Roblox taps former Google Play VP for creator role • businessroundups.org

While Roblox is betting heavily on the future of user-generated content, the online gaming platform ubiquitous in the under-13 age group is expanding accordingly.

The company announced Tuesday that it has hired former Google Play VP Tian Lim to lead the product team of its maker group, the company’s internal division focused on user-created games and experiences.

Lim will focus on building out the company’s beginner-friendly ecosystem for creators, which includes many young users dipping their toes into game development for the first time, as well as professional game studios looking to turn the platform’s dedicated community into commercial success.

“I’m excited to connect with the passionate roblox community of developers and creators and help build an immersive, secure and civic metavers platform,” said Lim.

Before joining Roblox, Lim spent five years working on Google’s mobile app ecosystem, Google Play. He was the CTO of Hulu from 2014 to 2017, leading teams on both Xbox and PlayStation, including the team developing avatars for Xbox Live.

“I’ve seen a lot of different types of ecosystems now, from AAA to mobile,” Lim told businessroundups.org.

Lim will work with Nick Tornow, another former CTO who joined the makers of Roblox last year. Tornow serves as VP of engineering for the company’s maker group.

Roblox puts a huge emphasis on custom games and other virtual spaces created by its community. While traditional social networks discovered the power – and profitability – of user-created content more than a decade ago, the gaming world has been much slower to catch on.

User Generated Content or “UGC” is on the rise in the gaming world and creative ecosystems like Roblox, Minecraft and Epic’s Fortnite are well positioned to capitalize on the trend. Roblox – itself more of a platform than a game in any traditional sense – gives developers the basic digital tools to build whatever they can imagine.

In turn, game developers fill Roblox with “experiences,” the company’s name for the millions of portals it hosts that offer everything from chill hangout rooms to slasher horror games to Interactive art exhibitions of the Gucci brand.

While no one seems to agree on what the metaverse will look like or when it will get here, user-generated content generally plays a part in that conversation – and Roblox is no exception.

“I don’t think Roblox is trying to build the metaverse,” Lim said. “It’s building the platform and operating system for the metaverse.”