GamesBeat recently spoke with Ray Seilie about Roblox’s upcoming policy requiring creators to pay a fee for publishing promotional brand materials inside their experiences on the platform.
The article, “Roblox moves to take a cut of all brand integrations on its platform,” breaks the news that beginning in 2027, Roblox will require creators to pay a fee for any branded content used in their games. The fee will be relative to the traffic and engagement their respective products generate, but it is a departure from the platform’s current hands-off policy that allows creators to strike independent deals with brands with no restrictions. Roblox claims that an aspect of this shift is tied to prioritizing user safety and that the policy ensures that promotional content is properly disclosed and moderated for age-appropriateness. However, since Roblox already requires 30% of creators’ in-game purchase revenue and most creators using the platform rely on fully independent relationships with advertisers as a means to earn income outside that contract, critics have interpreted this policy change as a possible violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law.
Ray tells GamesBeat that while trust and safety could potentially provide Roblox with a legal defense for the policy update (particularly in regards to ad-standardization and child safety), “the devil is always in the details when it comes to evaluating a particular practice for anti-competitive effect.”
