Roblox wants creators building games on its platform to be able to distribute them anywhere.
At Roblox Developer Conference 2026, Roblox’s annual conference for game makers in its ecosystem between Sept. 10-12 in San Jose, California, the company rolled out a number of new tools and features intended to widen the publishing opportunity for creators in the Roblox ecosystem, including the ability to publish Roblox games as both standalone apps and in web browsers. Roblox told PC Gamer that showing up across all platforms is its goal, including a select set of storefronts — although the company has not yet confirmed exactly which third-party storefronts will be part of the opportunity. Roblox covered GamesBeat’s travel and lodging costs to attend RDC 2026.
“Here, you build once, and you can distribute everywhere, right? And I think that’s a really important value prop for any triple-A studio and any experienced creator who maybe has a certain game that’s been running for a number of years,” said Roblox chief creator ecosystem officer Vlad Loktev during a briefing with members of the press at RDC 2026. “The fact that you make a single investment in a single platform, and then it’s just about growing your business, and how you can get real users to play your game.”
For game makers on Roblox, the concept of publishing games on outside platforms, including third-party storefronts, is an exciting prospect — but it also raises a number of questions. User acquisition, for example, is baked into the creator experience on Roblox but a veritable Wild West on other platforms like Steam. Creators publishing their Roblox games on other platforms would have to consider investing in marketing and user acquisition to help build their user bases on those platforms. When I raised this point during the press briefing, Loktev highlighted the marketing benefits of having access to Roblox’s analytics and user data for creators looking to expand into new publishing and distribution opportunities.
“The amount of learnings that you get on Roblox really quickly can then help you scale your UA wherever a lot more efficiently,” Loktev said, “and I think we’re seeing that feedback from quite a few studios that are working with us already.”
When asked about the opportunity to publish Roblox games on Steam, Loktev declined to share more details.
“I’m not going to comment on Steam in particular, but I think the vision is that you should be able to publish just about anywhere,” he said.
Roblox’s push to widen the publishing opportunities available to creators on its platform signals the company’s ongoing evolution from a game creation platform for youngsters into a full-fledged marketplace with opportunities for game developers of all types, including both individual creators and triple-A development studios. The ability to publish games via additional platforms and methods was among a slew of updates geared towards triple-A developers announced at RDC 2026, including improved high-fidelity graphics and a Wallet system that will allow creators to earn directly in U.S. dollars.
By enabling creators to develop high-fidelity games on Roblox and publish them elsewhere, the company is becoming more of a direct competitor to game engine companies like Unity and Epic Games. At Unreal Fest, Epic Games’ own developer conference in June, Epic chief executive officer Tim Sweeney directly called out Roblox as one of his company’s biggest competitors, stating that “one view of the future is that Roblox grows and eats gaming.” During the keynote presentation for Roblox Developers Conference on Sept. 12, the company did not name check any other game developers or toolmakers directly, but it clearly signaled its goal of inviting more triple-A and traditional game makers onto its platform.
“What many professional creators from triple-A studios are finding is that it’s really easy to iterate and test things on Roblox, and that is a huge part of the value prop,” Loktev said. “Oftentimes, in the more traditional software development process, you’re potentially building for a couple of years before you even see a single real user to see if your game is fun. Here, you can to to a prototype in a week, get real users, and see what part of the mechanic is fun.”