Roblox insists plans to start charging creators for brand integrations “is not about revenue at all”

From next year, Roblox will begin charging creators who publish brand integrations in their experiences.

Gamesbeat reports that several sources – all of whom were only prepared to speak anonymously, and therefore cannot be independently verified – revealed that Roblox executives have been meeting with key stakeholders to discuss the upcoming change.

Roblox VP of global brand partnerships and advertising, Stephanie Latham, says the fee is just part of a broader suite of changes the company has been working on for some time, and will expand creator access to ad formats as well as offer more tools to work with brands.

“This really is not about revenue at all,” Latham said. “It’s about evolving our responsibility to our users, creators and brands.

“Brands are already part of everyday life on Roblox, and this is a strategic response to the increased commercial intent that we’re seeing every day on the platform.”

The policy change marks a decided shift in the way Roblox manages ad partners, as the firm currently takes a 30% cut of all revenue from in-app purchases, but leaves creators to sign independent licensing and ad deals.

“By standardizing how we measure and label ads, we’re able to transform one-off deals into a scalable ecosystem for them, so creators can charge what they’re worth on the platform, and we, Roblox, handle the complexity of all the global compliance,” Latham added.

Challenged on whether this could make it impossible for creators to maintain independent links with advertisers, leading to antitrust concerns, Roblox said the brand process will “ensure the safety of what shows up on [its] platform.”

“Safety is a priority on Roblox, and we are ensuring that promotional commercial content is properly disclosed to our users,” a Roblox spokesperson told GamesBeat. “In addition, we are moderating this content to ensure it is delivered to appropriate audiences, and providing additional services such as in-house aggregated ad measurement.”

It’s unclear what the new policy will entail, but Latham said the changes are not intended to come into play until 2027, and any in-train deals from now until the end of the calendar year will not be affected.

“The spirit of bringing them all in to talk through it is to ensure, over the next couple of months, that we land on a place that does extract the most value for all,” Latham said.

Roblox recently announced two new developer programs aimed at “supporting ambitious and curious creators eager to build and scale” – Roblox Incubator and Roblox Jumpstart. The former is a six-month program to support experienced teams “refine promising concepts of novel games into polished, scalable, commercially successful games,” with all programme participants gaining access to “Roblox subject matter experts who will provide mentorship and support, as well as help participants build an audience for their games.”

Last month, gamesindustry.biz reported that Roblox “strongly disputed” claims it was failing children after officials in Los Angeles filed a lawsuit against the online platform Roblox for allegedly “failing to protect children from predatory behavior.” It follows similar action from the Australian government, which similarly demanded Roblox respond to concerns “regarding the exploitation of children on the Roblox service.”