Roblox announced the launch of its new licensing platform which enables game creators to team up with intellectual property brands in a matter of hours through a self-serve platform.
The Roblox License Manager and Licenses catalog could take a lot of pain out of the process of getting approved for an IP license for a game — something that could take months to do otherwise.
I think it’s a pretty big deal, as fast-growing Roblox game devs can now team up with the likes of Netflix’s Stranger Things or Sega’s Like a Dragon brands as they’re on the ascent.
Greg Hartrell, senior director of product at Roblox, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the possibilities for the licenses are plentiful. He noted that different IP holders are offering different strategies. You can see that with some of the offerings. Sega already has an extremely popular Sonic the Hedgehog game on Roblox with more than a billion plays. If I were Sega, I wouldn’t want to mess with that success by licensing players to make a lot of other Sonic games. But Sega is offering its less popular but still compelling license for Like A Dragon to creators.
Some licensors want to put a lot of content out there, Hartrell said. Lionsgate, for instance, is offering four different movie franchises for games. And it so happens that these movies — which include action hits like Divergent — don’t have a lot of games based on them.
This innovative framework unlocks game and interactive media licensing at scale, enabling IP holders to self-serve through Roblox’s global creator community, and seamlessly integrate popular IP into games and experiences.
“We have a goal to have 10% of all gaming content revenue flowing through the Roblox ecosystem and benefiting our community,” said Manuel Bronstein, chief product officer at
Roblox, in a statement. “This will require having a wide range of experiences and giving creators the opportunity to partner with rights holders of the most recognizable IP. License Manager and Licenses catalog are an important part of making it easier for owners to manage and license their IP at scale on Roblox.”
Traditionally, licensing IP for game development has been a complex, time-consuming process, limiting opportunities to larger studios. License Manager streamlines this by enabling rights holders to register and create IP licenses, proactively scan experiences for IP usage, and offer licenses directly to creators in days or hours rather than months.
Rights holders can customize license terms, including IP usage, content maturity, and revenue share. They can take a more tailored, selective approach with revenue sharing, an open source-style approach where fans can take the reins, or simply scan for IP usage across experiences. Licenses can be offered to existing experiences or by listing them in the new Licenses catalog, where creators can browse and apply.
Introducing the first wave of IP partners
Roblox is launching the License Manager and Licenses catalog with four initial partners, offering seven initial IP titles for eligible creators, and two more coming soon:
● Netflix: Netflix is extending its popular series, starting with Stranger Things and Squid
Game, on Roblox.
● Lionsgate: Lionsgate is bringing iconic franchises like Twilight, Saw, Divergent, and
Now You See Me to Roblox.
● Sega: Sega is offering Like A Dragon (a.k.a. Yakuza) as a potential license for Roblox
creators.
● Kodansha: Coming soon, Japanese publisher Kodansha will be debuting Blue Lock and
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime in the Licenses catalog.
I think this strategy is great for small creators in this respect. We’ve seen multiple examples like Ultimate Football become viral hits on Roblox. The solo maker of the game sold the title at its peak for a multimillion-dollar payday to Voldex, a more established game company. And Voldex was able to get an NFL license for the game, which was renamed NFL Universe Football. That’s a solid success story for the game maker.
But under this licensing program, you could see a better outcome. That solo maker could have kept ownership of the game and then gotten an NFL license for it quickly. That license could have helped the game grow even more, and that solo game maker would have even more money to grow and become an institution on Roblox.
Hartrell didn’t comment on this directly. But he acknowledged that the licensing program was all about creating opportunities for both the creators and the brands to catch lightning in a bottle when something is going viral. He said that the young creator could have a light relationship with the brand thanks to the licensing program.
“Roblox offers a unique and dynamic platform for our fans to connect with beloved franchises in interactive and personal ways,” said Jenefer Brown, executive vice president and head of global products and experiences at Lionsgate, in a statement. “We’re excited to engage with the Roblox creator community and can’t wait to see the innovative experiences they bring to life with our IP.”
“The creativity of the Roblox community is truly inspiring, and we are thrilled to offer our popular manga, novels, and their anime adaptations to creators through a new form of licensing,” said Yoshinobu Noma, CEO of Kodansha Ltd., in a statement. “This partnership allows us to deepen our connection with fans and explore new storytelling avenues within immersive experiences, in line with our global purpose: Inspire Impossible Stories.”
The future of IP management on Roblox
This launch marks the beginning of an ongoing journey. Roblox plans to onboard more IP
holders throughout the year and aims to open the License Manager to all eligible IP holders in the coming months. The company is also exploring additional license types to further enhance flexibility for creators and IP holders.
The licensing program also changes the conversation between Roblox and the brands. When Squid Game debuted in 2021, it became the most popular Netflix show of all time with 265.2 million viewers. The rise was so sudden that Netflix didn’t have a game ready.
But on platforms like Roblox, there were lots of knockoffs. In 2021, there were 2,554 apps using the keyword “squid” in the stores in 2021, including 145 games, according to AppMagic. Netflix could have approached Roblox to take down the games with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requests. But Roblox could have responded that the games made the show more popular and helped spread it in a viral way. This was piracy, to be sure, but it helped make the brand become more widely enjoyed.
Now that Roblox has its own licensing program, it’s no accident that Netflix is one of the participants in the program, offering both Stranger Things and Squid Game. In this version of events, a bunch of creators could be licensed to make games based on those properties, and then the best game would win. Netflix would be able to cash in on the one that performed the best, as Hartrell said that the licensor fees are likely to be anywhere from 15% to 50% of revenue, depending on the deal. Everyone would make more money. And copycats could find a way to official permission.
“We already stop a lot of impersonation on the platform,” Hartrell said.
These IP companies have the right to set the guidelines for the games to adhere to, but Hartrell noted that Roblox is such a family-friendly platform that it’s a good match with the brand guidelines to start with. Indeed, hair-raising and risque games don’t survive that long on a platform like Roblox. And so most user-generated content will likely fit brand guidelines at the outset.
The timing is good because UGC is all the rage now among gamers. A decade ago, this probably wouldn’t have worked so well. But Roblox now has 97.8 million daily active users. AI has also arrived to help UGC makers create higher-quality games and art. It can help the UGC makers scale up their efforts better, Hartrell said.
The timing of this announcement shows that Roblox wants to court the triple-A game companies. Back in November, Roblox announced that it wanted to attract triple-A game companies to its platform by giving them a more generous revenue share. But the kind of games that those companies make with professional game developers aren’t necessarily going to succeed as the more authentic games on Roblox. Not many of those triple-A game companies showed up, but today’s announcement is a different way to court them.
It could actually hurt the brand if a game like, say Madden NFL, debuted on Roblox and failed. But with this licensing program, Roblox and the Electronic Arts could simply look at the fastest-rising football game and give a license to that game to give it a boost. Again, this kind of strategy would capture the most dollars for the rising game and the brand.
Overall, I think it’s brilliant. And I would only ask of the brands. What took you so long to show up at the party?