Roblox, as a platform, is very unique compared to anything else on the market. The best comparison to the game is the modular nature ofFortnite’scommunity-driven maps; however, Roblox had already been doing this for over a decade.
Roblox, after all, is a fan-driven environment, making it a lot more adaptable to modern trends. Whereas Fortnite is just now hitting acollaboration with Squid Game, Roblox’s own Squid Game adaptations were able to gain rapid popularity a few months back because the community created versions immediately following the second season’s release.
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In a recent podcastinterview with TechStuff, Roblox CEO David Baszucki explained precisely what metrics Roblox has been hitting.Along with the expected child-focused audience appeal, games like Squid Game and Dress to Impress, he also highlighted his continued vision for Roblox as a more adult-oriented platform.
For quite some time, Roblox has sought to capture age groups much older than its expected audience. After all,when you think of Roblox, the first thing that likely comes to mind is probably something along the lines of your nephew playing it on his iPad or family laptop.
However, about two years ago, atRoblox’s 2023 keynote(around the 1 hour 40 minute mark), they expressed their goal to enter the elusive 17+ market. A specific objective was to turn Roblox into the next dating hub for adults.
Roblox and dating? Obviously, some alarms immediately sounded, with people worried about the fact that most of the users were under 18. But to be fair, Roblox has done a good job of ensuring these features only reach the intended age group.
In the podcast,Baszucki explains the platform’s current barriers to ensure 17+ audiences are sectioned off from the rest of the user base.Not only do you need to submit documents like an ID to prove your age, but it’s also put in place that addresses and other identifiable chat information are instantly blocked.
However, if you played Roblox’s fan-made Squid Game recreation, you could tell that at least some of the voice chatters (which is restricted for 17+ users)were children, likely taking their parents' ID to get past the restrictions.
The idea of having a dating community on Roblox isn’t entirely insane, as Roblox wouldn’t be used to find dates, but rather to facilitate people already in relationships. As the CEO explains,“I think a lot of people who are too afraid to go on a real-life date might find it easier to have a virtual date to start.”
Similar to communication platforms like Discord, online dating is a very significant modern market, and capturing that audience with interactive 3D spaces is a commendable goal, even if the CEO has been pitching this for about two years without much change.
Roblox As A Wellness Platform
One continued goal that the CEO has posed, which seems to have been a talking point since before the previously mentioned 2023 keynote, is the idea of Roblox as a platform not only for gaming but also for mental health and wellness.
For one, Baszucki continued his idea posed earlier this year, that if a parent is uncomfortable with their child’s use of Roblox, they should simplynot let their child use it.
As a father himself, he expresses how, in his own life, he still feels uncomfortable with his kids in specific situations, stating in the interview that“I’m not comfortable having them at the end of the dock right now without a life jacket on.”
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But at the same time, he expresses how “this type of technology is coming… can we do this in a way that is more civil and higher quality than any other company could?” and so it really seems like Roblox is giving it their best attempt to do so.
In this podcast, you’ll see the goals of Roblox, not only for dating, but also for education. Following the pandemic, when children could sometimes only interact with their peers on platforms like Roblox, it has continued to be an important space for child development.
However, one question I would like to pose is that many of these goals, such as those for 17+ dating, have yet to be achieved. Roblox still has numerous goals and ambitions tied to social spaces like theMetaverse, which aim to become a separate space for people to interact.
With the Metaverse losing momentum and Roblox’s stock declining,I wonder if these goals are truly achievable and if Roblox will ever be able to split from the child-focused audience that has defined it to this day.
