One of the “bad jokes” about Roblox is that it often “gets away with things” surrounding popular IPs. Specifically, the in-game creators, who aren’t officially associated with the dev team, create items, characters, and worlds that are “similar” to popular characters in video games, anime, and so on, and then try to sell items, skins, and perks, based on those IPs to try and lure people in to play the game. It’s a clever tactic, but it’s also “questionably legal,” as we’ve noted in the past. However, the dev team knows this, and they’re implementing a new plan to help alleviate this issue entirely.
As noted on their website, Roblox will be dropping a special “License Manager” and a partner “catalog” so that players can see which IP they LEGALLY can use to make things in their self-created games:
“Today, we’re excited to announce the License Manager and Licenses catalog, a new way to partner with popular intellectual properties (IP) on Roblox across gaming, entertainment, retail, and more. Our vision is to empower all creators to easily use the franchises and creative works they love in their experiences through licenses from IP holders. We’ll be launching the License Manager and catalog in early Q3, and we can’t wait for you to try it out.”
So, how will this work? According to the dev team, you’ll go into the catalog and make an official request from the IP owners so that you can make something with their license.
Now, to be clear here, this doesn’t mean that if you get approved for a license, you can do ANYTHING with the property. There are limits on what you can do, plus you’ll have to pay the IP owner a share of the profits for using the IP:
“Licenses are a set of terms and conditions that determine how an IP can be used by creators to build experiences on Roblox. IP owners set a revenue share rate and experience eligibility requirements. Eligibility requirements may include the maximum allowed content maturity rating, minimum number of active players, and more. A license also has standard terms and specific content standards to follow and ensure the IP is being used properly.”
That makes perfect sense, as the last thing that an IP owner wants is to give the license away to someone who basically abuses the property and puts it in a bad light.
Still, this is a chance for games to become “more official” and possibly more popular. Thus, it’s something you’ll want to keep an eye on.
