Wednesday, 10 March marked the date of the video game platform Roblox debut on the stock market, which reached an overall valuation of 45.2 billion dollars, effectively outclassing older competitors such as EA (Electronic Arts) and Take-Two. It has been such a resounding success that it brought other important figures of the gaming sector to compliment the mind behind Roblox. Epic Games founder, Tim Sweeney, commented in a post on Twitter saying: “A career arc from lawn mowing to game company CEO Is something that Dave Baszucki and I have in common. Congrats to Roblox on a fantastic IPO!”.
David Baszucki, who in recent days has seen his assets soar to 4.2 billion dollars (with an increase of 1.4 billion), had founded the video game platform in 2004 with Erik Cassel. Their aim was to create a virtual world where people could connect and give vent to their imagination, creating in turn their own virtual experiences and realities and transforming themselves into real developers. In this way, Roblox founders, gave space to new video games creators with whom they then shared the sales, taking a 30 percent commission. The idea had an extremely positive response. It is estimated that, last year alone, more than 1250 developers earned $10,000 each by selling their games and as many as 300 developers grossed sums exceeding $100,000. In total, the platform earned its external collaborators $328.6 million, a figure 200 times higher than that recorded in 2019.
The founder and CEO of Roblox was thus able to carry out a project started a long time ago with his then partner Cassel, who unfortunately left us in 2013 due to a serious illness. Baszucki has decided to share the achievement with his followers, announcing the landing of his platform on Wall Street through his Twitter account. These were his words: “In 2004, we founded Roblox with the vision of connecting the world. Today, as we celebrate our direct listing on the NYSE, we recognize the potential ahead of us: to build the platform where billions of people come together to learn, work, and play”.
The platform based in San Mateo, California is currently used by over 30 million users around the world every day, who can access it from personal computers, consoles and other mobile devices.
According to projections, Roblox should reach a turnover of 320-335 million dollars in the first quarter of 2021, and then increase further in the early summer with figures reaching around 350-372 million. Roblox Chief Financial Officer, Michael Guthrie, said about the growth prospects: “We also expect that by expanding further into older age demographics and growing internationally in regions like western Europe and East Asia, we will have significant opportunities to grow our business at higher rates again starting in 2022 and beyond”.
