Recently, Roblox announced a significant change in how user-generated content (UGC) is handled in the marketplace. All pre-existing and newly uploaded items will be converted into limiteds through a gradual transition, with some changes (such as the monthly slot cap) scheduled for release as early as next month. However, the current handling of UGC presents a challenge; these changes will significantly and negatively impact UGC creators’ earnings and, consequently, the livelihoods of many people.
I’m Fennecpaw, one of the UGC creators accepted in the early waves of 2020. I have consistently produced items for many years and take great care in the UGC program. Alongside Roblox game development (surpassing over 50 million visits on my experiences), UGC is my passion. Over the years, I have seen significant improvement in my 3D modeling skills, feeling the need to create higher-quality items on the Roblox catalog since my acceptance into the program. I also manage large communities that follow my projects, with “Wandering Spirit” () being one of them.
Alongside the personal improvement of my 3D modeling skills, I have also observed the significant growth of the UGC program over the years. I remember the old server before transitioning to the Guilded server, where there was transparency between Roblox and UGC creators, active DevRel staff members, and quality control. However, with excessive growth and the move to Guilded, all of this has disappeared.
The lack of transparency provides creators with only 20 days before they can upload a set number of items per month and purchase premium before all their items go off sale.
The lack of accessible DevRel staff members means that many creators find themselves struggling alone with problems, such as false positives in the moderation system (those who email appeals have back-and-forth emails with bots for months, which do not lead anywhere). Personally, I have spoken to a few booths at RDC regarding the communication issue, as myself and many other creators are facing significant issues with Avatar Bodies. With such a substantial feature implemented, why is there such a lack of communication with the UGC community?
The lack of quality control due to the automated moderation system allows creators to create duplicates of pre-existing limited items or abusive exploits, as seen with Avatar Bodies in games. The quality control issue will only worsen when UGC becomes public, as Roblox moderators will be forced to take down as many as thousands of items per day due to these issues.
Roblox is continually reallocating resources from UGC creators despite excessive growth, and I can imagine that this issue will only worsen when the program becomes public. I was never against public UGC (many UGC creators are, but I will address that below), but with the current system, public UGC will completely disrupt the economy, and that’s even before the introduction of the future marketplace.
To account for the excessive growth, I have promoted the idea of increasing UGC rates from 30% to 70%. As a game developer, I do not understand why UGC creators receive such a small portion from their item sales. Unlike games, UGC does not use intensive resources such as game servers. Additionally, UGC creators have been requesting proper analytics for years, yet unlike games, we still cannot even count our sales without Chrome addons or unofficial games such as UGC Tracker. The 30% tax for developer products is justifiable, but the 70% tax for UGC is not. There is also a lack of transparency as to why it is this low, unlike developer products. Additionally, random people who sell UGC items in their own games can earn 40% off of our items. Why do we only get 30% of this, while random developers can make more money off of our products? I spoke to one of the Roblox staff members at the booths at RDC, who I will not name, that suggested we make 70% off of putting our own items in our own games. However, there is no point in doing so, as all-in-one games such as _ exist, in which users can join and conveniently try on many items at a time, or scroll through the Roblox catalog. I cannot think of one UGC store that has an active player base and is owned by the UGC creator themselves. Due to oversaturation as well, many of my items do not even break the 750 Robux fee. This makes it so that creators are forced to create more items to eventually make a profit, which with the introduction of the future marketplace, we cannot do anymore.
The future marketplace will make it impossible for both old and new UGC creators to make a living off of UGC. As if public UGC doesn’t have enough issues as is, the idea of making everything limited can potentially destroy the catalog entirely, making it next to impossible for new UGC creators to start out and for old UGC creators to keep making a living from this program.
New UGC creators will not be able to afford the 750 Robux fee + 20 Robux/stock PER item. For a mere 500 stock, it will cost 10,750 Robux. As someone who rarely even recovers the 750 Robux I put into my items, this is ridiculous. This, along with oversaturation from the idea of public UGC, will make it literally impossible to ever recover all your stock fees. This also negatively impacts brands, who will also be forced to pay an excessive amount of Robux for their items to be on the Roblox catalog, which, in turn, also harms the creators who work alongside these brands.
Old UGC creators have anywhere from hundreds to thousands of items and will not be able to afford to restock every single month, forcing them to enable resales and suffer from the lack of a limited price cap (people may give away their items for essentially free), and to only obtain 10% rather than 30% from all resales. I quit creating limited items because I can no longer sell out all of my stock anymore due to oversaturation, they are not profitable during the resell period due to the 90% tax, and the fact that every single one of my limiteds has significantly dropped in value since the initial hype when limiteds first came out. The thought of having this happen to all of my items scares me, especially considering I would have to potentially pay millions of Robux every month to keep them in-stock. I’d be making literal pennies as Roblox users panic sell items for as cheap as possible, with no price cap, and 90% tax.
Both old and new UGC creators will suffer tremendously from this change, as it does not benefit anyone except Roblox, who will shamelessly take millions of dollars from UGC creators restocking items, purchasing premium, paying the 750 Robux fee, and taking 70% of Robux from all sales.
If this change goes through, myself and many other creators will not create any more UGC items on the Roblox platform. Many other UGC creators have told me about future plans to join game development teams or to move off-platform entirely. The simple reason is that it’s just not worth it anymore. For a platform that emphasizes self-expression, it is a surprise to me that Roblox fails to give back to the UGC community.
I propose that Roblox fixes these issues by introducing a middle ground by increasing UGC rates to 70% (so that users may pay off their stock more effectively and to lower the financial impacts of oversaturation) and creating an automated system so that all items will consistently have stock so that we shouldn’t need to rely on the mere 10% from resales. Additionally, resales need a price cap, and there needs to be better transparency, communication, and quality control between Roblox and the UGC community.
We are just as important as developers, and we deserve to be treated as such.