Roblox will allow devs to release games as standalone apps on other stores

Bryant Francis,Senior Editor,GameDeveloper.com

September 15, 2026

schedule3 Min ReadImage via Roblox Corporation

Roblox developer Roblox Corporation is rolling out a plan to let developers ship their games on external platforms, allowing the makers of titles like Steal an Egg, Scream and Run, and Welcome to Bloxburg to consider publishing on Steam, the App Store, Google Play as standalone titles.

This was one of several announcements that came out of last weekend's Roblox Developers Conference, an annual gathering of Roblox creators and game-makers to share knowledge and learn about major updates to the massively popular user-generated content platform.

Developers who ship their games on their platforms will likely have questions concerning revenue share, as Roblox currently claims anywhere from 10 to 70 percent of fees on different in-game transactions. A Roblox spokesperson told Game Developer that the first set of creators selected to ship their games on other platforms will "benefit from the same revenue-share economics that the Roblox app offers, including a higher DevEx rate for 18+ age-verified users in the US."

Roblox's platform fees have been one of many policies that the company has faced scrutiny over in recent years (though it's concerns over its child safety policies that have drawn the eye of the US Senate and several state attorneys general). In the last few years, the company has iterated on its monetization policies, adjusting its fees and introducing new monetization opportunities.

Roblox's DevEx program is the process it uses for converting earned Robux (its in-app purchasing currency) into real currency. As of this writing, the general DevEx rate is $0.0038 per 1 Robux.

Roblox developers will soon have new game development tools

Developers looking to break free of the Roblox ecosystem will soon have a suite of new tools to do so, and potentially new audiences to target. Roblox Corporation announced that it's adding support for browser-based play and offline modes. The former will allow players to access Roblox via Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and other browsers. The latter will allow them to play single-player games without connecting to the Roblox servers.

Developers will soon also have access to new engine capabilities that can support 2D games with "a new orthographic camera, animated image containers, and direct sprite-sheet import." The public alpha for its genAI development tab called "Build" will be expanding to new regions, and it will be accompanied by a prompt-to-scene generator between Build and Studio. The company is also promising to introduce new capabilities for non-playable characters (NPCs).

It's also adding a number of new financial offerings for developers monetizing on Roblox, such as "Roblox Wallet" which lets creators "earn directly in real currency," among other features. Additionally, a new "Roblox Card" will let creators spend cash located on Roblox Wallet wherever the card is accepted.

One final interesting announcement is a new adjustment to Roblox's discovery ranking system, which now "optimizes for both younger players, who engage best with shorter-form games, and older players, who return to deeper games over time." Roblox Corporation chief financial officer Naveen K. Chopra previously reported that its second-quarter financial results were marred by what it called "a greater-than-expected shift of engagement from high monetizing 2025 vintage viral games to a combination of new and evergreen experiences with lower hourly monetization."

"This underlying mix shift was compounded by changes in our recommendation algorithm, which optimizes for long-term retention and is, therefore, providing more impressions for highly retentive games at the expense of near-term monetization."

It'll be worth watching how this weekend's announcements play into this dynamic in the months ahead.

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About the Author

Bryant Francis

Senior Editor, GameDeveloper.com

Bryant Francis is a writer, journalist, and narrative designer based in Boston, MA. He currently writes for Game Developer, a leading B2B publication for the video game industry. His credits include Proxy Studios' 4X strategy game Zephon, Iron Anchor Studios' Down With The Ship, and Amplitude Studio's 2017 game Endless Space 2.

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