‘Roblox’ Makes A Metaverse Move ‘Fortnite’ Should Worry About

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As far as I’m concerned, we can forget about Facebook’s VR ambitions, the blockchain and NFTs. The only two significant competitors in the Metaverse space right now are Roblox and Fortnite, two sprawling virtual worlds where millions of players hang out with each other, playing games, attending concerts or just chilling.

Though the two aren’t direct rivals in the traditional sense, Fortnite is heavily focused on its Epic-crafted battle royale mode while Roblox is more of a massively diverse collection of fan-made games, they are competitors in the Metaverse. And that’s why a recent move by Roblox is so interesting.

Roblox has just unveiled what will be an overhaul to its current avatar system, the digital being that represents your player character. The game has long had blocky, iconic but relatively unattractive avatars, but that’s about to change. They are investing in a much, much more diverse, more customizable slate of avatars that allow a greater range of freedom for players.

As seen here, this can range from current Roblox box-shapes to avatars that look more like EA’s sims. There are also flat-out monster designs, meaning you can be non-human as well.

Roblox

Roblox

Why is this different from Fortnite, and why should it potentially worry them? Fortnite is married to the idea of premade avatars. It either gets licensed IPs so you can run around games as Superman or Wolverine or Lara Croft or John Wick, or it designs its own original characters.

But what it does not do, is allow any degree of customization short of a very, very scarce handful of specific skins. But Epic does not allow you to “customize” your look past altering your pickaxe or back bling. You cannot, for instance, design a Fortnite character to look like you.

Fortnite

Epic

Presumably the idea here is that if Epic allows more customization, you might design the one avatar you’re in love with, and stop buying others. Roblox is taking the opposite position and letting you customize indefinitely, and will sell individual items like hats or jackets for your characters (and give royalties to creators who make those items).

If we’re talking Metaverse, it seems inevitable that a platform is going to have to allow total customization like Roblox is doing at some point. Fortnite’s premades may be good, but every vision of sci-fi Metaverse spaces include the ability to craft every element of who you are in the digital world. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a place for premade skins, especially the licensed IPs that people will no doubt want to be. But Roblox is on the right track here with a hugely diverse customization tool that Epic is not even close to matching. We’ll see if they take any lessons from this going forward.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and its audiobook, and The Earthborn Trilogy, also on audiobook.