Roblox has announced a wave of new features at its annual developer conference, with the updates making it easier to build games through artificial intelligence while also letting creators publish games beyond the Roblox platform itself for the first time. The company additionally launched dedicated financial tools for its creators, rounding out a set of announcements that touch on creation, distribution, and monetization simultaneously. The headline change involves expanding Roblox’s generative AI creation feature called Build, which lets users create games using natural language prompts and was first announced in July, launching initially only in New Zealand before now expanding to Serbia and Singapore as well.
Build gains several meaningful new capabilities in this latest round of updates, including desktop access for big screen creation and more iterative control over the development process. A new asset library now supports the creation process directly, and later this year, a prompt based scene generation feature is set to arrive as well, extending Build’s capabilities beyond its initial text to game functionality. Perhaps most significantly, Roblox games can now escape the platform entirely, with creators soon able to publish games as separate standalone apps that work across mobile, PC, and console devices, with Roblox itself continuing to act as the underlying game engine powering them even outside its own app.
The web expansion proves equally important for reach, with players able to join a game through a browser link by the end of the year, a shift that signals Roblox is now focusing on expanding overall reach rather than solely driving traffic back to its own platform. Several other creator tools featured in the announcements as well, including NPCs that will soon gain the ability to playtest games themselves, an offline mode for creators dealing with weak connections, and a new Friends chat tab that travels across games seamlessly rather than being confined to individual titles. These additions point to Roblox building out a broader creator toolkit that extends well beyond the core AI game generation feature that anchored the initial Build announcement in July.
The financial products carry real weight for creators specifically, given that game makers have earned over $5 billion on Roblox since 2013, with earnings reaching $1.7 billion in the last 12 months alone. To help creators access those funds more easily, the company introduced a Roblox Wallet that pays creators in real money daily, partnering with Airwallex and initially serving US users aged 18 and older, with a Roblox Card set to follow next year for spending earnings directly, and global expansion for both tools planned for later. CEO David Baszucki said players spent 29 billion hours on the platform last quarter alone, spanning 180 countries around the world, with Roblox aiming to grow that engagement both on and off its own platform as these new publishing and creation tools roll out more broadly.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
