Roblox, the gaming company, plans to launch its immersive digital worlds platform on Sony’s PlayStation devices in October, providing access to hundreds of millions of users on one of the world’s most popular gaming platforms.
Roblox also intends to make its application fully available on Meta’s Quest mixed-reality headsets later this month, following a trial release in July, which saw the app downloaded over a million times within five days.
Manuel Bronstein, Chief Product Officer at Roblox, stated that this expansion is part of a strategy to make Roblox available “wherever users try to use it,” including mobile devices, desktops, and augmented and virtual reality devices.
He even questioned whether Roblox should be available on every TV screen.
Roblox, with 66 million daily users, primarily teenagers, is one of the most popular gaming services for children and is closely watched by tech giants like Meta as they aim to attract the next generation of users.
Meta’s similar “Metaverse” service, Horizon, which allows users to gather in virtual spaces with 3D avatars, has struggled to gain similar momentum, according to a Wall Street Journal report, the service had fewer than 200,000 monthly users as of last year.
Currently, Horizon is only available on virtual reality devices. However, Meta announced in February that it plans to launch web and mobile versions soon, although no specific date was given.
Roblox also announced plans to launch a universal chatbot, powered by generative artificial intelligence, by the end of the year.
Developers will be able to use the chatbot, which closely resembles a tool demonstrated by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg last year, to create virtual objects and scenes on-demand without the need for coding.
Meta’s technology, yet to be released, uses voice commands instead of written conversations.
Roblox also unveiled another new tool, set to launch later this year, that will enable mobile or desktop users to have voice conversations with their 3D avatars in Roblox, using the device’s camera to capture the participant’s facial expressions and body movements, which are then displayed on the avatar.