Roblox Corp. was accused in a lawsuit of ripping off users — mostly children — of its popular gaming platform by selling them in-game items and later deleting them without reimbursement.
Users of the virtual world platform purchase extra items for their characters in the company’s Avatar Shop. Those items include digital clothes and accessories. The objects are created by both Roblox and outside developers, with the company earning a 30% commission on third-party sales.
The company doesn’t immediately vet products put on sale but will later delete them citing violations of the game’s moderation policies, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in San Francisco federal court. The policies ban items deemed inappropriate, such as those that include pornographic images or reproductions of copyrighted logos.
The company’s decision to sell first and ‘moderate’ later has obvious monetary benefit for Roblox,” according to the lawsuit. “By the time defendant has deleted items from the Avatar Shop and users’ inventories, it has already taken its 30% commission from the sale.”
oblox declined to comment. According to the company’s prospectus, “content submitted by developers and creators, including images, models, meshes, and audio, goes through a multi-step review process before appearing on the platform.”
San Mateo, California-based Roblox had the third-highest grossing game of 2020 with revenue of $2.29 billion, according to a Nielsen Company report. The company planned an initial public offering last year, but delayed it until 2021 and then switched to a direct listing, which typically doesn’t result in any new capital being raised.
At least 70% of Roblox’s users are under 18, with more than half the users being children under 13, according to the lawsuit.
So for that reason Roblox is sadly shutting down at any time from June #28 to September #9