(upbeat music)
- A lot of the work you do is with blocks.
It's the core shape of the platform.
- [Narrator] Samuel Jordan has been making video games
since he was 15 years old.
- I've gone from making clothing stores
to 3D cafes and food restaurants
to now full-fledged games.
- [Narrator] He's made all of these
on a free online gaming platform called Roblox,
which is available on Desktop, mobile devices
and Xbox consoles.
Last year, at the age of 21,
Jordan earned more than $600,000.
- Not yet.
- [Narrator] He's among the seven million Roblox developers
who've built the company a library
of over 20 million games and experiences.
And this has attracted about 33 million daily users
and more than half of them are under the age of 13.
The pandemic fueled this model
and Roblox became a place
where kids at home could hang out.
This has made it one of the valuable video game companies
in the world.
And its first day of trading in March,
saw a market valuation of $45 billion.
But as new games are created every day,
the company faces the challenge
of moderating its platform.
And its business model rides
on whether Roblox can remain a safe place for kids.
- My daughter's obsessed with Roblox.
I know this platform way too well.
She loves "Royale High."
- [Narrator] Sarah Needleman covers the video game industry
for The Wall Street Journal
and she's been spending a lot of time on Roblox
with her daughter.
- Got this yesterday.
- [Narrator] An even owns a copy
of "The Ultimate Guide to Roblox."
- All of the games on the platform
have been made by users.
Some are just individuals like you and I
but the company itself doesn't make the games
that are on the platform.
- [Narrator] This means Roblox doesn't have to rely
on Hollywood-like budgets
and rockstar talent to produce blockbuster titles.
For example, one of last year's most anticipated video games
was "Cyberpunk 2077,"
a game that cost Polish company CD Projekt
more than $300 million
to develop and market.
Just compare that with Roblox,
which provides a free developer toolkit
for anyone interested in creating content for it.
- Luckily, Roblox has a lot of these pre-made for us,
so we're just gonna go into our toolbox and find one.
- You don't have to be an expert in coding
to make games for Roblox.
There are step-by-step resources
and a lot of it's drag and drop.
Somewhat turnkey you could say.
So that has made it very attractive to younger folks
who are just learning how to do this stuff.
- [Narrator] Roblox says
it's continually updating the toolkit.
This helps developers make engaging content
so its players don't get bored.
- They can make higher-equality games
and the kind of games that adults
would appreciate more so than youngsters.
They're more complicated, they're more challenging.
- [Narrator] This creates an ecosystem
of players and developers.
Just look at Samuel Jordan.
- It felt just really inspiring
to think wow, at a young age, I can make something.
- [Narrator] He first started playing in 2011
and four years later,
he began creating his own worlds, like Fairytale.
- Yay, a new friend.
- [Narrator] Today he's building complex games
for young children
and even took a break from college
during the pandemic to focus on Roblox
with his friends.
Jordan was also hand picked by the company
when he was 19 years old
to help expand the toolkit.
- They've also increased the amount
of textures you can add in game
and it's really helped to really build an atmosphere
for your games.
- [Narrator] Games are free to play on Roblox.
So Jordan only starts to earn money
when a player spends the in-game currency called Robux.
- [Samuel] Earning money on Roblox
is actually a pretty easy process.
People will pay you with Robux
and you can exchange those out for dollars
or your local currency.
- [Narrator] So players can link their accounts
to credit cards and for young children,
they can use prepaid gift cards.
With Robux, they can buy this Prince jacket
or pay for a pass to visit the Dream Mansion.
(pensive music)
Jordan also makes money from collaborations with brands,
turning real-world products
into Roblox items
but he doesn't get to keep all the money.
Developers receive 70%
of the Robux spent in their games
and get 30% of the Robux spent
on items they put up for sale.
Roblox says the rest goes to running the business,
including hosting services and operations.
As players flocked to Roblox during the pandemic,
the company said its revenue last year grew 82%,
while sales of virtual items more than doubled
to about $2 billion.
But user loyalty hasn't translated into profits.
The company has incurred net losses
since its inception in 2004.
And last year, those losses exceeded $250 million,
in part because of higher operating costs.
But profitability isn't the only challenge.
There's been an increasing amount
of adult content on some games.
- All the sort of bad actors you see on social media,
you would have to assume could happen on a site like Roblox.
The only difference is that Roblox happens
to appeal to a very young audience.
Probably youngsters are more sort
to bad actors than adults maybe
and so it raises the bar in terms of moderation.
- [Narrator] Roblox said it hired
more than 2,300 content moderators
while inappropriate words are replaced with hashtags.
The company also said it's now developing
content ratings for games
and making parental controls easier to find and use.
(upbeat music)
But as countries emerge from the pandemic,
Roblox hopes the habits of using the platform
aren't easy to break.
Even Jordan says he'll continue to create.
- I don't think I'm gonna be chasing to keep people on
past the pandemic.
I'm gonna continue to make content
I think players will enjoy
and the ones that stay long
are gonna be there 'cause they enjoy the time they spend.
(lively music)