By Gavin Boyle
As Roblox streamlines brands’ ability to create content on the site, IPs like Sesame Street and Care Bears have been transformed into educational content for the platform’s younger users.
“This is the perfect bridge between a platform like Roblox that’s used to moving at such a quick pace and brands that are trying to identify the appropriate partners,” Todd Lichten, head of entertainment partnerships at Roblox, told Deadline when announcing the streamlined IP service.
“This new IP platform gives brands the ability to quickly scale the work that they’re doing on the platform by identifying many different potential developers,” he continued. “On the flip side, a lot of these devs may not have licensing teams and it gives them the opportunity to actually work with IP that they love, but they may not otherwise had access to.”
Because of this system, Sesame Street and Care Bears could capitalize on Roblox’s new “learn” hub, being among the first 20 games and experiences added to the service that teaches school-aged kids about subjects ranging from math and science to emotional and life skills.
Sometimes this is done through a traditional game like chess, and other times it is through games like Sesame Street’s “Mecha Builders,” which teaches problem solving and the basics of engineering, or Care Bears’ “Caring Quest,” which teaches social skills and kindness.
“Roblox’s recently launched Learning Hub makes it easy for users to discover dozens of educational experiences and games from top educational providers and developers,” Roblox explained. “From the hub, users can access experiences featuring a range of topics including computer science, art, math, life skills, and brain games. This new hub is all about learning through play with subject- and grade-level appropriate content.”
Related: Why Your Gamer Might See Netflix Content on Roblox
The hub is meant to supplement learning for the summer and keep kids sharp for when they return to school in the fall. Other experiences set to be added by the end of the summer include BBC Bitesize’s “Planet Planners,” which will teach kids about geography and how specific geographical features impact city planning.
This push into education comes after a massive overhaul in user safety to help protect younger gamers from bad actors. This overhaul includes better guidelines for determining who can contact players based on their age.
“Safety has always been foundational to everything we do at Roblox,” Roblox chief safety office Matt Kaufman said in a blog post. “Our goal is to lead the world in safety and civility for online gaming. We’ve spent nearly two decades building sophisticated safety systems, which supports our mission of connecting a billion people every day with optimism and civility.”
“We are dedicated to supporting experiences that are both deeply engaging and empowering for players of all ages, while continuously innovating how all users connect and interact,” he continued. “Today, we’re taking a significant step forward and announcing an expansion of our safety platform.”
While video games have often been viewed as an antithesis to learning, it is interesting to see how Roblox attempts to solve this problem.
Read Next: Can Video Games Teach Players About Real-World Economics?
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
- Content: +3Share:
- Content: +2