In July, Roblox beta-launched a licensing initiative that gives the thousands of developers on its platform permission to make games based on top IPs like Squid Game, Stranger Things, Twilight, and Saw. Since that launch, creators have made over 1,500 games based on licensed IPs–some of which have been played billions of times.
With that response, Roblox is taking the initiative from beta to full public launch, giving all IP owners the choice to allow developers to make games based on their properties.
“We wanted to unlock IP licensing at scale between Roblox creators and IP holders in a way that is simple, streamlined and customizable,” Greg Hartrell, Roblox’s Senior Product Director for the creator/content ecosystem, told TheWrap. “You just need one superfan creator who can make something their own and will bring their passion and personal experience into their creation, powered by branded IP.”
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“For these creators, we seek to enable creation of anything, anywhere, by anyone,” he added. “A critical ingredient is making content based on intellectual property.”
During the initiative’s beta, IP partners included Lionsgate, Netflix, Sega, and Kodansha. Lionsgate, which owns Twilight, added more properties around Halloween, including Blair Witch, The Strangers, and Fall. Roblox expanded the program slightly in October to include Mattel, which licensed its classic IPs Monster High, Polly Pocket, and Street Sharks.
Roblox tells us that so far, standout games from the programs include Blue Lock: Rivals (based on the anime of the same name; it launched before the initiative’s official start but was wrapped in early) with 4 billion visits; Squid Game-based Ink Game, with 2.6 billion visits; and The Squid Game, with 1.6 million favorites.
While not all games will see that kind of traffic, the obvious upside for game devs here is that they can make a title tied to established IP–and that tie will likely get them more views/plays based on name recognition alone. As for IP owners, they get user-generated content tailor-made for their properties without any oversight or involvement, and get a share of the revenue games generate. (Per TheWrap, that share is typically between 10% and 25%.)
Roblox says with this expansion, it’s now accepting all sorts and sizes of IP owners, “from major studios to brands with registered IP.” It does specify that owners need to be “eligible,” but the only publicly available eligibility requirements are that IP owners must actually own the IP they’re claiming, and must provide “the necessary proof of ownership, and a letter of authorization to offer licensed use of your IP.”
As we wrote when the initiative launched, this program is a layer of protection for transformative works on Roblox, and has more favorable revenue split terms than, for example, YouTube’s Content ID program, which takes all revenue from a video and deposits it in the IP owner’s hands, discouraging fans from making content about properties they love.
By financially incentivizing game devs to create content around licensed IPs and giving them legal protection to do so, Roblox is making itself an appealing destination for fan creators. And if there’s one thing our $250 billion industry runs on, it’s fan passion.
