字幕表 動画を再生する 英語字幕をプリント (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)
B1 中級 米 How Roblox Became a $45 Billion Public Videogame Company | WSJ 18 0 joey joey に公開 2021 年 05 月 30 日 シェア シェア 保存 報告 動画の中の単語