What just happened? Popular 3D gaming platform Roblox is finally coming to the PS4 and PS5 in October. The announcement was made this week at the 2023 Roblox Developers Conference in San Francisco, where the company also claimed that as many as 65.5 million users spend an average of 2.3 hours every day on the platform. The title is already available on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Xbox, so the addition of PlayStation to the list of supported platforms is a welcome move from the developers.
In a blog post announcing the impending launch on PlayStation, Roblox announced that PS4 and PS5 gamers will be able to access "the full catalog of Roblox experiences," which suggests the availability of a wide array of cross-platform toolset. As always, it will be free to download, meaning PlayStation users will be able to get right into their favorite creations without any shenanigans.
Roblox did not reveal anything about why it took the company so long to bring the title to PlayStation, but a report from last year suggested that Sony did not want it on its platform over child safety concerns. On its part, Roblox has taken several steps to prevent inappropriate content on its platform, banning everything related to illegal substances, as well as profanities and graphic sexual activities. Still, some illegal content can sometimes slip past the moderation system, which could pose a risk to Roblox's young user base.
Now that Roblox is all set to arrive on the PlayStation, the only major gaming platform that's still not supported by the popular title is the Nintendo Switch. However, Roblox CEO David Baszucki, a.k.a. 'builderman,' recently hinted that the title could come to the Switch at some stage in the near future. That said, there's no concrete announcement on that front, and there's no timeline on when it could happen. Meanwhile, a virtual reality version of the title is currently being tested on the Meta Quest and is expected to officially launch on the VR platform later this month.
Roblox made another major announcement at the RDC, this time related to payments. According to the company, creators will soon be able to keep all of the revenue from sales of assets and tools to other creators. The change will go into effect sometime next year, and the only deductions from the payment under the new system will be taxes and processing fees. Do note that the change will only apply to the Creator Marketplace, which allows creators to do business with one another, and not the regular Marketplace where creators sell items that allow users to customize their avatars.