I’m hoping Roblox doesnt become the next clubhouse and take over more of dithering than it feels like it should. I get that its an interesting case study on the App Store and platform economics generally but lets keep our selves to 3 episodes at most shall we? Its times like this that make me wonder how long they keep up this only 15 minutes gimick when its so clear that they have well more than 15 minutes of stuff to say. But alas.
Now that Ive actually tried Roblox it is fascinating to think about it go to where it is today on the App Store. Its so clearly an App Store of its own with all those mini games that you can play so why is that ok and xBox Game pass is not? Its not even that Roblox makes all the game, anyone can make a Roblox game and thats actually what’s so interesting about it.
But now with Roblox going for its IPO its in the news a lot more and its going to get an influx of cash on top of that to continue to evolve its platform. Will Roblox be able to succeed in breakout apart apples stranglehold on the App Store in a way that Epic was never going to be able to?
What do we think Roblox would have to do to get themselves kicked out of the App Store? Could another company come out with a Roblox clone today and still get in? Those questions tell us a lot about what people dont like about Apple’s rules.
But as big as apple is they arent going to give into these pressures willingly. There would have to be legal pressure, which seems unlikely, or they just need to come up with a different business model for the App Store. They cant go back to just taking their commission on the apps selling price because most apps are already free with in-app purchase and that would just accelerate that.
So Apple is stick between a Roblock and a hard place and will be interesting to see what move they both make post IPO.