure of money, they steal IP, trade secrets, etc. Roblox China has the same pattern. Trade your IP for money. It is not far-fetched to think about the worst they could do.
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The money tempts us all, but the thing is… China has horrible human rights, and like what others said, they steal personal info for money, and other shady stuff. I would rather have the human rights, than the money. No thanks. I’m glad this is optional.
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Great opportunity for me honestly. The user space in China is amazing so this might help Roblox a ton!
It’s okay for ROBLOX to expand their business. But as a developer i would not agree with the government of china because China has a lot of rules. Its like tiktok for example they steal your personal information and get money from it. Its a terrible idea.