Roblox is expanding. Detailed in the company's most recent quarterly financial report are plans to expand Roblox's San Mateo, California headquarters with an additional 123,000 square feet of space. The expansion will cost roughly $90 million and is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2022.
Otherwise, the financial report is fairly boring. Numbers are going up, which means Roblox is growing and investors are happy. One presumes that with such robust growth year-to-year, Roblox thought now was as good a time as any to invest in itself with a big headquarters expansion.
That said, part of that growth is on the backs of the little guy. Roblox has recently been accused of exploiting young developers, promising them cash in exchange for making games on its platform. Journalist Quintin Smith's video explains that while developers can make Robux–Roblox's in-game currency–it's incredibly difficult to convert Robux's into usable cash by making games for Roblox.
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Part of it is just how saturated Roblox is with everyone trying to make games for the platform, but the other part is Roblox has a ridiculously high minimum withdrawal amount of 100,000 Robux, which will net the developer $1000.
"Roblox can't be allowed to continue operating the way they're operating, I don't think, but right now I think the ball's in the court of the games press, not Roblox,” said Quintin in a statement to Eurogamer. “What should happen next is journalists breaking out their notepads and flashlights and doing their own investigations of the platform."
Exploiting developers isn't the only controversy surrounding Roblox. Recently, the company has been forced to crack down on players that were recreating school shootings in-game. Roblox's content moderation is fairly quick to act when it's notified of a violation, but with so many players, a new one pops up almost as soon as the old one gets taken down.
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