Roblox senior engineer Stefano Corazza has opened up about accusations of young developer exploitation on its platform, saying that the opportunity Roblox gives its teenage creators is “a gift.”
Roblox has had in-game development tools via its Studio feature for a while, offering users the chance to create entire games that can then be published for other players and monetized. It all takes place within Roblox itself, streamlining the experience for creators and giving Roblox a cut of the profits.
The Roblox creator website encourages users to “make anything you can imagine,” enticing would-be developers with the promise that experiences can be published instantly to more than 66.1 million other users across the globe. It adds that there are currently more than 3.1 million Roblox developers.
The Roblox name has long been associated with a younger player base, and many have accused Corazza and his team of taking advantage of children who use the platform to create games. The studio head attempted to shut down these claims during an interview with Eurogamer by explaining why their creation tools aren’t exploiting child labor.
“I don’t know, you can say this for a lot of things, right?” Corazza explained. “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.”
He continued: “There’s always the flip side of that, when you go broad and democratised – and in this case, also with a younger audience. I mean, our average game developer is in their 20s. But of course, there’s people that are teenagers – and we have hired some teenagers that had millions of players on the platform.”
Corazza elaborated, declaring the benefits Roblox Studio offers its more creative teenage users. He even says that the money the studio gives its creators every year is nearing $1 billion.
“For them, you know, hearing from their experience, they didn’t feel like they were exploited! They felt like, ‘Oh my god, this was the biggest gift, all of a sudden I could create something, I had millions of users, I made so much money I could retire.’ So, I focus more on the amount of money that we distribute every year to creators, which is now getting close to like a billion dollars, which is phenomenal.”
A Roblox PR representative clarified with Eurogamer that “the vast majority of people that are earning money on Roblox are over the age of 18.” It’s unclear how many creators are under 18 or exactly how much money they are bringing in for themselves and the Roblox company.
Roblox originally released for PC in 2006 and eventually came to iOS and Android devices in 2012 and 2014, respectively. It came to Xbox shortly after but wouldn’t arrive on PlayStation platforms until 2023. With some VR platforms also under its belt, Roblox is accessible on nearly every modern gaming platform.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly called Stefano Corazza a CEO at Roblox. It has been updated with his correct title.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
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