For years, Roblox has been the talk of the town (or, should we say, the talk of every middle schooler’s lunch table). So, the fact that it’s now coming to Sony’s consoles will have many PlayStation owners exclaiming, “It’s about time!”
Roblox has been around since 2006, and it’s been available on pretty much every platform, from PCs to mobile devices and even the Xbox One, since 2015. Sadly, PlayStation players have had to enviously watch on the sidelines – until now. Roblox is now set to launch on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 next month.
Now, if you’re wondering why Roblox took its sweet time getting to PlayStation, you’re not alone. It’s rumored that the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jim Ryan, had some concerns about its popularity with the younger crowd. As is his right, Ryan was worried about the millions of young users and the potential for exploitation.
Parents have expressed their worries regarding the online gaming platform, primarily because of the presence of certain pay-to-win games. While a huge amount of Roblox’s content is accessible without charge, the platform employs Robux as an in-game currency to facilitate microtransactions. Unsurprisingly, this particular aspect has drawn criticism for promoting consumerism among children.
There have been instances where children have unknowingly spent incredible amounts of money in the game, resulting in unexplained charges on credit card statements. Furthermore, Roblox has been accused of exploiting young game developers with promises of big bucks, only to leave them with mere pennies.
Nevertheless, it seems like Ryan has finally warmed up to the idea of having Roblox on Sony’s consoles. Roblox isn’t just bringing its game to new platforms; it’s also introducing some cool new features. There’s Roblox Connect, basically a video chat that uses your Roblox avatar. So, if you’ve ever wanted to video call someone as your Roblox character, here’s your chance.
For the creators out there, Roblox is also launching an AI companion called Assistant to help with game development. Think of it as your personal Roblox assistant, but a much better one since it will never have to ask for a day off.
According to Roblox’s CEO, Dave Baszucki, the platform currently boasts a whopping 65.5 million daily active users. It also has 15 million different “experiences” as recently as last year.
Back in July, Roblox’s open beta version on Meta Platforms’ VR headsets, the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro, saw over a million downloads in just five days.
With its PlayStation debut, we can expect Roblox to reach even greater heights. Unfortunately, Switch players will have to keep their fingers crossed as the developer has no plans to bring it to the Nintendo platform any time soon.
Roblox is coming to Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro later this month.
