Is it a social medium, is it a game, is it a metaverse? It can fall under all of them and that is what makes Roblox such a global hit. And that global hit only seems to be getting bigger, because major announcements have been made for the game, which will only put Roblox even more on the map.
Roblox has over 65 million daily active users. Daily. 65 million. It’s bizarre. It is not without reason that HEMA launched Slayma there. But at the same time, that popularity is not that surprising, because there is simply a lot possible in this app. Roblox is a meeting place, a game, a place to create new worlds and more. And that will become even more, because during a major Roblox event last week, all kinds of cool new things were announced for this household name in the gaming world.
1. Roblox goes 18+
Okay, actually it’s 17+, but for us 18+ is a bit more common. Roblox should become more of a dating place, where you can do more than on Tinder, because you can meet each other in the virtual world as avatars, but where you still have a safe distance compared to a date in the real world . This way you can get to know someone a little better with an extra dimension that normal dating apps do not offer.
2. Roblox introduces video chat
While Mark Zuckerberg always envisions that we will soon be video meeting with each other in his metaverse, that doesn’t make much progress. Horizon Worlds isn’t even available in the Netherlands. Roblox is introducing it to the whole world: the ability to have video chats as your Roblox avatar. Your avatar will show your facial expressions that you have in real life. The call takes place in a virtual space, so you also have some freedom of movement instead of it being a kind of framed thing like we have known for years from Skype, Teams, Zoom and co. Curious? It’s called Roblox Connect.
3. Creators can make money more easily
If you create your own virtual objects in Roblox, you can now make money from it. You can put them on the platform’s marketplace and others can then buy it. The profits (the purchase price minus taxes and processing fees) are entirely for the creators themselves. This will take effect from next year, so you still have some time to make beautiful things for your store later. Please note that this concerns the Creator Marketplace, not the regular Marketplace (Avatar Shop).
4. It’s coming to PlayStation
This sounds very strange: it’s coming to PlayStation, hasn’t it been there for a long time? Well, not so. The app/game will be coming to PlayStation 4 and 5 for the first time in October. It will remain a free to download game, as it is now on iOS, Android, Xbox, Mac and PC. The news about the release on PlayStation was welcomed with open arms: many gamers had been concerned about this for a while: for some people it is simply more pleasant to game from the couch with a controller in hand. And what about Nintendo? Well, that’s still being worked on by the studio behind Roblox.
5. There will be an AI chatbot
Finally, an AI chatbot is also coming to the platform, although that is not very special news because it is almost strange if a site, app or other platform does not have it. AI is the buzzword and especially AI chatbots. However, the idea is a bit more interesting within Roblox: your prompt can create an entire world. You can also say, “spawn the player at a campfire in the desert” and voila, the AI chatbot will do it all for you. Very cool, this AI chatbot.
There have been more announcements, but these are the five most exciting. Stay tuned to Roblox for its implementation.
