On Sept. 19, 2023, Roblox posted an update to itsDeveloper Blogthat was met with a myriad of complaints from developers, influencers, players, and general community members, and was then redacted just a few hours later. This announcement, which has received nearly 3,000 direct replies since its debut, summarized the platform’s future plans to drastically update/change the way IPs could be used in experiences, and prioritize “treating creators with mutual respect,” and “providing equal opportunities for monetizing their creations” by forbidding said creators from using any off-sale or limited-quantity items in their experiences, or any Marketplace items that weren’t created by them directly without implementing an always-visual ability to purchase said items.
Originally, it was detailed that this change would go into effect on Sept. 27, 2023, just eight days after its debut announcement, and that those who failed to update their experiences to reflect the new policy changes before this deadline would receive a warning, followed by possible experience deletion and irreversible account termination. Nearly immediately after this announcement was posted to the Dev Blog, members of the Roblox community began sharing their opinions, most of which were negative, to social media and in the replies of the post. Most notably, the popular YouTuberKreekCraft, who has deeper connections within the Roblox company than many other creators in his community do, spoke about the update on his stream, and then uploaded a clip of this stream to X (previously Twitter) to continue the conversation.
In the clip, KreekCraft expresses his immense frustration with the announcement, stating that he “has never felt so disconnected from Roblox,” and that the decision “does nothing to help Roblox creators,” despite what the announcement promises, and instead directly hurts them in various ways.
let’s talk about the new roblox updatepic.twitter.com/vKV6pgJbPK
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Another community member, and previous Roblox intern, AlgyLaceyRBLX, voiced his opinions on X as well, compiling a list of concerns that developers and creators have about the update. The detailed post discusses multiple topics, including its possible negative impact on user experience, its lack of guidelines, and the many “scalability and monetization concerns” that it creates.
Concerns Regarding Roblox’s Recent Marketplace Policy ChangesScalability and Monetization ConcernsWe are deeply concerned about the new marketplace policy changes, particularly their impact on scalability and monetization. Classic Roblox items such as Speed Coils, Red…
In response to the massive amount of backlash the original announcement received, Roblox made a follow-up blog post only a few hours later, in which it was stated that the policy change would be paused, and not be debuted on Sept. 27, 2023, like originally planned. The full statement is as follows:
“We value your feedback and concerns. Our intent with this policy is to further ensure that UGC creations are respected and properly used across the platform. We realize that the requirements behind the policy are very nuanced and have a significant impact on experience creators. We sincerely apologize for causing these concerns. As a next step, we will thoroughly consider all your use cases and feedback, and refine the policy as appropriate while respecting creators’ rights. Once we finalize the policy, we will provide ample time to meet its requirements. We promise to keep you updated with any new information in the coming days.”
It’s unknown how long Roblox will postpone this update, or in what capacity it will return, but community members are happy to know their concerns have been recognized, and that Roblox acted accordingly.
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