Roblox Studio boss: children making money on the platform isn't exploitation, it's a gift

Roblox remains a gigantic phenomenon, boasting monthly player numbers of over 200 million — close to double the entirety of Steam — and a pattern of growth that defies the recent struggles of the wider games industry.

It also remains controversial, as exemplified by People Make Games' accusation in 2021 that Roblox is «exploiting» young developers on the platform, with many of those developers under the age of 18.

The accusation then involved the system of paying developers a fraction of their in-game earnings via Roblox's in-game currency, Robux, and Roblox also selling those Robux at much higher price than it buys them. This largely remains the same today, with 1000 Robux currently cashing out at $3.50, while buying 1000 Robux costs the equivalent of around $12.50.

To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings A Roblox trailer summing up experiences available in the game from 2020.Watch on YouTube

At the time, Roblox issued a statement to Eurogamer that spoke in general terms about the growth in the total amount of money earned by its creators, the coding skills they learn, and the various support programs Roblox makes available to them.

In an interview with Roblox Studio head Stefano Corazza at GDC in late March, where a new suite of AI-powered creation tools was demoed, I asked about the reputation Roblox hac gained and the notion that it was exploitative of young developers, since it takes a cut from work sometimes produced by children.

«I don't know, you can say this for a lot of things, right?» Corazza said. «Like, you can say, 'Okay, we are exploiting, you know, child labour,' right? Or, you can say: we are offering people anywhere in the world the capability to get a job, and even like an income. So, I can be like 15 years old, in Indonesia, living in a slum, and then now, with just a laptop, I can create something, make money and then sustain my life.

»There's always the flip side of that, when you go broad and democratised —