The post is a the latest iteration of the Xbox Excellence Awards, which was created last year to celebrate how players engaged with various releases on Xbox. The Store Rating category lists 2025 games with the best ratings on the Microsoft Store, with an added requirement of the title having at least 500 ratings. Player Engagements is about the average number of hours spent on a game by each player within the first six weeks of a game’s release. Daily Active Users celebrates titles, expansions or updates with the highest single-day active users throughout the year. And finally Units Sold is fairly self-explanatory.

Going down the lists, you’ll find many of the biggest releases of the year, from ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, as well as award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Indie titles have also been well-represented, with games like Crime Scene Cleaner and Satisfactory making it into the lists. There also doesn’t seem to have been a singular genre to dominate the lists, since everything from sports games like EA Sports Madden NFL 26, to fantasy adventure life sims like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and even fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are well represented.

Curiously, none of the games was present in all four of the categories. At most, we got to see titles like Borderlands 4 being able to make it on to three of them: Player Engagement, Daily Active Users and Units Sold. Even ARC Raiders, which has seen quite a bit of success, is only on the Units Sold and Daily Active Users lists.

Microsoft has also emphasized that the lists represent a diverse collection of games developed by studios of varying sizes. All in all, it represents 48 unique developers based out of 13 countries, with 24 publishers having had a hand in their release. 19 of the games were self-published. “Taken as a whole, it’s an encapsulation of development on Xbox – we want gaming to reach you wherever you are, and for the teams making those games to find you from wherever they are,” wrote the company.

Full list of games:

Store Rating:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Crime Scene Cleaner
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dreamcore
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Lies of P: Overture
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• Little Nightmares III
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Minami Lane
• Mullet MadJack
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 4
• Satisfactory
• Silent Hill 2
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Player Engagement:

• Borderlands 4
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Farm Together 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
• Helldivers 2
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• NHL 26
• Rust
• Satisfactory
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Daily Active Users:

• Arc Raiders
• Avowed
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grounded 2
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals
• Minecraft
• NBA 2K26
• Rematch
• Roblox
• Rocket League
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units Sold:

• Arc Raiders
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Helldivers 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• PGA Tour 2K25
• Ready or Not
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• WWE 2K25

On Xbox? Fortnite, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto 5, Roblox and Minecraft. What’s even crazier is that these are the same as 2024’s most-played titles on both platforms, though Call of Duty on Xbox fell from first to second place year-over-year.

However, despite critics and fans dragging last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 for its horrendous campaign, and Battlefield 6 emerging as the best-selling premium title, the brand still has some pull. Of course, there’s also the free-to-play component, Call of Duty: Warzone, which remains a significant presence. The same goes for Grand Theft Auto Online, although even standalone, it isn’t free.

Then again, Grand Theft Auto 5 has shipped over 220 million units and is available on three different console generations, so its popularity seems a given. Which only makes you wonder just how much more successful Grand Theft Auto 6 will be, even if it doesn’t ship with its own multiplayer mode at launch. It’s slated for launch on November 19th after two big delays.

“I think it’s a little Wild West right now,” said Piscatella. “We have more variability in launch pricing and strategies than we’ve ever had. We have a lot of titles trying to kind of nibble at the high end of that market, and we have many more that are launching at lower prices, and the size of the game and everything else [affects that] as well. But ultimately, publishers and developers are trying to find the sweet spot for their pricing strategy. And sometimes you think, ‘Okay, we go for a higher price. We may not get as many people, but we know that the ones we get will be very enthusiastic and dedicated.’ Or, ‘Maybe we need to come out at a lower price and cast a wider net.’”

Piscatella also notes that even high-quality AAA games still have to ultimately compete with titles from across the pricing spectrum, bringing up the insanely popular and free-to-play titles Fortnite and Roblox.

“I think everyone’s just trying to figure things out in a market environment where the biggest competitor to any new game isn’t the other new games launching in the release window like it used to be. It’s Fortnite and Roblox and trying to pull people out of those, because that’s the primary competition now, getting those 35% of active players on console that play Fortnite every week. How do you get them to not do that and instead go buy a different game?”

As for current market realities, Piscatella believes that we are drifting further and further away from games having a “standard” price point, regardless of whether it is $60, $70, or $80. How some games handle post-launch monetisation also plays into this, since multiplayer games especially tend to feature extra things players can spend money on, like battle passes and cosmetics. Ultimately, he thinks that “every game is going to be a little bit different” when it comes to publishers figuring out their pricing strategies.

“Really, it’s going to be different for every game,” he explained. “And you know, things like post-launch monetization strategies will come into play, even the release timing of the game could come into play, or the platforms it’s on. I just think there’s so many options available now. It used to be, this game is going to be $60 because every game is $60, that’s fine. That’s just not where we are anymore. Those days are long gone. So, yeah, I don’t think there is a standard or a sweet spot in general. I think every game is going to be a little bit different.”

While some games, like for example Mario Kart World, have been able to hit the $80 price tag without seeing a problem in sales, Piscatella notes that, owing to these games already having dedicated fan bases, “price sensitivity, particularly at launch, is very low, meaning that people want to play this game no matter what it costs.”

“So it’s kind of ticking that up a little bit. And I know a lot of people don’t like it, but people still buy these games at these high price points, so they’re going to keep getting made at high price points for the right game that can do that. The market is what it is, and you can always drop the price of the game, but you can’t really raise it. So we’ll see what happens over time.”

Grand Theft Auto 6’s release on May 26, 2026 is also expected to have quite a profound effect on the market. While analysts believe that Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive might go for much higher price tags, Piscatella notes that all eyes are on the game at this point.

“There’s going to be billions of eyes looking at everything Grand Theft Auto does next year, no matter what it is. So let’s throw that on the pile.”

Topping the list for player engagement in the US on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S for the week ending on April 19 is Call of Duty, which has been dominating the charts since its release. This is followed by other big games, like Fortnite, Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto 5 (Remastered), Roblox, Marvel Rivals, NBA 2K25, and Madden NFL 25. The list is largely dominated by major live-service releases and sports titles, with a few premium titles here and there.

Interestingly, Xbox Series X/S player charts saw the rise of indie game Crime Scene Cleaner this week. South of Midnight and Assassin’s Creed Shadows also make their presence known in terms of player engagement. On the PlayStation side of things, RoboCop: Rogue City and Hogwarts Legacy are still on the charts despite having come out quite some time ago.

On PC, Marvel Rivals, Counter-Strike 2, R.E.P.O., and Schedule I are dominating the charts across Canada, the US, and Mexico. One of the bigger newcomers to the player engagement charts this week is the recent survival crafting game RuneScape Dragonwilds. Monster Hunter Wilds is also present on the list, albeit slipping down the ranks in the US and Canada.

The Steam player data indicates that, while live service games like Counter-Strike 2 and Marvel Rivals are still incredibly popular, there has also been an appetite for indie co-op games, with titles like Schedule I and R.E.P.O..

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle being missing from the lists on PS5 is quite interesting, since Piscatella reported earlier this week that the PS5 version of game was the best-selling releases for the same week in the US. It sold well enough to hit #1 on the weekly charts as well.

Data by Alinea Analytics has indicated that the PS5 version of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is currently on track to beat the PC and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game in terms of pace of sales. When compared to the game’s launch week on PC and Xbox, the PS5 version has been selling around 28 percent more copies in the same period of time.

Our own analysis of the PS5 release praised the game for being an outstanding port from the Xbox Series X/S and PC versions. The difference between the console versions has been negligent, with frame rates staying at a near-constant 60 FPS during gameplay. When compared to the PC version, however, the PS5 release falls behind in terms of both quality and performance.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review of the recent PS5 version.

Circana Player Engagement Tracker – Top 15 Titles by Total Weekly Active Users (Not Concurrent) – W/E Apr 19, 2025- RuneScape: Dragonwilds debuts in top 10 on both Steam US and CAN- Crime Scene Cleaner ranks 11th on XBX with Game Pass launch- Hogwarts Legacy jumps from 32nd on 13th with PS+ add

— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2025-04-28T15:31:29.519Z

B0TM0D corruption and user banning

B0TM0D is a familiar face within the Roblox community, but for many of the wrong reasons. Users on the forums like to criticize her for abusing her moderation powers in a corrupt fashion, banning users for invalid, inappropriate or completely made up reasons. There’s little proof of her actions unfortunately, but many forum users believe that B0TM0D is the one behind almost all wild swings of the banhammer.

ROBLOX in 2016 and beyond

We are creating a platform where, each month, over 15 million people come to play games, create, learn, and imagine with their friends. At peak times, there are over 500,000 concurrent users playing ROBLOX across all platforms, including mobile, computers, Xbox One, and now VR. On ROBLOX, users can share experiences together in family-friendly immersive 3D worlds where they can imagine what it’s like to work in a restaurant, be a fashion model, survive a natural disaster, and much more. All of these experiences are created by our community, where over 500,000 builders each month are continually providing an infinite variety of things for people to explore and do with their friends.

This year alone, we launched ROBLOX on the Xbox One, which continues to be the top free downloaded Xbox One game. We also launched on Oculus Rift with cross-platform capability. As we continue to add more and more platforms to our portfolio, the growth of ROBLOX continues to exceed all expectations. Everything that we do today and in the future will adhere to our vision of driving social immersion and co-experience, powered by user-generated content.

VR gaming scene in 2016

Virtual reality is a relatively new frontier for many traditional games businesses, but there’s an even bigger opportunity that’s still burgeoning. As virtual reality matures, a new category known as “social co-experience” will emerge and will ultimately surpass video games. Typically, platforms like Minecraft, ROBLOX, and Second Life have been associated with video games. However, what separates these platforms from conventional video games is that they are powered by user-generated content. Today’s AAA video games don’t always provide the variety or the social graph one might find on these platforms because big budget titles are limited by certain market factors.

In the past 10 years, we’ve learned what inspires our users and we’re constantly learning about their changing behaviors and patterns. We found that our developers are creating experiences that go beyond traditional games. They are creating experiences that mimic what kids will play in the real world, such as hide and seek or tag. We are also finding that our developers are also creating immersive role-playing experiences; they can build a world where users can imagine what it’s like to be a high school student or what it’s like to manage your own supermarket. Being able to co-experience and imagine with friends in an immersive social environment is what keeps people coming back to ROBLOX. The future of VR is social.

Indie gaming scene in 2016

Today’s technology allows anyone to create content and share it with the world. Platforms like ROBLOX give young independent developers the opportunity to monetize their creations through a shared economy and ultimately create successful endeavors from the comfort of their own home or anywhere around the world.

ROBLOX is fostering the growth of many budding game developers, some as young as 13. These developers are creating new and emergent games and experiences you wouldn’t necessarily find on other app stores. Many of them are also utilizing our Developer Exchange Program to take virtual currency they earned from their ROBLOX games and convert it into cash. To date, we have paid out more than $6 million to our developers, and they’re using these funds to pay for their college tuition or to advance their careers in game development.

This summer, we have also invited 14 ROBLOX community members to work in-house on their games together with our R&D teams as part of our Accelerator Program. We enjoy working hand-in-hand with our community to support their aspirations as game developers. We take great pride in watching how these talented developers find their passions as artists, creators, and coders.

Mobile gaming scene in 2016

The mobile gaming scene today is brimming with gimmicky, limited, and two-dimensional experiences that don’t always operate on the social graph. ROBLOX and other platforms like it are looking to spearhead the development of cross-platform, 3D mobile multiplayer gaming. Many of our user-generated mobile experiences can also be played cross-platform with other devices, including PC, tablets, and Oculus Rift.

AAA games development scene

AAA game studios produce enormous, beautiful games. But because of their huge budgets and long development cycles, they cannot deliver the volume or the infinite variety of experiences you can find on ROBLOX. As a result, AAA game studios, like blockbuster movie companies, tend to invest a lot of money to develop titles they know will be a hit, rather than cater to the niche interests of consumers. This is where ROBLOX and other user-generated content platforms like YouTube succeed. We appeal to the user who wants to create and play anything they imagine.

ROBLOX’s plan for the future

ROBLOX is focused on the future of play. Our vision is to empower the imagination of kids and teens so that they are encouraged to create and think outside of the box without boundaries or limits. As new platforms like VR emerge, you’re going to see ROBLOX become more and more immersive as environments continue to look increasingly real over time and co-experience play becomes more robust. It will be easier to find your friends and have a rewarding social experience in VR. In terms of content creation, we will continue to offer accessible, easy-to-use tools to create amazing VR experiences. Our developers will have the power to make their VR games more transformative and immersive than ever before.

Everything that we do today and in the future will adhere to our vision of driving social immersion and co-experience, powered by user-generated content. We want to satisfy a core human need that not only incorporates communication and storytelling, but doing things together.

In the next ten years, ROBLOX will continue to provide the foundation for immersive 3D gameplay, while simultaneously elevating the graphical fidelity to that of today’s CGI films. On the social spectrum, more and more users and their friends will immerse themselves in the world of ROBLOX using their virtual reality headsets. As our top developers begin forming their own game studios, ROBLOX will branch out into more and more entertainment mediums and platforms. All the way from connected smart toys to potential licensing deals based on the biggest ROBLOX properties, we are excited to forge the future of play.

Game-creation platform Roblox is coming to Xbox One on January 27. The platform lets users create their own games, levels, and worlds using the game’s block themed tools, and then share them with others. Roblox will come bundled with 15 new games made using its creation tools upon its Xbox One launch.

And the best part of it all? It will be absolutely free to download. So you can get down to designing your own creations for absolutely free, and playing 15 other, rather good ones, for no cost at all.

“Developing Roblox for the Xbox One was an entirely new and ambitious project,” Roblox software engineer Dan Healy said on the game’s blog. “It’s a game that is unlike anything on the Xbox One and pushes a lot of boundaries that no other titles have ventured into. We worked very closely with Microsoft to make a product that fits into the mission and vision of Roblox as an Imagination Platform.

“As such, Roblox on Xbox is a stronger product than we originally thought we would be able to develop.”

Existing players of Roblox will be able to link their accounts to Xbox; if you don’t have a Roblox account, your Xbox Live account will be used to automatically generate one.

“The architecture that Roblox on Xbox is built with is using Roblox‘s own code, meaning we can easily add new games to the library,” continued Healy. “Right now we have 15 games slated for release date, and we’re working closely with developers to add more in the weeks following release.

“It’s still our goal to have Roblox on Xbox operate in the same fashion as Roblox on all other platforms, where creators can publish their places and games and see them instantly appear on every device. This is just stage one, and we’ll see how Roblox on Xbox performs in 2016.”

If you’re still not sure on what to expect from the title, you can check out the trailer below.

ROBLOX will be heading to the Xbox One soon, marking the first time the massively multiplayer online sandbox-style building game has ventured outside of its PC roots. But why opt for the Xbox One in the first place, especially when there’s competition like Minecraft?

GamingBolt spoke to the development team about influenced the decision to bring ROBLOX to Xbox One, “The vision of ROBLOX is to enable creators to build a game once and push it to all screens simultaneously. Since we already have the major desktop and mobile ecosystems covered, console was the obvious next step.

“In terms of why Xbox specifically, we’ve had a long history with Microsoft on the technology side, so there was already a great relationship in place when we began discussions for bringing ROBLOX to Xbox.”

It wasn’t very difficult to bring ROBLOX to the Xbox One, especially when it came to incorporating the interface and layout to the console. “Our platform is architected from the ground up to move from OS to OS and screen to screen. Remember, we’ve already ported from PC to Mac to iOS and to Android. So Xbox is just another extension for us.”

The development team is happy to work with Microsoft though. “I will say that the Xbox team was awesome to work with. They supported us every step of the way. Our community creators made tweaks to their in-game GUIs to take advantage of the larger screen size of consoles, but they didn’t have to rewrite their core code. So they loved it.”

ROBLOX will be out soon for the Xbox One. What are your thoughts on it? Let us know in the comments. In the meantime read our full interview on ROBLOX here.

We spoke to Keith Lucas, Chief Product Officer of ROBLOX for his take on the game and its various elements, including the decision to bring Roblox to Xbox One and its use of cloud computing.

"The vision of ROBLOX is to enable creators to build a game once and push it to all screens simultaneously. Since we already have the major desktop and mobile ecosystems covered, console was the obvious next step."

To me, Roblox is a very interesting platform – it’s been around since 2004 and has catered to children/teens since then. What can you tell us about platform’s history and the long road of development it’s been on?

From the beginning, the vision of ROBLOX is to be a creative place with limitless possibilities for creators of all ages. We started out simple with a basic game engine, rudimentary hosting, and distribution on just the PC. But the vision of our founder, David Baszucki, was much much bigger. How can we connect people around the idea of playing and creating together? ROBLOX was very early in the user generated content movement; gaming happens to be the most complex ecosystem, so it takes longer for the technology and community to develop. ROBLOX technology is much more sophisticated and our community is in the millions. So we’ve come a long way.

Roblox has predominantly been around on PC and Mac OS X along with mobile platforms. What influenced the decision to bring the game to Xbox One?

The vision of ROBLOX is to enable creators to build a game once and push it to all screens simultaneously. Since we already have the major desktop and mobile ecosystems covered, console was the obvious next step. In terms of why Xbox specifically, we’ve had a long history with Microsoft on the technology side, so there was already a great relationship in place when we began discussions for bringing ROBLOX to Xbox.

Roblox allows users to socialize, create their own worlds using various shapes and colours and also created customized scenarios. There are a few similarities to Minecraft (at least in terms of building and socializing), which already has a strongly established presence on Xbox One. Is there any concern about directly competing with Minecraft for a share of its user base?

We don’t look at Minecraft as a competitor, but rather as a complement to ROBLOX. Millions of kids are growing up building 3D environments in Minecraft, and that’s awesome. ROBLOX is a game creation platform for those creators who want to take the next step and build a full game. We actually see a lot of kids graduating from Minecraft to ROBLOX on the creation side especially. Minecraft is a great place to start building. We think ROBLOX is the best place to create and share your first game. There’s room for both of us. Ultimately, the real winners are the users who have more options than ever to express themselves.

One major distinguishing feature for Roblox is its visual style especially with the addition of Smooth Terrain to the engine. Are there any other graphical features you’re interested in incorporating for the coming years?

In addition to Smooth Terrain, this year we launched particle effects, neon and dynamic lighting, some new materials, and a totally new physics engine. In the future, we want ROBLOX games to be on par with Pixar films. We are going to keep pushing the frontiers of technology and creativity so our creators can build anything they want.

"Our platform is architected from the ground up to move from OS to OS and screen to screen. Remember, we’ve already ported from PC to Mac to iOS and to Android. So Xbox is just another extension for us."

What changes or platform specific features will Roblox have on the Xbox One? For that matter, will future updates on the Xbox One be released at the same time as on other platforms?

The big difference about ROBLOX for Xbox is that we’re not launching the entire ROBLOX catalogue right off the bat. Initially, we’re starting off with about 25 of the best ROBLOX games that have been updated for the big screen and controller play. That will give the Xbox community the best initial introduction to community created gaming on ROBLOX. It’s also allowed us to work out the bugs with a smaller group of developers and not drive out whole developer community nuts. We’ll add additional ROBLOX games in 2016 once we get to know the live Xbox environment. The vision of ROBLOX is full UGC gaming everywhere, delivering the best content for each platform.

How difficult was it to incorporate Roblox’s interface and layout to the Xbox One, especially considering the game’s PC roots? Did you find any advantages to working on Xbox One versus other platforms?

Not difficult at all. Our platform is architected from the ground up to move from OS to OS and screen to screen. Remember, we’ve already ported from PC to Mac to iOS and to Android. So Xbox is just another extension for us. I will say that the Xbox team was awesome to work with. They supported us every step of the way. Our community creators made tweaks to their in-game GUIs to take advantage of the larger screen size of consoles, but they didn’t have to rewrite their core code. So they loved it.

Given Roblox’s use of real-money transactions, how do you feel this will translate on the Xbox One among its users, especially since some games have already incorporated the same?

In-game transactions and free to play models are increasingly popular across all platforms. There are already plenty of games on Xbox that include them. So users understand how it works by now. The whole point of our business model is to democratize game creation and give the next generation of creators a chance to reach an audience. By being free, we eliminate the biggest barrier for players to try  a different type of game that they might love.

What measures are being taken to protect Roblox’s user base – considering the age of its users – on Xbox Live?

In terms of content at launch, we have a limited set of games that we’ve hand curated. So this is an E10+ game. We won’t have text chat like we do on desktop because that doesn’t work well with a controller. There’s very little opportunity for a child to come across something inappropriate. We will be incorporating the Xbox voice chat, which has its own abuse reporting and moderation policies that are run by Microsoft. But parents can just turn that off for kids if they have any worries.

"Again, without speaking specifically about PS4, I’ll say that we didn’t launch iOS and Android at the same time either. Our company philosophy is all about learning and iterating."

Roblox is no stranger to cloud computing and Microsoft has been making significant in-roads into the same with its Azure servers. Will you be tying up with Microsoft in any way to bring cloud compute functionality to Roblox on Xbox One?

We have integrated cloud technologies from the beginning of ROBLOX, and have built a highly optimized hybrid of cloud services and physical data centers. One of the newest parts of our platform was recently launched on Azure, and it’s been performing terrifically. I expect us to expand our Azure presence in 2016. In addition,we have built a geographically distributed proprietary cloud for our game servers, called the ROBLOX Compute Cloud. It runs on Microsoft Windows servers. You could argue we’re already one of the largest cloud gaming companies out there.

Is there any chance of Roblox arriving on PS4 any time in the coming years? What are your thoughts on Sony’s platform at this point, especially considering its success?

I can’t speak specifically about PS4 other than to say it’s a great console. Generally, our company mission is to enable the world to play and create together. We want ROBLOX to be available to anyone, anywhere, on any screen or device.

Furthermore, why did you select only the Xbox one at this point and not the PS4?

Again, without speaking specifically about PS4, I’ll say that we didn’t launch iOS and Android at the same time either. Our company philosophy is all about learning and iterating. And unlike AAA games, we don’t depend on a holiday launch schedule to make or break us. We’re here for the long haul and can be more deliberate about expansion.

Is there anything you want to add before we let you go?

Just that there’s never been a better time to be in gaming. Most of the initial ROBLOX for Xbox games were created by high school and college students who taught themselves how to code. I think we have one 8th grader in there as well. They built these games in their bedrooms and dorm rooms for free on ROBLOX, and now those games are going to a premiere console. I hope that inspires people. There are no limits other than your creativity and hard work.

Rashid Sayed: To begin with, can you please tell us a bit about ROBLOX?

David Baszucki: ROBLOX is a gaming and game development platform, where people of all ages both play games and bring their own game ideas to life. We create the tools, and our community makes the games.

No other development platform offers such robust development and game-hosting technology coupled with an audience of millions of gamers — you could conceivably build a working multiplayer game, publish it to our cloud of game servers, and have thousands of people playing it across desktop and mobile within hours.

"We’re absolutely looking to expand ROBLOX to console platforms; which one(s) remains to be determined."

Rashid Sayed: You have over 60 million users who are developing games. What kind of tools does ROBLOX provide to them?

David Baszucki: We think of content creation on ROBLOX this way: there are roughly 4.5 million active users, logging 70 million hours of engagement time, per month. Of those 4.5 million monthly active users, we estimate that around 10% are actively contributing to our selection of games, models, gameplay scripts, audio effects, character assets, and more. That’s enough that, every day, new things are capturing gamers’ interest.

At the core of ROBLOX’s toolset is ROBLOX Studio, our game development environment. The application is complex, allowing aspiring creators to learn the basics of creating environments in 3D space, and experienced developers to build, code, and test rich games before publishing them to roblox.com. One of the coolest things about ROBLOX Studio is it comes bundled with full physics support and networking for multiplayer games, meaning developers can simply focus on making a great game.

Rashid Sayed: Are there any plans to integrate ROBLOX with the PS4 and Xbox One?

David Baszucki: We believe ROBLOX, as well as many other social games, can be experienced across platforms with great native controls. We’ve already brought ROBLOX players together across desktop, tablet, and phones, and see consoles as another opportunity – not only for us to satisfy existing demand among our community, but to be able to reach new players. We’re absolutely looking to expand ROBLOX to console platforms; which one(s) remains to be determined.

Rashid Sayed: Furthermore, what kind of potential challenges you may come across while doing so?

David Baszucki: With ROBLOX, players become developers and user-generated content is at the core. It’s exciting to envision this budding trend reaching consoles, but there are two key challenges. First, user-generated content is still a new concept within the console space. Second, console platforms are more restrictive about game updates (currently, the ROBLOX platform updates roughly once a week on desktop and mobile). We’re working with console vendors to solve these challenges and devise a unique approach to a great user-generated content experience.

Rashid Sayed: What can you tell us about Developer Exchange Program that you guys offer?

David Baszucki: The Developer Exchange is our way of rewarding the game developers who pour tens and even hundreds of hours into their creations.

We have many game monetization features, including in-game microtransactions and in-game advertising, that allow game developers to earn virtual currency (known as ROBUX) off their games. They also receive a small amount every time a player visits their game. Once they reach the 100,000-ROBUX threshold, they can exchange their virtual currency for real-world cash. Currently the maximum exchange is 8 million ROBUX for $20,000 — and we’ve seen three developers hit that mark so far.

"Microsoft’s purchase of Mojang signifies the very beginning of the user generated gaming trend. The democratization of content creation has already happened in video (both recorded and live) with platforms like YouTube and Twitch; we’re spearheading the same shift in the gaming space."

Rashid Sayed: What are your thoughts on user generated games in 2015? Do you see this market growing next year?

David Baszucki: Microsoft’s purchase of Mojang signifies the very beginning of the user generated gaming trend. The democratization of content creation has already happened in video (both recorded and live) with platforms like YouTube and Twitch; we’re spearheading the same shift in the gaming space. From our perspective, we see user generated games growing on to more platforms, while simultaneously becoming more physically realistic, able to facilitate more players per game, easier to play with friends, and easier for developers to share.

Rashid Sayed: With people doing some crazy things with Minecraft, why do you think players will turn to ROBLOX?

David Baszucki: ROBLOX is built from the ground up to allow creators complete freedom and power. You can not only create a unique and fantastic looking blocky world, but also take it to a new echelon by coding gameplay mechanics that make it your own. On top of that, you can publish your game direct from ROBLOX Studio and make it available to millions of players across multiple platforms. None of this requires you to purchase your own hosting plan, “mod” ROBLOX, or pay us anything. It’s what ROBLOX was made to do.

Rashid Sayed: ROBLOX mainly attracts kids and teenagers, are there any plans to make it appealing to hardcore gamers?

David Baszucki: The demographic of ROBLOX is evolving alongside our product. We’re doing things to our core engine to make ROBLOX games look and play better — for instance, we recently revamped our particle effects and added new mobile control/camera options — and giving players better systems to play with their friends. These upgrades add sophistication to ROBLOX, which naturally appeals to an even broader range audiences.

There are already a lot of popular games among the “hardcore” crowd. Just take a look at Phantom Forces or Apocalypse Rising. Still, we have teams dedicated to making it easier for developers to use ROBLOX Studio and realize their visions. As the tools keep getting better, developers will be able to make more advanced games, thereby attracting players who prefer deep experiences.

Rashid Sayed: Is there anything else you want to tell us before we let you go?

David Baszucki: For anyone looking to break into indie game development, ROBLOX is a great place to start. Like we’ve already mentioned, we take care of a lot of the behind-the-scenes technology, so developers can focus on the game and getting it in front of a huge audience of gamers. The opportunity is there