By Zaheer Kachwala
(Reuters) - Roblox will roll out paid videogames on its platform and allow developers to sell physical merchandise through their created games, the company said on Friday.
The video gaming company will add the ability to price certain games, or what it calls experiences, in real currency for desktops, it said at its developers conference. Roblox will support a higher revenue share for the creators of up to 70%, but it will vary with the price of the game.
Paid experiences will launch on personal computers later this year, with plans to expand to all other devices in the future, it said.
The move is a minor departure from Roblox's successful and longstanding business model of free-to-play games, with a focus on purchases of its in-game currency "Robux", which is used to buy items such as cosmetics and collectibles inside the company's digital worlds.