Roblox expressed its website, mobile app, Xbox app, and games were all affected. However, the firm posted on Twitter that it was aware some people were having issues and the team was "actively working on it."
Roblox players experienced issues for more than 11 hours, with cases reported. The platform is the world's biggest user-generated games site and is believed to have about 210 million monthly players.
At its height, the site welcomed more than 1,000 reports of issues, though some users say services are now returning.
However, data from tracking firms suggests Roblox has more than 210 million monthly players, most of whom are kids.
Players use core building elements to create and share online worlds that anyone can explore. It is free to play, relying on purchases in the currency known as Roblox.
Roblox permits players to buy, sell, and construct virtual items which can be used to illustrate their virtual character that acts as their avatar on the platform. For example, anyone can buy clothes, but only players with a Premium membership can trade them.
Only Roblox administrators can market accessories, gear, body parts, and packages under the authorized Roblox user account; virtual caps and accessories can also be printed by a select few users with experience working with Roblox Corporation. Several individuals design items as a full-time job, with the highest-earning creators earning over $100,000 a year off item sales. Items with a limited-edition level can only be exchanged between or sold by users with a Roblox Premium membership.
Roblox lets players buy various items and are accepted by purchase with real currency, from a regular stipend given to members with the premium membership, and from other players by producing and selling virtual content in Roblox. Before 2016, Roblox had another currency, Tix (short for "Tickets"), discontinued in April of that year.
Robux received through the sale of user-generated content can be swapped into real-world money through the website's Developer Exchange system. In addition, there is a sizable portion of scams relating to Robux, mainly revolving around automated messages facilitating scam websites, scam games designed to give out free Robux, and invalid Robux codes.
Roblox occasionally hosts real-life and virtual events. For example, they have hosted events such as BloxCon, which was a convention for ordinary players on the platform. In addition, Roblox works on annual Easter egg hunts and hosts a yearly event named the "Bloxy Awards," an awards ceremony that also serves as a fundraiser. The 2020 edition of the Bloxy Awards, maintained virtually on the platform, attracted 600,000 viewers.
Roblox Corporation yearly hosts the Roblox Developers Conference, a three-day invite-only affair in San Francisco where leading content creators on the site learn of forthcoming changes to the platform. The company has also hosted parallel events in London and Amsterdam.
Roblox occasionally confronts events to promote films, such as ones held to announce Wonder Woman 1984 and Aquaman. In 2020, Roblox hosted its first virtual show, which Rolling Stone likened to that of American rapper Travis Scott's virtual concert in Fortnite. American rapper Lil Nas X debuted his piece "Holiday" to an audience of Roblox players. In 2021, Swedish singer Zara Larsson accomplished songs at a virtual party to mark her new album Poster Girl (Summer Edition).
On September 17, 2021, a virtual show by the American band Twenty One Pilots took place. Further, in October 2021, Roblox partnered with Chipotle Mexican Grill to give $1 million of burritos away to the first 30,000 people every day as apart of Chipotle's Halloween Boorito promotion.
The beta version of it was devised by co-founders David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004 under the title DynaBlocks. Baszucki began experimenting with the first demos that year. In 2005, the company altered its name to Roblox, and it officially pitched on September 1, 2006. In March 2007, Roblox became appreciative of COPPA with the addition of secure chat. However, this change limited the communication capability of users below the age of 13 by restricting them to selecting predefined notes from a menu. In August, Roblox used server improvements and discharged a premium membership service called "Builders Club." This paid membership component was rebranded as Roblox Premium in September 2019.
In December 2011, Roblox held its first Hack Week, an annual event where Roblox developers operate on outside-the-box ideas for new products to present to the company. On December 11, 2012, an iOS rendition of Roblox was released, and on July 16, 2014, an Android rendition was released. Finally, on October 1, 2013, Roblox released its Developer Exchange program, permitting developers to trade Robux earned from their games into real-world money.
On May 31, 2015, a feature called 'Smooth Terrain' was added, improving the graphical fidelity of the terrain and adjusting the physics engine from a block-oriented style to a smoother and more realistic one. Finally, on November 20, Roblox was launched on Xbox One, with an initial sample of 15 games chosen by Roblox staff. New Roblox games for the Xbox One have to go via an approval process and are subject to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board standards.
In April 2016, it launched Roblox VR for Oculus Rift. At the time of release, more than ten million games were available in 3D. Around the same period, the safe chat feature was removed and replaced by a system based on an allow list with a set of acceptable words for users under 13 years old and a set of blocked words for other users. Finally, in June, the company launched a version compatible with Windows 10. While the game platform had had a presence on the PC since 2004, when its web version was created, this was the first time it was upgraded with a standalone launcher built for Windows.
Throughout 2017, Roblox engaged in several updates to its server technology, as the technology they were operating on until that point was out of date and led to frequent outages. Also, in 2017, Roblox closed its official forums. In November 2018, the ability for a player to play as a "guest" without an account. It had been progressively restricted over the previous two years and was removed entirely. Finally, in July 2020, Roblox announced the creation of "Party Place," which functions as an online hangout.
The feature was created using new technology during the 2020 Bloxy Awards and was designed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Roblox was granted permission to release in China on December 3, 2020. In 2021, it bought the chat platform Guilded. In October 2021, Roblox experienced its most extended downtime, with services being unavailable for three days.