If there’s a single word that can perfectly describe the gaming industry as a whole, it’s evolution. Think about it at its most basic level. When video games first started, they were incredibly basic and required a LOT of computing power to make the most basic of games work. Then, as graphics cards and microprocessors grew in power, they were able to do more, and that allowed for the multiple video game booms that happened and continue to happen with things like the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2. Then, there are games like Roblox, which have helped evolve the gaming space in different ways.
Unlike console publishers, the Roblox team is a single entity that has created an expansive online universe that anyone can play in for free across numerous platforms, including consoles, PC, tablets, and phones. The whole point is for people to do “whatever they want” in the game, and many have taken advantage of that gift. The reason we’re focusing on “evolution” today is because of an article posted by AInvest, which stated that games like Roblox are actually the “future of digital ecosystems.”
The reason they state that is that the entirety of the game’s ecosystem in terms of making money is not only self-contained, but it’s driven by the players in the purest of ways. Other games, including ones from numerous AAA companies, have things like microtransactions or DLC purchases to help drive in money further, but for this universe, you can ignore what the dev team tells you to buy and instead buy what other creators have made either for their games, or just via the custom marketplace.
You can see why a “self-sustaining” marketplace like this is appealing, as everything is right there without the need for “outside help.” Thus, if you look at it from that singular perspective, it could “be the future.”
However, as we’ve covered on this site before, just because it appears “self-sustaining” doesn’t mean that it is. After all, despite around 90 million daily users and many times that across a month, the game itself is actually in the red. It’s been operating at a loss for years, and attempts to bring in other brands to help “raise revenue and visibility” have been plodding at best. Many don’t know if they can trust this team to market their brands properly, and as we talked about earlier, even gamers don’t know if they can trust the dev team.
Thus, it may be a bit premature to call this “the future.”
