The news from RDC 2023 Day 1

Roblox finally reaches PlayStation, along with more on developer subscriptions, the increased cut for plugin developers, script sync, Xbox App update, engine improvements and more

This year, Roblox might have listened. Whilst today’s announcements may seem more minor than of years past, the features which have been announced have been begged by developers for years, some over half a decade. So what’s new for this year?

The big announcements

Roblox to release on PlayStation next month

After years of players and developers asking for Roblox to be released on the PlayStation, it’s coming. Roblox has announced that it will arrive in October for both the PS5 and the PS4. It is now listed on the PlayStation Store with an ESRB rating yet to be determined, although likely to align with Xbox’s Mature rating. Along with the Meta Quest app and the well-established platforms of Xbox, PC/Mac and mobile, this is yet another platform to play Roblox on, with more platforms to come.

Subscriptions officially revealed

Previously covered on Explorers of the Metaverse, Subscriptions have finally been revealed officially to Roblox developers today.

In addition to details discussed in the article, a Roblox spokesperson has confirmed to CNBC that developers will be given 70% of their subscription revenue in Robux. This means that it will follow the same taxation model as game passes and developer products with developers earning 24.5% of total game revenue.

The mock up for Subscriptions shown at this year’s Roblox Developer Conference (RDC) however appears to use dollar signs, suggesting that players will be able to pay in hard cash (USD).

Translation strings published after the publication of the previously mentioned article suggests some criteria required to be able to create and enable subscriptions in experiences, such as being ID-verified, and other experience-related criteria. These strings also reveal that the initial 70% cut for developers may increase by 15% for subscriptions purchased on Desktop after 3 months.

Hard advocacy from plugin developers pays off

After persistent activism by plugin developers themselves and use of other platforms such as itch.io for distribution, Roblox will now give the whole of the revenue pie (that is, 100% of all revenue pre-taxation) to developers who sell their items on the Creator Marketplace, currently limited to plugins. Developers will also be able to sell using USD in the Marketplace in addition to Robux.

It is important to note that the taxation system for Robux processed through the Developer Exchange program still remains for Robux earnt through Creator Marketplace sales.

Surprisingly, when Chief Product Officer Manuel Bronstein, the cheering and applause was rather quiet. In contrast, the mention of Supersocial’s experience World Lab funded by the Game Fund generated loud cheers from the crowd.

Giving the banhammer to developers

After the launch of Hyperion anti cheat system that Roblox bought the company who developed it for, Roblox Chief Technology Officer Daniel Sturman announced that APIs relating to banning players from experiences, with the ban system and alt account detection to be handled by Roblox themselves rather than developers previously. Sturman also hints that experience bans may also now affect platform standing, potentially reducing the number of bad actors on the platform.

Hyperion will also be expanded to the Android app and the Microsoft Store version of Roblox (commonly referred to as UWP, which is the SDK which the app runs on) to the chagrin of developers who recently blocked players who installed the game with the Microsoft Store.

Don’t say stupid s*!#$

Roblox’s machine learning moderation engine will now be in charge of live voice chat encounters, giving players live warnings and bans in accordance with Roblox’s policies.

It is worth watching the simulated demonstration: Substack can't embed YouTube clips yet.

The Appeals Portal was also demonstrated, allowing developers to directly view and appeal moderation actions.

Regarding the choice of the swear word used in the demonstration, David Baszucki responded to a question in a subsequent question and answer session that using profanity will eventually become acceptable in 17+ experiences.

In-experience creation, now with some AI

Roblox may soon release a feature to create avatars based on images and text prompts in experiences, in addition to boosting in-experience creation features for use on the wider platform which are currently at an early stage today.

AI, AI, AI

If that’s not enough AI for a single keynote, Roblox will also bring additional AI-driven features to Roblox Studio, from chatbots which aid with experience creation and development to generative AI to create mesh textures and models based on user prompts. Roblox will also open a program allowing developers to contribute code to the dataset used to train these generative AI features.

Native code sync

Roblox will release native code sync, allowing developers to synchronise code from their experiences to their computer and open it in software such as Visual Studio Code. Unfortunately, not only does it not support the full range of features of Rojo, a community-led project with similar goals, it also isn’t called Azul.

Roblox Connect (voice and video calls, not the event)

Roblox Connect (the event where developers participate in events, networking and a Game Jam) will be renamed, with the new Roblox Connect being a video calling feature allowing users to connect with each other using voice, facial animation and emotes in different landscapes, with different backdrops and camera settings along with greater OS-level integration with the contacts list and notifications.

$1499 $1000 Meta Quest Pro Headset to be bundled with $80 RDC Ticket

Announced in an email after the keynotes, Meta, one of the partners of RDC this year would providing a free Quest Pro to every in-person attendee of RDC. What is causing considerable controversy is that this offer is not extended to those attending virtually, despite meeting the same criteria for invitations as those who attended in-person.

Source: Quenty (James Onnen)

Roblox to release on Meta Quest soon

Overshadowed by the previous news, Roblox would announce that Roblox will exit App Lab and fully launch on the Meta Quest store this month.

The ones most missed

Low spatial voice adoption

One of the glaring statistics that stuck out like a sore thumb was the percentage of 13+ users using Spatial Voice - 12%. Baszucki seemed rather surprised with the low percentage, initially uttering 30% - the growth that Spatial Voice has had year on year. Given that Roblox’s vision is focused on giving users the choice in how they communicate, it is a reflection of the high barriers of entry and erroneous moderation that have arisen.

A more universal Xbox App

Roblox also implicitly teased the Universal App for Xbox, allowing for greater iteration by Roblox and a more modern interface, a far cry from the current archaic user interface. No release date was announced.

General fidelity and workflow improvements

A new audio API, the use of real names on Roblox, the announcement of the Secrets Store as well as more accurately representing Future lighting with Voxel technologies and other features not discussed in this article were also announced at RDC.

Five Years Forward

Baszucki also shared details regarding the predictions he made in 2018 regarding the next 5 years on Roblox:

Five years back

First though, a moment of introspection. Some of those predictions used to be ludicrous but have been realised today. The other predictions though are still ludicrous.

The new predictions

Here’s the next 10 for the next 5 years, with some comments scattered around:

• #10 Fortune 500 Company Uses Roblox for Recruitment

  • An expected goal given efforts that Roblox has made towards Roblox Office, an internal experience

• #9 A full K-12 curriculum will integrate with Roblox experiences

  • This is consistent with Roblox’s education vision for the past few years

• #8 Socially deprived 17+ users find romantic relationships on Roblox

  • Whilst this was mentioned in a recent interview done by Baszucki with The Verge, it was definitely not expected by many in the audience

• #7 Roblox employees will use Roblox for meetings rather than real life

  • Like #10, this goal reinforces Roblox’s internal goals of moving towards Roblox itself as a work environment

• #6 Roblox will implement a social credit score

  • It is difficult to see this to not come with backlash

• #5 Roblox creators will profit off more from physical merchandise than Roblox avatar items

  • Given that creators of avatar items are paid at a much lower rate than experience developers, this seems feasible

• #4 David Baszucki’s family will use Roblox to communicate

• #3 A top Roblox fashion designer will emerge in the real world

• #2 A musician will perform live to over 1 million people on Roblox, using only a phone

  • This is consistent with the vision of those such as Chief Scientist Morgan McGuire

• #1 A Roblox developer will be worth $1 billion

  • Crazy? I was crazy once. Maybe it will be worth it.