Roblox Takes On Minecraft In The Creator Gaming Sandbox With $92 Million In Funding
Watch out Minecraft, there is a up and coming sandbox game looking to challenge your throne. Roblox Corp. recently raised $92 million to enhance its customizable sandbox video game. The funds will mostly go to hiring coders to develop social and mobile tools and buying back shares from employees.
Roblox was first introduced in beta in 2004, but officially launched in 2006. It started to really gain traction in 2011. Players can customize their avatar for use in multiplayer and games include a variety of scenarios, from running a pizza joint to surviving a natural disaster. Roblox attracts a similar demographic to Minecraft, with the average player’s age ranging between six and sixteen. The game boasts roughly 32 million users a month, with an extra 16 million who visit and use the site, but do not sign-up. Minecraft attracts an average of 55 million users a month and has only been around since 2011. Minecraft was purchased by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014.
Roblox includes an interesting business model; the company charges game developers a subscription fee for the use of its tools. The creator receives a cut of the profits if a player purchases an item from their game. Roblox also sells in-currency to players. Some of these developers make as much as $50,000 a month. Roughly 1.7 million developers have created 22 million games within Roblox that can be played through phones, tablets, PC’s, Xbox consoles, or VR headsets.
Children and teenagers are notoriously fickle consumers. Roblox, however, believes it knows how to keep its audience’s attention. Chief Executive Officer David Baszucki noted that Roblox has the technology to evolve alongside its consumers’ tastes. Roblox also plans to give developers more creative freedom in order to keep them coming back for more. Roblox grew three times larger last year and it is estimated that in 2015 they earned $50 million in revenue. You can check out the game here if you're interested.
Roblox was first introduced in beta in 2004, but officially launched in 2006. It started to really gain traction in 2011. Players can customize their avatar for use in multiplayer and games include a variety of scenarios, from running a pizza joint to surviving a natural disaster. Roblox attracts a similar demographic to Minecraft, with the average player’s age ranging between six and sixteen. The game boasts roughly 32 million users a month, with an extra 16 million who visit and use the site, but do not sign-up. Minecraft attracts an average of 55 million users a month and has only been around since 2011. Minecraft was purchased by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014.
Roblox includes an interesting business model; the company charges game developers a subscription fee for the use of its tools. The creator receives a cut of the profits if a player purchases an item from their game. Roblox also sells in-currency to players. Some of these developers make as much as $50,000 a month. Roughly 1.7 million developers have created 22 million games within Roblox that can be played through phones, tablets, PC’s, Xbox consoles, or VR headsets.
