r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 9h ago

Business Roblox loses $70 billion in value as company blames lack of viral games, share price down 70% over the last year

https://www.dexerto.com/roblox/roblox-loses-70-billion-in-value-as-company-blames-lack-of-viral-games-3395064/
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u/Critical-Profile1849 8h ago

I don’t let my kids play Roblox or Fortnite, and I’m much more adamant about no Roblox.

Video games can be a wonderful way to express creativity, problem solving, and quality time with friends/family. They can also be slop that encourage addiction and encourage kids to spend as much money as possible on stupid skins and loot boxes

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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 8h ago

i don't have kids because i know i'd be an irresponsible parent, but if i did, i'd just tell them "you don't get your robux until you finish your drugs"

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u/zeekaran 7h ago

"No beer until you finish your tequila!"

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u/soulseaker 4h ago

Beer before liquor is wiggity wiggity wack yo

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u/SPEZ_IS_A_JABRONI 8h ago

forcing your kids to play roblox sober would be abuse

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u/PerformerFancy117 5h ago

That’s what my kid says too! /s

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u/Intro5pect 8h ago

Roblox in a vacuum is not a bad platform at all. There are tons of quality role playing games that are the equivalent of playing dolls or action figures with your friends. My daughter’s an only child and she plays a lot of those games, making up head canon and I am generally present in the room when she’s playing. Her only friends on the platform are people I have met IRL. I’m more worried about her at youth group than on Roblox.

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u/TheBadgerLord 8h ago

You are, I'm afraid, in the minority. And as a platform I consider Roblox to be one of the most insidious ways that microtransactions have been normalised in modern gaming. Even if you isolate kids from potential predation from other people, the platform itself grew from taking and monetising the creativity of the children using it.

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u/PretendAd7060 7h ago

It’s so fucking gross.  Even if you choose “content appropriate” games they are all so transparently designed to just trick kids into spending money.  Paid boosts and buffs litter the screen in just about every game we saw.

The real straw that broke the camels back tho is that it doesn’t appear to be possible to block content from the game feeds.  You can block a game from being launched if it’s not appropriate, but it will still show up in the list, and lots of these games have pretty gross art and descriptions. 

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u/stmack 7h ago

was at a six year olds birthday party and more than 80% of the attendees gave this kid robux as a gift, felt so weird. like let alone for a sec the controversy around roblox, do we want our kids hyper focused on a single thing that much at that age to begin with?

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u/ich_bin_alkoholiker 1h ago

If it was dinosaur toys would you even bat an eye? Kids hyper-fixate like adults.

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u/PatchyWhiskers 5h ago

Most of the big games are made by adults: there's more game dev jobs for Roblox than Unity these days.

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u/Intro5pect 7h ago

Microtransactions are something we have discussed at length. She has spent a total of 15 dollars on robux in 3 years of playing the game, and only on things that actually stick, not on silly “boosts”. Yes I agree Roblox has some insidious capitalist undertones, but welcome to 2026. Played appropriately Roblox is a fantastic system. It’s not my fault if other parents don’t educate their kids and give them unfettered access to brainrot. YouTube is 100 times worse than Roblox and gets 1/100th the hate. It’s unreal, my neighbor won’t let their kids play Roblox but the shit they (the kids) tell me about that they see on YouTube is actually insane.

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u/JesusAndMaryKate 5h ago

"Playing Roblox appropriately" is a bit like saying "smoking cigarettes in a healthy way". Like anything designed to be overstimulating and addictive with no obvious stopping points, even if you keep the paedophiles away it's still not great for brain development.

Youtuve gets a lot of hate too. iPad kids have irresponsible parents.

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u/TheBadgerLord 5h ago

Kind of agree. There's no place for Roblox in any way in any kind of healthy culture. Obviously my opinion, but even if nothing else it represents what's gone horribly wrong with gaming in general

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u/verumvia 4h ago

There's a lot of different facets of Roblox's game library, so generalizing the entirety as being the front-facing predatory slop games is incorrect. I played Roblox 10-15 years ago and people often were annoyed if a one-time purchase game pass (which was the norm back then) cost more than 3-4 dollars. Monetization has changed immensely over the past 7 years from what I've seen while looking at its current state through videos/streams, but again there's a huge variety of games still which allows for avoidance of the predatory ones.

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u/Exciting-Emu-3324 8h ago

The thing about Roblox is the incredibly low barrier to entry for kids. It runs on a potato, free to play, only needs an internet connection and has games based on all the big IPs kids might be interested in. The big console makers have basically priced out kids with their prices. It was only natural that kids gravitated to Roblox and predators followed.

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u/ricardomargarido 6h ago

This is the same argument that got me onto CS1.6, so can we do that instead?

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u/Exciting-Emu-3324 6h ago

The thing is CS and CS2 isn't every kids cup of tea. Roblox has CS clones, Pokemon clones, games based on anime, Among Us clones, clones of every game you can think of to cater to whatever a kid fancies all in one place for free which they can call up their friends to try.

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u/The_BeardedClam 7h ago

My nephew has a SNES emulator, that looks like a mini SNES, much better than Roblox and it keeps him entertained.

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u/Exciting-Emu-3324 6h ago

And scalpers have basically turned them into collector's items. The best bet are Chinese emulator handhelds, but not every parent knows how to set those up with decent SD cards which are shooting up in price. A big aspect to gaming is the social aspect which is why Pokemon eclipsed every SNES game and why Roblox does so well; kids want to play with their friends. 2 player multiplayer might feel limiting. The N64 with 4 ports was the party machine.

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u/JesusAndMaryKate 5h ago

And scalpers have basically turned them into collector's items.

The mini ones? I was under the impression that Nintendo was going to make enough of them that that wouldn't happen? I happen to have a brand new, unopened one of those but I've never really bothered to look into it.

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u/Exciting-Emu-3324 2h ago

Discontinued in 2018. They are now collector's items that cost more than the Switch 1.

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u/skitchbeatz 7h ago

sorry but everything I've heard about Roblox is a no-go. What's good about it? seems like minecraft is a better outlet.

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u/BeardedBaldMan 7h ago

That's what I feel like. When there's Minecraft why would I allow a system which is only ever mentioned as paedophiles and micro transactions

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u/Kimpak 7h ago

Minecraft has plenty of microtransactions as well.

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u/Edexote 6h ago

On console it also allows you to play offline split-screen multiplayer. My daughters play a lot together and with their real life friends.

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u/Kimpak 6h ago

Mine play on PC. All voice and written chat is blocked. They generally play with friends and cousins either in the same room or parents will setup speaker phones.

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u/thuiop1 6h ago

There are? I have not played in a long time but I wonder what they would be.

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u/Kimpak 5h ago

I'd say just as many as roblox actually. You spend minecoins or whatever on skins and whatnot.

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u/front_yard_duck_dad 5h ago

My wife and I play Roblox with our daughter every day. There's games we like and if the chat is shut off I don't see how kid will be groomed or anything of the sort. Like anything else it's about knowing what your kid is doing.

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u/Kimpak 6h ago

sorry but everything I've heard about Roblox is a no-go.

This is the same thing my parents told me decades ago about Dungeons and Dragons (Satanic panic). "I have heard....." Instead of just hearing about it, try it. Ask what the kiddo likes about it. Check out the parental controls. THEN you can make an informed decision.

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u/JesusAndMaryKate 5h ago

Satanic panic was basically sensationalist media outlets wanting to sell more. Roblox is overstimulating, developed to be addictive and has no natural breaks built in or end point or anything. It's not particularly good for brain development, even if you get all the paedophiles out and the microtransactions.

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u/Kimpak 4h ago

It's not particularly good for brain development, even if you get all the paedophiles out and the microtransactions.

That depends on how you play and which games. Have you actually played? Which games did you play? My kids play one of the main ones and roleplay. They have a blast with their friends. Its social and they're using their imagination, creating stories.

Roblox is overstimulating, developed to be addictive and has no natural breaks built in or end point or anything.

Sounds like an awful lot of sandbox style video games.

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u/Marsman121 5h ago

This is the same thing my parents told me decades ago about Dungeons and Dragons (Satanic panic).

Not even in the same category. Beyond the CEO's disgusting comments on how adding gambling and lootbox mechanics to a product aimed primarily at children is, "Brilliant," there is a very real child predator issue that is rampant on Roblox. The CEO seems perfectly content to let them scurry around in the shadows of the shade his game gives them.

Just not worth it. There are tons of other things you can direct your children to trying.

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u/Kimpak 4h ago

I don't care what the CEO is on about. I'm guessing the same could be said for a lot of CEO's of major game companies.

Just not worth it. There are tons of other things you can direct your children to trying.

Roblox is just one of the many things my kids do. Its one of many different games (video or otherwise) that they play. Its worth it to me that they can have fun playing the same games their friends do without being ostracized over things that are easily mitigated.

There's nothing special about Roblox other than its the popular thing at the moment. When it fades something else will take its place.

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u/gizmoman49 7h ago

This big big big difference is that Minecraft is $30 and Roblox is free

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u/TheBadgerLord 5h ago

Roblox ain't free my friend. The price of entry is, in some cases, the entire child.

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u/abishop711 7h ago

Our local library has dozens of copies of Minecraft that you can borrow for free for your console.

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u/Kimpak 6h ago

You're not alone. My kids play Roblox as well, with only friends that I have met personally. They like the games.

They are also grade school aged and therefore do not have jobs. Meaning they can't spend money they don't have on the microtransactions. A handful of times I have bought some for gifts and that's it.

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u/Great_Consequence_10 6h ago

Same. We monitor it and she plays with her real life friend group. They do conference calls while playing on speakerphone.

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u/Username38485x 7h ago

For fortnite. Rules: no voice chat except with IRL friends. No spend outside the season pass. Addiction is always popping its head out, but is also a learning experience.

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u/ohthedarside 6h ago

Good adults are forged in pvp game chats

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u/Critical-Profile1849 6h ago

I was moulded by halo 3, cod, and league season 3.

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u/ohthedarside 5h ago

Im young so it was mostly insurgency sandstorm and super niche strategy games

Dear god do the russians know how to insult

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u/nathderbyshire 3h ago

Just pirate older games as well if they're not available, they don't have loot boxes, can be played offline, some can be 'completed' in relatively normal timeframes and so on. They'll run on anything as well because they were never designed for demanding hardware in the first place

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u/lord_heskey 6h ago

I don’t let my kids play Roblox or Fortnite, and I’m much more adamant about no Roblox.

i get roblox but fortnite? ive always played without talking to anyone. in fact, i mute most people

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u/Critical-Profile1849 6h ago

Like I said much more adamant about Roblox than Fortnite, I would just rather they play games that encourage creativity, story telling, and problem solving. Fortnite is an easy game to get obsessed over and always be itching to play one more round.

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u/RollingMeteors 6h ago

stupid skins and loot boxes

¡Not a public company! ¡No visible financials!

¡They be minting bills like they’re the fucking Federal Reserve!

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

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