Roblox, like many other platforms, such as Zoom to make video calls, experienced a disproportionate growth in the number of users, growth that obviously generated an increase in income and, therefore, in profits, especially in Roblox, a platform used by minors that allowed them to evade the reality of being confined without leaving home.
As the coronavirus pandemic has become a thing of the past, Roblox’s business figures have begun to decline. So far this year, the share price has dropped by almost half from its all-time high reached in January 2022.
Roblox in the metaverse
When Facebook presented its commitment to the metaverse, a moment he took advantage of to change the company’s name to Meta (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), Mark Zuckerberg stated that this new project was still very green and that it had many years ahead of it. However, there were many companies that quickly showed interest in this new way of interacting with other people and the environment. A set that seems to be very favorably viewed by Roblox investors.
The metaverse, for those not familiar with this term, is a place where people can interact with each other and with the environment virtually , that is, without the need to be physically present, practically in the same way as in the movie Ready Player One . One of the main attractions of Roblox is the possibility of bringing together a large number of players in the same game, players who can freely walk around the environment, face challenges, race among many other activities.
If we stop to think, the idea may not be as far-fetched as it might seem, since it opens up an infinite range of entertainment possibilities for this title that would allow it to expand the average age range of users, which is currently in the 13 years and thus be able to increase income.
However, the age of the users is their main problem, since they do not have sufficient economic capacity to invest in virtual reality equipment, although Meta is working on affordable models for all audiences. In addition, this type of device is not suitable for children under 14 years of age and although the average is 13 years of age, more than half of the users are under 10 years of age.
Meta’s financial results in recent quarters suggest that the company cannot continue to invest the money it initially planned in this new field, since R&D work is proving to be very costly and development is slower than expected. expected.
At the moment, Roblox has not commented on the matter. If we take into account that, since its inception, the platform has not focused its activity on creating its own content but rather on relying on users who want to earn some money creating games on Roblox, the future of the company lies in renewing itself.
Adapting the games available on Roblox so that users could meet to talk or play with other users using virtual reality glasses could be the push that this platform lacks to try to stop depending on children and reach users with greater purchasing power.
