Welcome to edition #26 of the report - 6 months in!

First up, we'll explore the major takeaways from the Roblox Developer Conference 2024, as the platform continues to expand its influence. Next, we'll cover the partnership between Infinite Reality (iR) and Google Cloud (btw is rollin’ at the moment). Finally, Burning Man might be finished, but we'll take a look at the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s art car project.

Contents: Edition #26

• The Roblox Developer Conference was big on growth, brands, and commerce

• Infinite Reality and Google Cloud announce strategic partnership

• BMW and the Bored Ape Yacht Club art car project

Let’s get into it…

The Roblox Developer Conference was big on growth, brands, and commerce

At the 10th annual Roblox Developers Conference (RDC) in San Jose last week, Roblox brought together thousands of developers, artists, brands, and influencers to discuss new features that will help the platform grow. Roblox highlights from the event were summed up effectively by founder and CEO, David Baszucki. 

Roblox currently has 79.5 million daily active users, with significant growth in regions like the U.S., Canada, and Asia. Notably, 58% of users are aged 13 or older, indicating that Roblox is becoming more popular with older age groups.

Roblox's growth strategy revolves around four core areas: expanding globally, making the platform appealing to everyone, offering a broad range of use cases, and improving the economy. 

In addition to expanding its user base, Roblox is focusing on scaling creation and access. They are investing in technology to support high-performance games and improve user experience through features like Harmony, a new system for optimising engine streaming. Safety and civility remain a priority, with new tools like Ban API and Alt Account detection helping developers maintain healthy communities.

Finally, and perhaps most notably, Roblox is working to help creators and brands to build sustainable businesses. They are introducing tools like Price Optimisation to help developers set the best prices for their content and are partnering with e-commerce platforms like Shopify to enable creators to sell physical merchandise within their experiences.

For brands, Roblox have partnered with Sawhorse Productions to create a Roblox experience specifically for brand and marketing execs to become more familiar with Roblox.

Sound helpful and appealing? You can jump into the experience now, right here.

Why you should care?

Because Roblox is trying to go to the moon… 🚀

Roblox is outlining its ambitious plans to grow its platform, with a goal to capture 10% of the global gaming content revenue and distribute it among its community of creators. 

They believe that achieving 10% of global gaming content revenue will require them to reach around 300 million daily active users, with most coming to the platform for gaming, while others will come for shopping, entertainment, learning, or communication. Key initiatives include helping creators connect with their communities, improving search and discovery, and introducing a Creator Affiliate Program.

This is part of their broader vision to reach 1 billion daily active users. The company is introducing new features like Party, which makes it easier for friends to play together.

They also aim to expand opportunities for creators to earn, such as selling physical merchandise through e-commerce integration and a higher developer revenue share for paid access experiences.

Enter Shopify

The partnership between Shopify and Roblox is a significant development, with implications for creators, brands, and consumers. 

The Shopify-Roblox partnership represents another step in blending virtual and physical commerce. It allows Shopify merchants to sell physical products directly within Roblox games, creating a seamless shopping experience for users without leaving the platform. 

For Shopify merchants and brands, this partnership opens up access to a massive new audience. For Roblox developers and creators, the integration creates new avenues to monetize their work. By allowing the sale of physical merchandise directly within their games, creators can diversify their income streams beyond virtual goods and in-game purchases. This could potentially make game development on Roblox more financially viable and attractive for creators.

Yet again, Roblox and their partners are setting the agenda of what many see as the future of retail – immersive, interactive shopping experiences in virtual environments. By bringing Shopify's ecommerce capabilities into Roblox, the companies are pioneering a new form of "immersive commerce" that could set the standard for how brands engage with consumers in digital spaces.

Infinite Reality and Google Cloud announce strategic partnership

Infinite Reality (iR) has entered into a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to enhance the creation and adoption of immersive digital experiences. The partnership combines iR's advanced immersive technology with Google Cloud's infrastructure and Gemini AI models, allowing brands to create high-quality spatial experiences that can be easily integrated into existing platforms without the need for specialized hardware.

The collaboration will enable brands to create AI-powered virtual worlds, provide enhanced customer service through AI ambassadors, and access detailed analytics on user engagement. These capabilities aim to transform industries by offering innovative solutions, such as 3D product visualization in e-commerce and digital twins of venues in sports and entertainment.

Infinite Reality will offer turnkey immersive solutions for Google Cloud customers, focusing on enhancing engagement and monetization. The company’s suite of products, such as the iR Engine and iR Studio, will empower brands to build and deploy immersive projects, including AI-powered virtual environments and customer service agents.

Why You Should Care

Infinite Reality has been on fire lately, and if you're unfamiliar with their business, this is a reminder to catch up.

Infinite Reality (iR) is an innovation company focused on developing digital media, e-commerce, and community experiences through AI, spatial computing, and immersive technologies. The Google Cloud announcement is the latest in a series of wins this summer.

In July 2024, iR secured a $350 million minority investment from a multi-family office focused on global technology, media, and real estate, valuing the company at $5.1 billion. That same month, iR acquired Landvault, a UK-based tech company specializing in immersive technology and digital geo-spatial twins, for $450 million in an all-stock transaction aimed at strengthening iR's position in creating immersive digital environments.

In recent years, iR has made several other acquisitions, including The Drone Racing League ($250 million), Ethereal Engine ($75 million), Action Face ($10 million), and Stakes ($8 million). The total transaction value for these acquisitions in 2024 reached $800 million.

iR seems to be doing the best job of converting metaverse hype into enterprise value.

The Bored Ape X BMW collab you didn’t know you needed

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Yuga Labs are collaborating with a group of BAYC community artists to create a unique 1:1 ApeCar design for a new 2025 BMW model. Five artists from the BAYC community—Maggie Mae, Pauser, Bejado, Popil, and Rida—have been selected to reimagine the car's exterior. The BAYC and Mutant Ape communities can vote on their favourite design, with one vote allowed per wallet.

Voting for the ApeCar design happened last week, and the winning artist's design will be brought to life, and the collaboration will be showcased at ApeFest Lisbon, October 18th.

Each artist brings their unique style and background to the project. Maggie Mae is known for her work inspired by fantasy and nature, while Pauser has a background in graffiti and UI design. Bejado is passionate about art and aesthetics, Popil is an XR artist and stop-motion animator, and Rida has experience in media and advertising.

Why should you care?

The BAYC and Mutant Ape communities invested a lot of resources into the initial boom in NFTs. And, while they may have gone quiet throughout the ‘crypto winter’, this community can still be major players in this space. 

The cultural impact of BAYC has diminished considerably. Planned movies have been shelved, and their anticipated ‘Metaverse’ is still to be released. Beyond this, many of the high-profile collaborations and ventures associated with BAYC have either closed or scaled back significantly.

Despite the decline, the collection maintains a dedicated community and some brand recognition.

Of course this collaboration highlights the intersection of art, technology, and design within the BAYC community; it also highlights the way in which a global brand like BMW can partner with the NFT community. The project offers a little no-cost value add to wallet holders to cast a vote, and drive some engagement. 

It’s subtle. Subtlety isn’t something we have come to appreciate from the web3 folks, but this is a nice project that is well aligned with the community.

In other news this week…

A quick round-up of other stories you should be across:

• The OneFootball fan rewards project covered previously, has now launched!

• NASCAR partners with BLAST for upcoming $3 million FNCS Global Championship & RLCS World Championship 2024 events at Dickies Arena

• Rezzil teases VR game Premier League Player

Working on anything cool, or have a press release you would like us to cover? Send it in for the chance for it to be covered in next week’s edition!