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I make games on Roblox. When a user spends $1 in your game, you get to keep about $0.25 of it ($0.70 if you spend the funds to buy other stuff on Roblox). Basi
by bemmu 6y ago
I make games on Roblox. When a user spends $1 in your game, you get to keep about $0.25 of it ($0.70 if you spend the funds to buy other stuff on Roblox).
Basically 1/4 is the Apple/Google cut, 1/4 is Roblox profit, 1/4 is what they say is used to run servers etc.
This is not a complaint. I’m a big fan of the platform and think they provide huge value to developers. Just thought some might find the economics of it interesting.
- crispyporkbites 6y agoHow much are your games making? How hard are they to create vs a web app? Are most of the games made by professionals or just kids looking for more robux?
- bryanrasmussen 6y agoFrom my perspective, as a programmer dad who looked a bit at the game making situation in roblox about a year ago, I definitely got the feeling that games were not made by professional programmers but my feeling is also that has started to change in the last year. My feeling was basically based on the tooling for the platform being awful, and some script I saw that was being passed around as boilerplate for new game development that was one of the biggest plates of spaghetti ever made! My feeling on it changing is stuff like this article https://medium.com/@OverHash/roblox-development-in-visual-studio-code-b3010c3d0181 https://medium.com/@OverHash/roblox-development-in-visual-st... and other people doing things about sharing workflows and tooling improvements that reminds me of when some professional programmers first started to write JavaScript a long time ago. But that's just a feeling I have for the situation, from the outside looking in.
- robocat 6y agoFantastic article from the inside looking out: https://zeux.io/2020/08/02/eight-years-at-roblox/ https://zeux.io/2020/08/02/eight-years-at-roblox/
- anonymoushn 6y agohttps://developer.roblox.com/en-us/articles/developer-economics https://developer.roblox.com/en-us/articles/developer-econom... Wow, that's crazy. If I understand correctly, someone can buy 10,000 Robux for $99.99 and spend it all in your game. You'll get 7,000 Robux and you can cash them out for $24.50
- maratc 6y agoSomeone can spin it as "A gaming platform that takes 50% platform fee complains about app platforms taking 25% platform fee".
- hayksaakian 6y agoThat's the power of monopolizing a distribution channel
- maratc 6y agoOne can say that it's the power of creating a distribution channel where none has existed before.
- imtringued 6y agoIt's not possible to create an alternative store for iOS or Roblox.
- lotsofpulp 6y agoTheoretically, one could spend the requisite money and years to develop a competing device and software, like Apple and Google did to RIM, Microsoft, and Nokia.
- jbverschoor 6y agoYou forget payment processing 3% Sales tax, ca 20%
- gamblor956 6y agoSales tax in CA is not 20%. Also, CA does not currently tax sales of digital goods (though most other states do). If you meant Canada, then Canada's HST is similarly less than 20%, though the exact rate depends on province.
- jbverschoor 6y agoca as in circa :-)
- timoth3y 6y agoFWIW, that is about the same amount the developer got to keep in the bad old days when games had to be packaged and shipped to retail stores. Of course, the publishers and distributors and retailers took a lot more risk than the AppStores and actually had to hold inventory. It's probably just a coincidence, but it's interesting we've come full circle.
- swebs 6y agoHow much goes to Uncle Sam?