Roblox Earnings Context

Last week on The Game Souk, we discussed Roblox. Not to rehash the earnings report from two weeks ago, but with the stock holding firm at $36 per share, well below its IPO price of $45 per share, we thought it would be worth reviewing the context. Roblox became the poster child for child safety challenges, even though there are widespread reports of all major social media platforms facing the same challenges, often much worse in terms of both % of users and absolute numbers. Roblox responded with a laudable vengeance to age-verify all of their players, even if the communication did not hit the right tone for various reasons. Their ‘if you don’t age verify, then we will take away your Roblox’ is analogous to my own effectiveness of threatening my 14-year-old with, ‘if you don’t clean your room, then you will lose your phone.’ She knows that it is only a matter of time in a game of Uncle as I, too, get a lot of value from her having a phone. So far, 57% of global daily active users (DAUs) have completed an age check according to the earnings report, while roughly 30 million have left the platform (Roblox reported ~123m DAUs, down from ~150m DAUs a year ago). We did a deep dive on age verification technology used by Roblox and others, and concluded that the industry is in crisis and needs a new solution that does not require my daughter, me, or anyone to upload their face or any other private details to someone else’s server, as technologies like Persona do. As an alternative, “ZK-proofs” allow consumer platforms to be pinged with questions like, ‘is this person over 18?’ A yes/no satisfies age verification and removes the need to upload one’s identity to some unknown server in an unknown location. (its another discussion but see Prevent Double Human)

Roblox’s Carrot-And-Stick Approach

In addition to their efforts to verify players’ ages, it now seems that Roblox is in a carrot-and-stick process to push through a new vision for the company and for the players themselves. It seems that Roblox will tilt the algorithm and payments to AA and AAA game content, or the old gaming world that many of us know, and which is mostly foreign to the native Roblox community. In a similar vein, on March 24, they removed the ability to use the original Classic Faces, an iconic symbol of generational zeitgeist, built by the Roblox players. In fact, the company wiped all classic faces, collected by players over 17 years, from players’ inventories and declared that standardizing on 3D Dynamic Heads allows for authentic self-expression, performance parity, and support for new features like avatar makeup and real-time animation. This was met with a community cacophony of ‘players don’t want those things.’ It is like Roblox is screaming, “GROW UP!” to its players, a confusing message to the ~150 million daily actives spending two and a half hours a day on the platform - they were already aging up into more Roblox-like games. Here is the top Roblox streamer, KreekCraft, explaining the inexplicable move from Roblox on Classic Faces-

Roblox is effectively the fast-fashion, or H&M, of gaming. It is as if the management has announced that the community of players will be shopping on Madison Avenue, whether they like it or not.

On the Game Souk, we rolled out a two-by-two matrix for Roblox - the x-axis is Not Happy, Happy, and the y-axis is Investors, Community. Over the last couple of decades, as long as at least one of those groups is in the Happy quadrant, things generally work, and the tension has been positive over time. We are entering new waters in which both are in Not Happy. In our view, the new vision fails to recognize the fact that traditional AAA developers are no more interested in building games on Roblox than they were before.

Meanwhile Other UGC Platforms are Sprouting

At the same time, Epic Games’ creator platform, Fortnite / UEFN, is just now catching momentum, and Fortnite is returning to mobile with Disney and others in tow as IP partners. The Unreal Engine, the Epic Games Store, and certainly Tim Sweeney, who just beat the monopolists, making more money for all game developers, could make Epic a natural home for AA and AAA developers, especially the 33% of the industry that has been laid off in the last two years.

Roblox and Fortnite/UEFN are the two leading UGC platforms, both of which pay creators based on the engagement that they drive to the platform and on the digital items that they sell in-game. The goal is to attract a wide variety of content across all game genres. While these two dominate, other UGC platforms are popping up that seem to capitalize on this new behavior, but in a different way. While Roblox and Fortnite/UEFN aim for diversity and pay creators for the engagement they drive, it seems that other UGC platforms will encourage content that stays true to the original game.

A great example of this is Take-Two’s Grand Theft Auto - after pushing back on the idea of players creating their own content for years, in August 2023, they started to embrace the concept by acquiring Cfx.re, the team behind a popular roleplay and modding community. Since that time, there has been a steady UGC drumbeat heading into the launch of GTA6. The chatter is that players will be able to create and sell, further fueled this year when Rockstar Games launched the 'Cfx Marketplace,' where players can buy and sell their own content; all of which will be complementary to GTA.

Similarly, PUBG was in the news last week, announcing a more deliberate push into a creator-led UGC ecosystem around PUBG: Battlegrounds through PUBG: Playgrounds. Playgrounds, which will allow creators to build and publish their own game modes, has partnered with CurseForge, gaining access to a network of roughly 180,000 UGC creators, while also giving select creators early access to seed quality content at launch. Krafton is running a $95,000 global creator contest across Combat, Survival, and Creative categories. Beyond cash rewards, winning experiences can be featured and officially released in PUBG, giving creators meaningful distribution and visibility to PUBG’s existing player base.

Roblox & UEFN: A Tale of Two Models for Integrating Live IP

The bbno$ concert in Roblox’s hot game +1 Speed Keyboard Escape on July 25th drew 8.6 million CCUs (concurrent users). The Bruno Mars eight-minute concert in Steal A Brainrot in January of this year drew 12.8 million. These were instructive. Given AD8 Pop’s goal of integrating IP and brands into Roblox and Fortnite, we have received significant inbound interest from other IP holders who wonder if Roblox could be a strong and engaged audience and whether it is one that they might monetize.

On the first point, yes, as of this most recent quarterly report, Roblox still dominates with ~123 million DAUs, spending 2.6 hours a day on the platform. While these concert attendance numbers are strong, the games would have seen those attendance levels anyway as people were already playing the game. Compare this to the concerts in Fortnite like Snoop + Ice Spice + Eminem which attracted 14.6 million and even the first concert, Marshmello, which drew 10.7 million online in 2019. People joined these events specifically to see the artists, while in Roblox, the artists are joining a party that is already happening in a game that is already seeing high CCUs. Logically, the unspoken nuance is that while Roblox is undoubtedly still a large, engaged audience, developers aren’t as willing to pay outside talent. We hear many say, ‘if xyz celebrity wants to join, we wont charge them.’ The unspoken bit - ‘we wont pay them.’ The follow up question from many celebrities is, ‘what if I sell items at my concert?’ Yes, it is possible, but items that sell for dollars in Fortnite/UEFN sell for pennies on Roblox. Of course, every IP requires a different optimal formula. Regardless, this platform difference is food for thought.

Watch the Full Discussion about Roblox on The Game Souk #58 (August 6, 2026)

Please join us on The Game Souk, our weekly live discussion on gaming, tech, finance, and culture, streaming LIVE every Thursday at 9 am ET on X, @daltonan. Episode 57 is now live across YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and X.

Thanks from our team/extended Team: Keshav Holani, Xandros Capus, Eliza Jäppinen, Michael Edwards, James Purell, and Miles Dorsey

Disclaimer

This material is prepared by SIGNUM GROWTH (“SIGNUM”) and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of the date on the front page, and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by SIGNUM to be reliable, are not necessarily all inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by SIGNUM, its officers, employees or agents.

*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. This material may contain ‘forward-looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any asset classes or any investment strategy nor shall any securities be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. Private placement securities are speculative, illiquid, and carry a high degree of risk, including the loss of the entire investment. There are also key specific risks associated with any particular private securities offering.

Epic’s State of Unreal 2026 is a Map for Gaming

Below are notable quotes from CEO Tim Sweeney’s IGN interview during Unreal Fest. Many of his quotes are reminiscent of behavior and success that already exists on Roblox. Tim and the team at Epic are building Fortnite/UEFN with the idea that UGC behavior is the future of entertainment and gaming. While Epic is leaning into the same player behavior, we have noted that they are doing it in a down-the-middle-of-the-fairway way, with a goal of protecting brands, IP and most importantly, players.

• On in-game monetization (UGC) - “The biggest opportunity is for games to connect their economies.”

• On in-game monetization (UGC) - “This trend of the gaming economy shifting – some people like it and some don’t – is going more and more towards buying things in games rather than buying games.”

• On social (UGC) - “It shouldn’t be understated how badly broken the social ecosystem is in gaming as a whole…you’ve got to build games that run everywhere and be able to have social connections that work everywhere.”

• On interoperability (UGC) - “I think Xbox, Epic, Roblox, Riot, Tencent, EA, all the different studios within Microsoft – we’d all be better off if we connected our stuff. We’d all be making more money and our gamers would be happier.”

• On AI - “In the hands of awesome professional creators and serious indies building a game, these tools are just an accelerant.”

We have long believed in the thesis that “Fortnite is not a game. It is a playground,” and Epic Games demonstrated that at Unreal Fest Chicago. Unreal Engine is the high-fidelity creation toolset, while UEFN is the live testing ground. Fortnite is the distribution and social layer, while Epic Games Store and its Web Shops are the commerce rail. Disney has entered the scene as a key IP accelerator.

In terms of new products, there were new AI tools and a teaser overview of what Unreal Engine will become. The next version of Unreal Engine, UE6, merges Unreal Engine 5 and Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) into one unified product to serve the entire ecosystem of games. UEFN is the live laboratory where Epic is battle-testing the next generation of game development. Lore is a new tool that allows teams to work together on games, effectively providing a collaboration backbone that allows orchestration of many developers. Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the new productivity layer, as it will bring AI models directly into Unreal.

State of Unreal drew more than 2,000 developers in person and hundreds of thousands online, but the real headline was not the crowd size, but that Epic is collapsing the distance between making, operating, distributing, and monetizing a game, while creating a community. This gives players the ability to jump between games and socialize with friends. Signum Growth | AD8 thesis - UGC is the new mall, with engagement behavior that is more akin to social media.

Our Thesis

Epic Games will become the infrastructure layer for the next era of games and interactive entertainment. This thesis is becoming increasingly tangible as Epic builds out each piece:

• The UEFN developers’ ability to monetize assets is happening, and genres are expanding. More than 3,000 islands now earn more from in-island transactions than engagement payouts, and more than 75% of in-island transaction revenue now comes from genres outside Battle Royale and shooters.

• UEFN has crossed the $1 billion payout threshold in 3 years since launch. Roblox crossed the $1 billion mark ~8 years after enabling creator payouts.

• Creator-made Fortnite (UEFN) is no longer a sideshow. Creator-made games captured 47% of all Fortnite player hours in May, up from 38% a year ago, while mobile playtime in developer-made games has more than doubled over the past year. Epic has also cut development iteration times by an average of 40%.

• Disney progresses from licensing IP to Fortnite to making Disney IP programmable by creators. Star Wars and The Simpsons are not just skins, they are the beginning of officially-toolled creator ecosystems. Nearly 8 million players jumped into custom Star Wars islands in the first 72 hours after launch, and the prior Fortnite | Simpsons season reached more than 80 million players and over 750 million hours played.

• Unreal Engine 6 will combine UE5 and UEFN. This moves the gameplay programming model toward Verse, enabling content/code/economies to become portable across ecosystems. It also integrates AI workflows through MCP, supporting Claude, Gemini, and other models.

• Lore and MCP (AI) are the productivity backbone. Lore is Epic’s new open-source version control system for projects with large binary assets, while MCP brings AI models directly into Unreal workflows.

• Epic Games Store is becoming more connected to Fortnite identity and commerce. Epic Games Store now has more than 6,000 games from over 3,000 partners, while third-party PC game spending grew 57% in 2025 to an all-time record of $400 million.

Together, these pieces are beginning to look like an operating system for games, and more broadly, entertainment.

UEFN: The Billion-Dollar Fortnite Creator Economy

In addition to developers’ early success in monetizing in-island asset sales, the most important number from the UEFN section was that Epic has now paid more than $1 billion to Fortnite developers since the launch of UEFN.

Epic highlighted several important UEFN updates:

• More than 3,000 islands now earn more from in-island transactions than from engagement payouts. Epic, by allowing creators more paths to monetization, ultimately drives greater creativity, growth, and community loyalty as players and creators become directly invested in the experience.

• More than 75% of in-island transaction revenue now comes from genres outside Battle Royale and shooters. This is one of the clearest data points that Fortnite is expanding beyond its original shooter DNA. The old question was whether Fortnite creators could make “more Fortnite.” The new question is whether Fortnite can host tycoon, RPG, social, party, simulation, sports, horror, branded entertainment, and Disney-style worldbuilding businesses. Industry coverage of the presentation also reported that over 75% of in-game transactions come from games other than Battle Royale experiences.

• Community-made games captured 47% of all Fortnite player hours in May, up from 38% a year ago. This shows that Fortnite’s center of gravity is shifting from Epic-created game modes toward creator-made experiences.

• Fortnite has more than 75 million monthly active users. This gives the 47% number more weight; creator-made games are not taking share in a small sandbox; they are taking share on one of the largest live entertainment platforms in the world.

• Average iteration times are down 40%. Shorter iteration times allow UGC developers to update, rebalance, and respond to community feedback more quickly while maintaining engagement.

• Mobile playtime in developer-made games has more than doubled over the past year, helped by Fortnite’s return to Google Play and the iOS App Store worldwide and new UI/input controls. Epic announced expanded mobile capabilities for UEFN developers at Unreal Fest, making it easier to build and play native mobile games.

• Newly published islands are reaching 100 players and 10,000 impressions at nearly double the prior rate after Discover changes. Discovery drives engagement and visibility on Creator platforms. Through iteration, developers can expect to reach more players.

Engagement payouts were the first step because Epic needed to reward playtime and build supply. In-island transactions are the next step because creators need economic agency. Now, Fortnite islands can become live businesses with their own items, cosmetics, upgrades, quests, marketing, and community. The platform becomes a lot more like Roblox, but with added bonuses of Unreal tools, Fortnite’s brand, and Disney-grade IP.

Disney IP in the Hands of Many Creators

Disney invested $1.5 billion in Epic in 2024 as part of a plan to build a persistent games and entertainment universe connected to Fortnite, powered by Unreal Engine. Disney described opportunities for consumers to play, watch, shop, and engage with stories and characters from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar, and more.

Star Wars was the First Real Proof Point

Disney announced that in the first 72 hours after launch, nearly 8 million players jumped into custom Star Wars islands in Fortnite. The presentation also showed:

• Galactic Siege: 6.5 million plays in six days

• Escape Vader: 3.4 million plays in six days

• Droid Tycoon: #2 most-played game during launch week

Separately, Kevin Marciano, of Future Trash, gave a compelling presentation, noting that Star Wars: Droid Tycoon was the most played game in Fortnite, as ranked by number of hours played. Also, this past month, it peaked at 124,000 concurrent players, and had an average session length of over 100 minutes, which was the highest number of CCUs ever over a two-hour period.

Next Up on the List of Announcements: The Simpsons

Disney announced that they would bring another iconic storyline to the Fortnite IP Partner Program: The Simpsons. More than 80 million players spent over 750 million hours playing the Fortnite | Simpsons season last fall. Later this year, Fortnite developers will be able to create Simpsons games using an official toolkit built with Disney, 20th Century Studios, and Gracie Films, featuring iconic characters and locations from Springfield. Disney mobile games have 1.5 billion global installs, and nine Disney game franchises have each grossed more than $1 billion in sales. Epic is giving Disney a way to turn those IP libraries into persistent creator ecosystems rather than individual licensed games.

Unreal Engine: UE6 is the Beginning of a Combined Game Engine and Platform Model

UE4 made Unreal more accessible. UE5 solidified Unreal’s position as the highest fidelity. UE6 aims to make Unreal operationally native to live, persistent, creator-driven economies.

Epic described Unreal Engine 6 as “UE5 and UEFN coming together into a single, unified engine for the next generation of gaming.”

The UE6 roadmap has three major pillars:

1. Verse as the future gameplay programming model. Epic’s long-term idea is that developers should be able to write game code as if it is running on one machine, while the runtime handles distribution across many servers behind the scenes.

2. Portable content, code, and economies. Epic is pushing open standards so that assets, code, cosmetics, and eventually player value can move across games, engines, and ecosystems. Fortnite cosmetics are expected to be the first major proof point of this portability model, with Epic planning to make Fortnite outfits transferable to other games. For instance, some Rocket League cosmetics are already linked to in-game items in Fortnite.

3. AI-assisted creation through MCP. Epic is building the Model Context Protocol so developers can connect models like Claude, Gemini, and others directly into Unreal workflows. The important nuance is that Epic does not seem to lock developers into a single model. The approach is open: bring your preferred model, but let it understand the engine and the project.

UE6 is targeting Early Access at the “end of 2027(ish)” with a full release expected 12-18 months later.

Epic Games Store will Increasingly Integrate into the Fortnite Commerce Graph

Epic Games Store (EGS) now features more than 6,000 games from over 3,000 partners. In 2025, player spending on third-party PC games grew 57%, reaching an all-time record of $400 million.

Epic is rebuilding the launcher and storefront backend to ship new player-facing features faster. The company is connecting Epic Games Store with Fortnite, which means that when players buy specific partner content on Epic Games Store, they can receive cosmetics from that game’s IP to use in Fortnite. Epic said more than 30 collaborations are planned for 2026 and will continue into 2027. If a player buys a game on EGS and earns in-game value in Fortnite, Epic creates a small but meaningful bridge between game purchase, social display, and platform loyalty.

Conclusion

Unreal Fest Chicago 2026 backed our original thesis that started to form when watching the Marshmello concert in 2019 - this is the future of entertainment. Also, Fortnite is not a game but a playground for developers to create new games. We came into the week with one main question - are developers on UEFN taking advantage of the new ability to sell items in their maps? This is important because Roblox has shown the power of giving developers agency to create their own profitable businesses, as indie studios on the platform. While we had anecdotal evidence from our discussions with developers that it was working, we learned from Epic that more than 3,000 islands now earn more from in-island transactions than engagement payouts. Separately, watching Disney evolve from Star Wars to The Simpsons reassures us that “bedroom developers” will continue to have tools that were only previously available to studios like Activision and Electronic Arts. These are exciting times for UGC game developers building on platforms like UEFN and Roblox, and the momentum is building!

NEW post-Unreal Fest 2026 Signum Growth | AD8 mantra -Epic is Turning Fortnite Into the Operating System for Gaming

Disclaimer

This material is prepared by SIGNUM GROWTH and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of the date on the front page, and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by SIGNUM to be reliable, are not necessarily all inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by SIGNUM, its officers, employees or agents. An affiliate of Signum Growth is an investor in Epic Games.

*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. This material may contain ‘forward-looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any asset classes or any investment strategy nor shall any securities be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

This Presentation is for information purposes only and intended for “accredited investors” as defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933 and (i) does not constitute an offer of securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities, and (ii) may not be relied upon in making an investment decision related to any investment offering by the issuing company, or any affiliate, or partner thereof. Consult the PPM for investment conditions, risk factors, minimum requirements, fees and expenses and other pertinent information with respect to this investment. This investment opportunity has not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933 and is being offered pursuant to an exemption therefrom and from applicable state securities laws. All information is subject to change. There is no assurance that the investment objectives of this offering will be attained. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All estimates provided should be considered preliminary, and subject to change. Lack of diversification, investment in a single asset creates higher risk and may expose invested principal and there is no guarantee that an exit strategy or liquidity event will occur.

In August 2020, Epic Games’ Fortnite was removed from gaming’s most important distribution layer historically - Apple iOS and Google Play. The purpose of this report is to understand Epic’s strong comeback to mobile after a five-year hiatus. We believe it drives both units and margins because it reopens the audience funnel at the same time that Epic is improving creator tools, payments, web shops, and UEFN monetization. Margin expansion is possible because these players are coming back and accessing specific monetization and services directly from Epic, not via the gatekeepers.

In our Signum Growth | AD8 YE Review: Is Epic the Noah’s Ark of Gaming?, we framed Epic’s current moment as an inflection point because several pillars of the thesis were converging at once: Fortnite is evolving from a game into a playground, and years of litigation against Apple and Google are coming to a close, unlocking new roads for distribution and payments. The return of Fortnite to mobile, especially to iOS globally, is one of the first proof points. Those were hard-fought battles, led by Tim Sweeney, and winning them mattered to developers all over the world.

Apple iOS demand returned immediately. Saudi Arabia led the world.

Fortnite launched on iOS globally on 19th May, 2026. The first-week iOS numbers drove downloads to an eight-year high. According to AppMagic estimates reported by PocketGamer, Fortnite generated approximately 3.4 million App Store downloads in its first week globally, making it the game’s strongest iOS download week since April 2018 and its fourth largest App Store week ever. Daily installs were up from roughly 19,000 on May 18 to nearly 290,000 on May 19, peaking at 674,000 on May 23.

In week one, Saudi Arabia was the largest market globally, with 474,000 App Store installs, or roughly 14% of Fortnite’s first-week global iOS downloads. France followed at 366,000, the UK at 307,000, and the US was only ninth at 151,000, partly because the US had already regained access earlier.

During Fortnite’s first month back on iOS globally, Fortnite has surpassed one million daily downloads on iOS for the first time ever. The game reached an estimated 11.5 million App Store downloads. Daily installs peaked above 1.2 million on May 30, a lifetime App Store record for Fortnite. Week two was even stronger than week one, with just under 5 million downloads, followed by 2.5 million in week three and 1.1 million in week four.

Saudi Arabia led the world over the first month, generating almost 2.9 million installs, representing approximately 25% of global App Store downloads. Mexico ranked second with almost 2.3 million installs, a share of roughly 20%. The UK contributed 733,000, or 6% of the total, while the US contributed 629,000, or around 5%.

Android return of Fortnite and Epic Games Store

Epic announced that Fortnite returned to Google Play worldwide on March 19, 2026. AppMagic estimates reported by PocketGamer showed Fortnite generated 5.7 million Google Play downloads in the first ten days. Mexico led Google Play downloads with more than 800,000 installs, or 15% of the global total, while Brazil was also approximately 15%, and Turkey ranked third.

The Epic Games Store is also available on Android, unlike on iOS, and players can download Fortnite directly from Epic Games Store or from Google Play. Epic is also launching payments as part of the Android comeback. Fortnite’s own Google Play return page promoted 20% back in Epic Rewards when users use Epic’s payment system, available on Google Play in the US and globally on iOS, the web, and PC through the Epic Games Store.

June 27, 2026 - Fortnite Hits a New 24-Hour In-Match Concurrent User Peak

Our friend Matthew Zanazzo (@ImmatureGamer) posted the below image this past weekend, pointing out that Fortnite (Battle Royale) just hit a new 24-hour in-match peak of 2,381,370 players during Sprite Hours, up from last week's peak of 2,038,263. This is just one datapoint on engagement but is certainly positive given we continue to hear doubt that Fortnite will sustain the strong comeback.

Epic abandoned a $1 billion+ business in 2020 as part of its fight against the gatekeepers. How to frame its comeback.

Fortnite was absent from the largest distribution channel in gaming for over five years, from August 2020 until now. For context, from 2017 to 2020, Fortnite was installed 133.2 million times and generated $1.2 billion in spending worldwide on the App Store alone. Fortnite’s absence from the iOS and Android ecosystems happens to correlate with Epic’s post-2020 revenue drop.

The 2026 return could be more valuable than the successful 2018 mobile launch because Fortnite is no longer just a Battle Royale game. At the announcement of Fortnite’s return to Google Play, it was noted that more than 345,000 Fortnite games have been built by developers using Unreal Editor for Fortnite, spanning categories such as racing, deathruns, horror, and tycoon games. Fortnite is now a platform of many games and genres, which translates into many more players and opportunities for monetization.

The mobile channel has become available again, not only for Fortnite, the game, but as a distribution layer for Epic’s entire creator economy. Post-Unreal Fest 2026, new Signum Growth | AD8 mantra - Epic is turning Fortnite into the operating system for gaming.

Context - Mobile Gaming Market Industry Estimates

Newzoo estimates that the global games market reached $201.6 billion in 2025, crossing $200 billion for the first time. Mobile generated $113.3 billion, up 10.7% year-over-year, representing more than half of total games revenue. Newzoo also forecasts mobile revenue reaching $121.1 billion in 2026. These numbers illustrate the importance of mobile in building a platform.

Roblox is another proof point of the importance of mobile, having reported 127 million average DAUs and 123.9 billion hours engaged in 2025, equal to 2.7 hours per DAU per day. A total of 83% of players access Roblox via mobile devices, with only 14% accessing it via desktop, and 3% via console.

Roblox also shows how app-store economics shape monetization. In 2025, Roblox reported that 29% of revenue was from Robux sales through the Apple App Store and 15% through Google Play, meaning 44% of Roblox revenue came through the two major mobile app stores. Roblox also noted that it pays ~30% of consumer spend on the platform to Apple and Google.

Fortnite’s Return to Mobile Completes the Free Flywheel

Our initial conclusion is that weekly and monthly iOS numbers indicate that demand for Fortnite did not disappear, even after five years. This past Saturday’s metrics were icing on the cake. Mobile distribution brings users back to Fortnite at the opportune time, after a three-year build of Epic’s creator platform, UEFN. The return to mobile drives units and margins because it reopens the audience funnel at the same time that Epic is improving creator tools, payments, web shops, and UEFN monetization. Margin expansion is possible because these players are coming back and accessing specific monetization and services directly from Epic, not via the gatekeepers. Epic Rewards, as an example, trains direct payment behavior, which improves margins and gives Epic more funding for creators, content, events, and platform tools, which attracts more players. Epic’s go-to-market strategy leads with low fees and free offerings, so that each piece of the business from building to distribution acts as an accelerator of the whole. Now with mobile reintroduced for distribution, the free flywheel is complete!

Please join us on The Game Souk LIVE on X (@daltonan) on Thursdays, 9:00 am – 9:30 am ET! Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Signum Growth | AD8 Pop Team & Extended Team: Angela Dalton, Keshav Holani, Xandros Capus, Eliza Jäppinen, James Purell, Miles Dorsey, Michael Edwards

Disclaimer: This material is prepared by SIGNUM GROWTH and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of the date on the front page, and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by SIGNUM to be reliable, are not necessarily all inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by SIGNUM, its officers, employees or agents. An affiliate of Signum Growth is an investor in Epic Games.

*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. This material may contain ‘forward-looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any asset classes or any investment strategy nor shall any securities be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. This Presentation is for information purposes only and intended for “accredited investors” as defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933 and (i) does not constitute an offer of securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities, and (ii) may not be relied upon in making an investment decision related to any investment offering by the issuing company, or any affiliate, or partner thereof. Consult the PPM for investment conditions, risk factors, minimum requirements, fees and expenses and other pertinent information with respect to this investment. This investment opportunity has not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933 and is being offered pursuant to an exemption therefrom and from applicable state securities laws. All information is subject to change. There is no assurance that the investment objectives of this offering will be attained. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All estimates provided should be considered preliminary, and subject to change. Lack of diversification, investment in a single asset creates higher risk and may expose invested principal and there is no guarantee that an exit strategy or liquidity event will occur.

Theoretically, hardware gets cheaper over time, and consoles typically follow the same trajectory. In 2026, we are seeing the opposite - prices are going up in a backdrop of decreasing demand, even independent of pricing.

The Xbox Series X has increased in price by $150 since launch, with the base model now costing $650. The PS5 Pro has increased from $700 to $900. Nintendo held out as long as it could, but just increased the Switch 2 by $50 to $500, which comes one year after release and after selling 20M units!

The main questions our team asked this week on the Game Souk:

1) How will consoles fit into the future of gaming?

2) Discord will give ~10 million Nitro subscribers access to Microsoft Game Pass’ ~50 games, with no console required. Will Discord benefit more from this or Microsoft Game Pass?

The Game Souk is our weekly live discussion of the gaming industry across tech, finance, and culture, streaming every Thursday at 9 am ET on X. Episode 48 is now live across YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and X

Highlights this week:
→ Memory prices have approximately quadrupled in the past 9 months, with supply chain backlogs running 18-36 months deep, in a backdrop of growing demand. Rising tariffs forced Nintendo to follow Microsoft and Sony in raising the Switch 2’s price.

→ Cerebras Systems priced the largest semiconductor IPO of all time at $185. The stock opened at $350, peaked at $386, and closed at $311 and a $95 billion mkt cap. Cerebras offers an answer to expensive Nvidia clusters, with Meta and OpenAI as key customers.

→ Discord Nitro x Xbox Game Pass: Nitro members now receive the basic Xbox Game Pass with 50+ games across PC and console at no additional cost. Keshav Holani assumes the Nitro base is ~10M, so if half of them start playing Game Pass (directly from Discord), that would mean a 10-15% boost in the userbase (Microsoft reported 34M in 2024; assume 10% growth). The team debates if this partnership will drive Xbox exposure and Nitro retention.

→ LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight launches May 29, 2026, on console/PC and, in preparation, will be integrated into Roblox through Voldex’s Driving Empire. LEGO is doing it right: a playable, native experience where their audiences already are. Not a billboard in sight, just many Roblox-style Batmans and Batmobiles.

→ Roblox expands its advertising offerings to developers. Developers can purchase ad slots that plug into the “recommended for you” discovery and introduced Earnings Ads, which target players who have already spent in the game. Behaviorally, this flywheel reinforces itself and is positive for Roblox revenue, but Roblox needs to be careful about how aggressively it lets the top 30 dominate discovery.

Please join us on The Game Souk LIVE on X (@daltonan) on Thursdays, 9:00 am – 9:30 am ET! Also available on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.

Extended Team/Team: Michael Edwards, James Purell, Angela Dalton, Keshav Holani, Eliza Jäppinen, Xandros Capus, Miles Dorsey

Disclaimer

This material is prepared by SIGNUM GROWTH (“SIGNUM”) and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of the date on the front page, and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by SIGNUM to be reliable, are not necessarily all inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by SIGNUM, its officers, employees or agents.

*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. This material may contain ‘forward-looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any asset classes or any investment strategy nor shall any securities be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. Private placement securities are speculative, illiquid, and carry a high degree of risk, including the loss of the entire investment. There are also key specific risks associated with any particular private securities offering.

A few weeks ago, we were in Los Angeles attending the WorldBuilder’s Summit, the first UGC focused gaming conference. As mentioned in the pre-conference podcasts, we were excited to join Justin Peress, the CFO of Do Big Studios, on stage to discuss “Building Breakout IP and the Investor Lens on UGC.” During the panel, we had an ah-ha moment on the power of the algorithm, which happened to preview a theme that we continue to hear as a backbeat to current sentiment. We asked why Grow A Garden and Steal A Brainrot took off, peaking at 22 million and 25.8 million concurrent users, respectively. Peress’s response was incredibly telling, “I think in this space, you need luck for it to work, but we had the algorithm working in our favor.” At the time of release, the discovery algorithm favored short-form games and sticky game loops. The success of these two games is a perfect example of the dual-edged sword of power and risk that creators must navigate when facing the platform algorithm.

Creators take platform risk because they do not own or control the platform. Instead, companies enact their visions through policy shifts or by altering the fundamental algorithm. Policy shifts have a tremendous impact on what the creator community can do on the platform and, more importantly, how their workstreams may be slowed or even stopped.

Platforms use algorithms as the throughline for discovery, meaning that when a player logs in, the top-of-page content is valuable real estate. A developer wants the fewest possible required clicks or scrolls for players to find their games. Algorithms determine which games or genres are most discoverable, and the companies behind the platforms adjust those algorithms to feed content that better matches the current agenda. For developers, these algorithm shifts can make or break the game. Just as Grow A Garden, Steal A Brainrot, and other quick-form games were prioritized by Roblox’s algorithm, we are now in an era of the Roblox algorithm preferring long-form content and variety. In March 2026, Roblox announced it would make discovery more unique for each player. “The algorithm is moving toward dynamic and personalized weighting, meaning there will not be a single global formula in the future. Instead, the formula will be constantly evolving and unique for each user.”

This is similar to what occurs on Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms that allow user-generated content. However, as Miles Dorsey pointed out on the Game Souk on April 30, 2026, an algorithm shift on Instagram or TikTok may not be felt as strongly as the barrier to creating new content is low. Miles explained, “The impact it has on a business or a creator is spending a week fine tuning and understanding what new hook is needed to make the content go viral again. It has a much bigger impact on game developers who, even at the pace of UGC, [need] months before they can recover or fine tune or create a new game that understands the algorithm and takes advantage of it.”

Notably, Roblox’s new age-gating process fundamentally alters what creators can build and how the community interacts. We think of these changes as direct and public attempts to shift behavior by changing the rules, whether on the margin or as major changes. Roblox also announced a new discovery signal that measures the deep play-through rate, focusing on how many unique players remain meaningfully engaged in the game, rather than game impressions. This new signal points toward the platform’s goals of moving away from short loops that propelled games like Grow a Garden and Steal a Brainrot and toward longer-duration games. These shifts come as Roblox seeks to attract an older, more traditional audience to the platform, both as players and as creators. When paired with Roblox’s efforts to restyle the game, it is clear the platform is looking to bring in another audience.

Similarly, this past week, Roblox announced a policy shift that will no longer allow cross-game sales of developer products and passes. These mechanics are common techniques for content creators to donate Robux to other players, and the widely popular game PLS DONATE was built on these tools. With this policy shift, Roblox effectively killed an entire genre of games and content creators, with James Purell estimating, in the latest Game Souk, that PLS DONATE alone earns $15-$20 million a year. Players will still be able to donate to one another, but it will require a Roblox Plus subscription and limit the amount of Robux that can be transferred.

Over the past few months, Roblox and Epic Games’ UEFN have released substantial updates to their algorithms, and developers are rushing to adjust their games to try to align with the new platform-wide goals. Fornite is trying to reach a broader audience and bring more users onto the platform. To achieve this, they are prioritizing new genres outside of the classic UEFN repertoire. Epic Games’ Josh Grant pointed out at the WorldBuilder Summit panel that Epic doesn’t want to see yet another ‘Red vs. Blue’ game that reflects the classic Fortnite maps. The official announcement from Epic Games states, “Islands that are highly similar to games published before them, or that show signals that they aren’t fun, should expect less visibility.” The company is prioritizing multiplayer experiences with social mechanics built directly into the game loop. Horror is an example of a new genre that Epic has emphasized, according to Grant.

Star Wars on Epic Games!

On May 1, 2026, Star Wars IP was released to the entire UEFN community. Alongside the broader release, Epic partnered with UEFN studios to launch three official Epic Star Wars maps to reflect the platform’s directional goals. Galactic Siege, developed with JOGO Games, is “a large-scale 10v10 combat across iconic Star Wars planets,” showing Epic’s prioritization of multiplayer games. Escape Vader, created with Beyond Creative, is a horror multiplayer game of “escape the terrifying Sith Lord, Darth Vader.” Lastly, our favorite of the three was the Future Trash partnership game, Droid Tycoon, an impressive tycoon game that hit the highest peak at 124,592 CCU.

As Epic reshapes UEFN discovery, Roblox has undergone substantial changes to the platform. This means that, for developers, the type of game to build will be more heavily weighted by the audience they are trying to reach.

Platform risk can be challenging for creators to manage due to the algorithm’s unpredictability. As we work with creators, we see firsthand how frustrating it can be to react to moving goal posts. At AD8, we aim to continue building relationships with the platforms, with the goal of staying on top of algorithm changes and ultimately helping our teams stay one step ahead in adapting their content. This leans into what makes a successful UGC creator - the ability to adapt to the zeitgeist and shifting sentiment, whether by listening to one’s community and reflecting their ideas in live ops updates, or by a full-blown change-the-engine-while-the-plane-is-flying moment of creating a new algorithm-favored game.

Please join us on The Game Souk LIVE on X (@daltonan) on Thursdays, 9:00 am – 9:30 am ET! Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Signum Growth | AD8 Pop Team & Extended Team: Angela Dalton, Keshav Holani, Eliza Jäppinen, Xandros Capus, James Purell, Miles Dorsey, Michael Edwards

Disclaimer

This material is prepared by SIGNUM GROWTH (“SIGNUM”) and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of the date on the front page, and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by SIGNUM to be reliable, are not necessarily all inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by SIGNUM, its officers, employees or agents.

*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. This material may contain ‘forward-looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any asset classes or any investment strategy nor shall any securities be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. Private placement securities are speculative, illiquid, and carry a high degree of risk, including the loss of the entire investment. There are also key specific risks associated with any particular private securities offering.

Participating in World Day on Friday, April 17, 2026, in San Francisco, was a watershed moment for us as students at the intersection of emerging technologies, gaming, and entertainment. In contrast to the general fear that AI often incites in Hollywood, gaming, and artist circles, we felt a new sense of hope that humans matter in the age of AI. When music artist Anderson .Paak stepped on stage to support the World technology because he wants to support a future that prioritizes humans, one can feel that something different is happening here. We believe in this hope and the idea that we are on the precipice of leapfrogging the current internet in terms of transparency and authenticity, all driven by a new layer of the internet, a real human layer. We always say that AI pours gasoline on the fire of inauthenticity, and that Cambridge Analytica will look small in terms of impact compared to the nefarious impact of deepfakes in our new AI world. In short, World’s new World ID 4.0 and the many enterprise announcements and key learnings of the day warranted a special sidebar from our three-part series on age-verification in gaming. Below is what transpired at the World gathering, along with the process of completing the WorldID Verification.

Beyond Data Collection: A Real Human Network and Zero-Knowledge Proofs

As gaming and media companies face mounting regulatory pressure to age-gate their services, we believe platforms should be able to answer an even simpler question - is this user human? Our initial report, titled “Age Rage Beyond Roblox | Online Age Verification Becomes the Norm,” concludes that age verification is inevitable, but the current attempts to regulate internet access may ignore the importance of a privacy-first approach. Since then, we have continued the discussion in our weekly live stream, across investor and studio meetings, and on a GamesBeat Panel at GDC 2026. We continue to revert to the same question - before verifying a user’s age, how will we first resolve the “proof of human” question? In an AI world, this is of tantamount importance given the prevalence of bots, replicas, and AI agents acting on others’ behalf. This was addressed in our second report titled “Beyond Age Verification: Proof of Humans (and their AI Agent Circles of Trust).”

Walking into World Day, San Francisco

Stacks of newspapers titled, “A Real Human Network: The Case for a Human First World in a Post-Human Internet” explain the key message of the day. There is no author. On the back, at the bottom, there is a single line - “Circulated in San Francisco, California. 2026.” It starts,

“Soon, the internet will no longer assume you are human. This will deeply affect how we trust one another, how we interact, and even whether we are recognized as human at all. Humans have always needed ways to recognize one another. Throughout history, as technology advanced we invented ways to prove individual presence: a carving on a cave wall, a stamp pressed into wax, a signature on paper. Each expressed the same simple idea: I am here. I am real. And this assumption followed us into the digital age. In the world of the early internet we carried that trust with us, believing that behind every interaction was a person, a digital reflection anchored to a living, breathing human being. That era has ended. For the first time in human history it is becoming clear that intelligence will soon be abundant. And with it, the ability to generate convincing human presence online. Already, a large share of internet activity is automated, and very soon the majority of online interactions will not involve humans at all. How do we remain visible to each other in a world where human presence is no longer the default or even reliable assumptions? To answer this question the internet may need a new layer: a real human network.”

The gathering was open to the public and packed with curious technologists, investors, enterprises, and even cypherpunk tinkerers. Entering the building, Orb devices lined the walls.

Step 1. Scan your iris using an Orb device. Hold your phone next to the device to watch the device transfer the data to your phone, followed by a deletion from the Orb device.

Step 2. The Orb creates a unique biometric identifier that will be recognized as human when it transacts online. No ID or even name was given in the process. What about AI agents, deployed by humans? AgentKit, first announced on March 17th, allows verified humans to delegate their World ID to AI agents, making them human-backed agents. A world in which we designate agents to transact online on our behalf is no longer a sci-fi idea for the future. As these online transactions accelerate, surely we will demand certainty on these agents’ actions and the human that directed them. McKinsey projects it could reach $3 to $5 trillion globally by 2030. Bain estimates AI agents could account for up to 25% of all U.S. e-commerce by 2030.

Major Enterprise Announcements

After Co-Founder Sam Altman kicked off the day with an inspirational overview of the strategy, a drumbeat of new enterprise announcements followed. First, Tinder described the urgency in identifying humans-only for the relationship app, and offered World ID-verified Tinder users five free “boosts” to increase profile visibility. One can imagine this verification becoming table stakes, for Tinder and for its users, along with its competitors. Next, DocuSign announced that the company will adopt World ID, explaining the practical reality and high risk of a growing set of fake signatories. Finally, Zoom gave the most compelling showcase with its CEO, who was marked with the equivalent of a “blue check mark,” alongside a couple of “fake” Alex Bhanias, the CEO of Tools for Humanity.

Finally, Concert Kit wowed the crowd, as Anderson .Paak came out onstage to say that he wants humans at his concerts. From now on, there will be a carve out of tickets only for verified humans, not bots.

Monetization Announced

The company published a blog post describing the future revenue model for World ID 4.0. In short, enterprises that find it in their interest to know whether their customers are human will pay for each of their users. While it has not yet been activated, we believe this lays the groundwork for a portion of this fee to be paid in the future to the World Network. What we like about this is that the revenue model fits with our #1 mantra - merge onto the highway of behavior that is already happening. In other words, the revenue flow to World does not require any change in user behavior. This should, if executed well, be a win-win-win for World, enterprises, and their customers.

Zero-Knowledge Proofs

We have long believed that the optimal privacy-first solution for age verification is a cryptographic technique known as zero-knowledge proofs (ZK proofs), which is now widely used on blockchain networks. Zero-knowledge proofs were first introduced in a 1985 MIT paper by Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali, titled “The Knowledge Complexity of Interactive Proof-Systems.” The paper defines zero-knowledge proofs as “proofs that convey no additional knowledge other than the correctness of the proposition in question.” The core principle of a ZK proof is that most information requests can be satisfied with a simple Yes or No answer: Is this true or not? Typically, one discloses more information than is needed.

In the 1990 paper, “How to Explain Zero-Knowledge Protocols to Your Children,” Quisquater et al. illustrate how ZK proofs work through the “Cave of Ali Baba.” Imagine a circular cave (see Figure 1) with a single entrance and two paths that meet but are blocked by a magic door. Person A, the prover, tells Person B, the verifier, “I know the secret code to open the door, and I am willing to sell it to you,” but Person B asks, “Well, how do I know it’s real?” Now they are stuck because Person A won’t give Person B the code without payment, and Person B won’t pay until they are sure the code is correct. So they create a test: Person A will go into the cave alone and choose to go down either the right or left path. Then Person B enters the cave and randomly asks Person A which path to exit from. If Person A truly knows the secret code, it doesn’t matter which path Person B chooses because they can pass through the magic door. Repeat this test enough times, and statistically, the verifier becomes certain that the prover knows the secret code, while learning nothing about what the code actually is. In other words, the core idea of zero-knowledge proofs is certainty without disclosure.

How does it work in the digital world? The cave becomes a mathematical challenge that is easy to verify but nearly impossible without “the secret code” or a piece of data. Instead of physically walking around a cave, the prover’s own device is running thousands of checks to confirm the data without ever revealing it; meanwhile, the verifier’s computer checks the answers instantly, achieving the same statistical certainty described by the cave example. The mathematical problem is solved without ever needing to provide the actual data. This statistical certainty is all that is needed to answer whether you are human and if you are age-appropriate.

Key Risk - The Flipside of Using a Strong Biometric

World uses the iris for proof of human because “the iris code generated from a scan of a human eye can have over 200 bits of entropy, significantly more than the entropy contained in a fingerprint scan [and] around four orders of magnitude (10,000x) more accurate than facial recognition due to a higher entropy in the iris structure compared to the face.” Even identical twins can be easily distinguished. The main risk is that biometric data is not replaceable. A password can be changed, but a biometric marker cannot. For this reason, there are many regulations around the process. For example, the Orb device is only allowed to be used if one is at least 18 years old. The scanner accurately determines the age of one’s iris. According to our Orb trainer, the only challenging age is 18, plus or minus a couple of years. There are ways to prove that one is over 18, but the company discourages this due to its preference not to collect PII.

Alternatives to Proof of Human

World’s adoption of ZK-Proofs is what makes this technology particularly compelling for privacy protection, but there are alternative approaches to online identity verification. Each alternative below tackles different aspects of the problem, such as security, privacy, or accessibility. However, the key question remains whether any of these solutions can address the fundamental issue in a post-human internet: demonstrating proof that a unique human is behind an interaction.

Passkeys

Passkeys offer users a way to replace passwords by storing a cryptographic key directly on their device. The key is unlocked by a fingerprint or face, sending a mathematical proof to the website instead of your password. Apple and Google have already deployed passkeys at scale and represent a meaningful improvement over password-based logins. No passwords are stored on a server, largely eliminating phishing attacks.

While passkeys allow for a more secure login, their fundamental design limits their use as proof of personhood, since they demonstrate that a user controls a specific device, not that the user is uniquely human. A single person could register passkeys across a hundred devices, which could appear as a hundred distinct users. For everyday logins, the ability to distinguish between users is irrelevant; however, for anti-bot systems, age verification, and proof of personhood, it is the central problem they were not designed to solve.

Government Digital IDs

Government Digital IDs are an interesting solution because, in theory, they would enable standardized online verification. If executed correctly, it would enable uniform rules for data collection, plug-in systems for developers and platforms, and legal accountability. However, as seen over the last few months with most age-verification laws, governments tend to prioritize quick legislation over comprehensive policy.

This past week, the EU announced a breakthrough step toward a centralized age verification system controlled by a government body and described the app as “ready for deployment.” stating, “the new age verification app is user-friendly and can be set up using a passport or ID card, enabling users to prove their age when accessing online services. The app is completely anonymous, works on any device, and is fully open source, meaning partner countries around the world can also adopt it.” We believe a privacy-first approach will ultimately win, so the EU’s promise of anonymous verification was intriguing. However, within hours of encouraging people to explore the open-source code, security experts raised concerns.

Security consultant Paul Moore demonstrated a full bypass of the app’s security in under two minutes. In his posts on X, he highlighted two flaws. The app stores the user’s PIN in a plain, editable file on the device rather than in the hardware-level Secure Enclave found on every modern smartphone. Moore was able to reset the PIN by simply deleting two values from that file and gained full access to the original identity credentials. The second flaw - the entire biometric verification system was controlled by a single true/false switch in the same editable file. This meant Moore could change a single value, and the app would skip biometric checks entirely. According to these reports, the root issue with the EU’s app is an antiquated software-level solution rather than a more advanced hardware/smartphone integration.

Beyond technical issues, there is a fundamental concern about governments serving as the trusted issuer, which extends beyond whether it is trustworthy today. A system designed by a privacy-conscious government today can be inherited by a different administration tomorrow, which can expand the scope over time in ways its architects never intended. The infrastructure persists even when intentions change.

Decentralized Wallets

Decentralized wallets allow users to securely store verified credentials on their devices and present only what is needed for a specific interaction. Spruce ID and Polygon ID are two examples of solutions that incorporate ZK proofs to enable selective disclosure. The wallet itself is not the verification; it is the delivery mechanism. Meaning the wallet is only as good as the credentials stored within it. Our physical wallets do not actually allow us to purchase anything or prove that we can drive a car; the credit cards and driver’s licenses provide these verifications. The decentralized wallet provides the necessary data security once verification is complete, but it is not involved in the initial verification.

Each of these alternatives was designed to address part of the problem. Passkeys eliminate passwords for proving device control but not for proving human uniqueness. Government digital IDs offer much-needed standardization but also introduce surveillance risks. Decentralized wallets enable selective disclosure but leave open the question of a trusted issuer and multiple identities, challenging in an AI-agent world. Hardware identity devices, like YubiKey, provide strong physical security but face challenges of dedicated hardware, inaccessibility at scale, and loss or theft. Each alternative touches a part of the problem but none were built to ascertain personhood.

A Note from Angela Dalton, Signum Growth | AD8 Pop - Being at the World Lift Off gathering as a human was truly awesome. The vibe was in stark contrast to the typical gaming or media gathering in which artists and developers speculate, in fear, about the impact of AI on their lives. Anderson .Paak’s comments resonated - World ID’s AI-related technology inspired a creator to ‘get involved’ and share a message of hope that it is not too late, even in an AGI world, for humans (and our agents) to act as the orchestrators of our future. We started this exploration in response to Roblox’s child safety headlines and the overall challenge that faces the gaming and social media platforms. It is abundantly clear to us that before solving age verification, we must first build a new foundational layer into the internet that ranks humans above all transactional actors on the internet. This will come from our ability or inability to answer one simple question - are you human?

On March 4, 2026, we released “Age Rage Beyond Roblox | Online Age Verification Becomes the Norm,” the first of a three-part series, in response to the global uproar over Roblox and Discord’s age-verification policies. The initial report summarizes social media and gaming platforms’ initial forays into age verification, the rising wave of regulation in response to child safety concerns, and the various technologies platforms initially adopted.

This report serves as the second in the series, providing a deeper dive into the realization that, before we can allow a gaming or media application to ask a user’s age in ways that are often opaque to parents, we must first determine whether an online actor is human, an AI agent permissioned by a human, or a bot. Our conclusion is that, in the age of AI, age verification is a feature, and, as Blade Runner predicted in 1982, proving a simple test - human or machine - must come first.

We believe verification generally requires a two-step process. The first step confirms whether the online actor is either a human, an AI agent in a human’s circle, or a bot. The second step requires the verifier to ask if the user is over or under the specific age required to access the application or platform. We agree with the need to verify at both levels, and in a post-Cambridge Analytica era, we believe in protecting personally identifiable information (PII). We have long believed that zero-knowledge proofs offer the best framework for step two, allowing certainty without disclosure.

Proof of human is exactly what it sounds like: verification that the online actor is genuinely human. In an era defined by artificial intelligence, this is no longer just a theoretical concern but a necessity for humanity, as AI has the potential to pour gasoline on the fire of online inauthenticity. Bots can now click, browse, purchase, mimic, and influence human behavior. Distinguishing bots from humans solely based on output has, in some cases, already become impossible. The ability to identify humans online is fundamental to the fabric of society. Without the ability to verify humanity online, we remain vulnerable to bad actors who weaponize bots, erode public trust, spread disinformation, and weaken the institutions that hold society together. Proof of personhood allows us, as a society, to restore a foundation of trust and accountability.

The content explosion is upon us. ARK Invest Chief Futurist Brett Winton noted on March 26, 2026, that “AI written output exceeded human written output in 2025. By the late 2020s, AI cumulative written output--every postcard, memo, whitepaper, and business-document--should be surpassed by AI.”

Similarly, Human Security, a cybersecurity company, released a report based on data gathered from its Human Defense Platform on March 26, 2026, stating, “the monthly volume of AI-driven traffic tripled over the course of 2025 [and] traffic from AI agents and agentic browsers grew 7,851% year over year.”

Information overload only accelerates in a world in which AI-generated output exceeds human output. This begs the question - how will we answer the first question - human or machine?

In the past, we have commented on the relationship between Mythical, the FIFA Rivals gaming studio, and World, founded by Alex Blania & Sam Altman. In this report, we take a deeper dive into the World devices and the WorldID system. As of March 17, 2026, World has nearly 18 million verified humans across 160+ countries and provides a solution that taps into a technology that we often discuss as a key ingredient to PII protection, ZK proofs.

World introduced the Orb on July 24, 2023, as a device that enables users to “verify that you are a unique human without knowing anything else about you.” To do this, the Orb takes and subsequently deletes an image of a person’s irises and face. It uses these unique biometric features to create a unique, encrypted World ID that serves as a personal proof of human online.

What initially drew us to this system was its PII-protecting solution. When considering age verification, we have consistently supported stronger regulations, provided that the solution does not require sharing personal information. World’s system allows for stronger regulation without infringing on a user’s inherent right to privacy. As the company stated in a blog post, “Contrary to common perception, (well-implemented) PoH does not increase surveillance but protects against it because it preempts the need for privacy-invasive monitoring.”

Unlike having to provide a face scan, upload an ID, or hand over one’s credit card to an unknown third-party vendor, the Orb processes raw biometric data locally on the device and then relies on ZK proof technology called ZK-SNARKs, ensuring that the biometric data is deleted and never retained. Once verification is completed, your World ID is stored on your own device in the World App, and you hold complete control over your own (encrypted) data. Verification is not the enemy as long as it is promised without PII.

The general population is starting to become aware that AI agents will soon become our personal assistants, handling tasks like personal shopping and travel bookings. As human efficiency and productivity increase, it is easy to imagine an AI agent receiving a promotion beyond this initial role and automating larger portions of our lives. Beyond efficiency, we need to be aware that AI agents will also gain increasing control, and it is imperative to put up guardrails now. In short, as agents become an extension of humanity, there will be a growing need to trace them back to the humans who deployed them to ensure safety and accountability.

On March 17, 2026, World announced a partnership with Coinbase to enable verified WorldID humans to extend personhood to their AI agents. This new system, called AgentKit, now in beta, allows humans to register their agents directly on the World App. This new feature continues to prioritize user data privacy through ZK proof technologies that allow platforms to ask, “is this agent linked to a real human?” The agent can then respond “Yes” and be allowed access to the platform without ever revealing the human’s identity, as it is linked to the human’s encrypted World ID. Could this result in one human dominating the capacity of one application? No, in the World solution, if thousands of agents show up at Roblox on behalf of one player, the platform can trace the agents to a unique human, without knowing the human’s identity. This will allow applications to manage capacity by rate-limiting any particular human, if necessary.

Online identity and age verification is one of the most important problems to solve in gaming and entertainment, and in e-commerce more broadly. We believe that proving oneself as a human, along with the circle of agents that are transacting on our behalf, must happen in the context of privacy protection. Personal data collection does not have to mean privacy extraction. Zero-knowledge proofs ensure certainty without disclosure. This is not science fiction. We are at a critical moment in establishing online trust and accountability while protecting our role as the human controller and orchestrator of these agents and systems.

Disclaimer

This material is prepared by SIGNUM GROWTH (“SIGNUM”) and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of the date on the front page, and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by SIGNUM to be reliable, are not necessarily all inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by SIGNUM, its officers, employees or agents.

*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. This material may contain ‘forward-looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any asset classes or any investment strategy nor shall any securities be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. Private placement securities are speculative, illiquid, and carry a high degree of risk, including the loss of the entire investment. There are also key specific risks associated with any particular private securities offering.

GDC 2026 is a wrap! As we left San Francisco, we were reflecting on the common themes that emerged from our exciting conversations with developers, brands, and companies. Unsurprisingly, we spent the majority of our week (happily) talking UGC and our entry into UEFN/Fortnite through our collaboration with Bloom Games! We had a great time working with Bloom Games’ Co-founder Jonathan Danzi, and we are excited to keep the momentum going after GDC.

As noted in our pre-GDC posts, we were especially excited about being invited to join the post-debate panel at GamesBeat Crossfire. In fact, the conference reflected the debate topics: age verification and the regulatory landscape, UGC, and, more broadly, how AI will impact the industry.

Dean Takahashi and the team at GamesBeat did an excellent job of providing structure to the complexities of these topics. In the final panel (Dean Takahashi, Xsolla’s Berkley Egenes, Signum Growth | AD8 Pop’s Angela Dalton), we discussed our views on various points of debate across the three earlier panels. Each of these topics is highly nuanced, but generally, the industry is being shaken from many directions.

Age Verification:

On March 4th, we published our report on age verification, “Age Rage Beyond Roblox | Online Age Verification Becomes the Norm,” a response to the outrage from the global policy rollouts by Discord and Roblox. We knew then that this topic would be top of mind, and two new updates reinforced that. Spain’s data protection authority fined the age assurance app Yoti over violations of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. Congressman Brett Guthrie, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, published an OpEd in the Washington Post titled “Congress is done waiting for Big Tech to protect kids online,” as the committee introduced the Kids Online Safety Act.

Overall, as we met with companies and developers at the conference, the sentiment centered on the idea that age verification and increased protections were necessary, but the process would likely be messy. One common refrain was disbelief that country-specific implementations could sync to reliably protect children. This is a substantial loophole for any tech-savvy kid using VPNs to jump from one regulatory region to another. European countries, for example, have historically been more readily prepared to adopt “extreme” policies labeled “citizen protection.” In contrast, the United States is often slower to adopt due to debates over constitutional freedoms. Patricia Vance, the President of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, pointed out that age-assurance policies have significant First Amendment implications.

Our view remains largely unchanged. As k-ID’s senior legal counsel, Joe Newman commented, “The train has left the station.” The remaining question is: what are the best ways to implement these protections to ensure safety and data privacy? As our own Angela Dalton said on stage, we are optimists and believe that technologies like ZK proofs, a blockchain-based mechanism, already exist to ensure that under-18s are not banned from the internet and, at the same time, they are not handing over passports and face scans. For now, we and the industry will be watching closely as governments debate how to implement online child safety laws.

UGC:

GDC 2026 feels like a significant turning point for UGC. We have long known that UGC, especially on Roblox and Fortnite, is an unstoppable force revolutionizing the gaming industry. On February 16, 2026, Mathew Ball published his detailed investigation, The State of Video Gaming in 2026, which validated our beliefs and brought them to the forefront of the industry just three weeks before GDC. He reported that “Roblox is 60% of Spend Growth Outside China since 2021… [and] Roblox’s average quarterly engagement is now as large as that of Steam, PlayStation, and Fortnite combined.” Ball’s report sent waves through the industry, and as we flew into San Francisco, we knew it would be the foundation of GDC 2026.

We have seen firsthand how UGC platforms empower developers to succeed and create fun games at increasing rates. In an industry facing widespread layoffs and uncertainty, we see UGC as a vital lifeline for developers who want to continue making AAA games as traditional game studios shrink. It is now about reaching audiences where they already are, and as we demonstrated on February 26, 2026, only 3 Steam games would make it into the top 10 on Roblox.

Developers are not the only ones grappling with the rise of UGC; more and more brands are trying to break into the space. Gone are the days of billboards and bus benches; brands can now integrate into UGC games and meet audiences natively where they are already playing, creating a more memorable interaction. As we always say, merge onto the highway of behavior that is already happening. This topic buzzed through GDC events, including a lunch we hosted for developers. Nearly any brand can integrate into UGC, as long as it is willing to think outside the box - UGC is not traditional media (and you don’t want it to be!).

To demonstrate this, we recently did an analysis comparing the cost of a 2025 Poppi Super Bowl ad to our OLIPOP ad in SpongeBob Tower Defense with Wonder Works Studio.

The comparison shows that the Roblox interactive advertisement results in a declining CPM (cost per thousand) as users continue to engage with brand assets long after the campaign ends. For example, with OLIPOP, ~237,000 “Carbonators” were rewarded during the campaign, and players are still driving those cars around the game months later.

We had a great time discussing exciting branding opportunities at GDC, and we can’t wait to help more brands become playable in Roblox and Fortnite!

Artificial Intelligence:

Unsurprisingly, advances in artificial intelligence have transformed every industry, and gaming is no exception. After a week of seeing how developers across the industry are using AI, we are especially excited about what these new technologies will do for the ‘bedroom developer.’ UGC platforms draw their popularity from the ability to create with little traditional technical ability. We have been amazed to witness the incredible speed and creativity unlocked in an environment with low technical barriers to entry.

We believe that AI is not about replacing human creativity, but about empowering it. As Susan Cummings, the co-founder of 10six Games, explained in her GamesBeat Panel, AI does not have the power to “make the fun,” but her team figured out how to train it in the team’s art style and guide it from there to unlock speed and efficiency.

Roblox, for example, announced on February 4, 2026, AI-powered 4D objects, “where the fourth dimension is interaction.” This means that players will be able to create and directly interact with their objects, such as a car that drives or a plane that flies. Currently, these abilities are limited to the ‘schemas’ or blueprints that exist, but Roblox shared plans to expand AI capabilities, enabling world-building models described as “real-time dreaming.” We see this as Roblox’s greatest strength: turning cutting-edge technology into practical tools for everyday creators.

UGC is Here To Stay

In conclusion, GDC 2026 feels like a significant turning point for UGC. Most of the week was spent discussing opportunities for partnership and growth rather than pitching to a skeptical audience. Companies and developers, both inside and outside the industry, are recognizing that this behavior is likely here to stay and are finding their place in the scene. From branding and creation to AI, UGC platforms were at the center of any ‘future of gaming’ discussion and at the heart of conversations on innovative technologies. It is an exciting moment for Signum Growth | AD8 Pop. We left reenergized, not only as witnesses to the future of gaming, but as participants who will shape it.

Disclaimer

This material is prepared by SIGNUM GROWTH CAPITAL and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of the date on the front page, and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by SIGNUM to be reliable, are not necessarily all inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by SIGNUM, its officers, employees or agents. An affiliate of Signum Growth is an investor in Discord.

*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. This material may contain ‘forward-looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any asset classes or any investment strategy nor shall any securities be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

This Presentation is for information purposes only and intended for “accredited investors” as defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933 and (i) does not constitute an offer of securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities, and (ii) may not be relied upon in making an investment decision related to any investment offering by the issuing company, or any affiliate, or partner thereof. Consult the PPM for investment conditions, risk factors, minimum requirements, fees and expenses and other pertinent information with respect to this investment. This investment opportunity has not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933 and is being offered pursuant to an exemption therefrom and from applicable state securities laws. All information is subject to change. There is no assurance that the investment objectives of this offering will be attained. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All estimates provided should be considered preliminary, and subject to change. Lack of diversification, investment in a single asset creates higher risk and may expose invested principal and there is no guarantee that an exit strategy or liquidity event will occur.

AD8 Pop Official Announcement - March 7, 2026: As we head to California for GDC, we are excited to announce that AD8 Pop has entered into an agreement with Bloom Games to provide funding, playable brand integrations, and other services. This is our first partnership in Epic Games’ creator platform, UEFN (Unreal Editor for Fortnite), and we could not be more thrilled about this one!

At AD8 Pop, we have been long-time believers in Epic Games and Tim Sweeney’s vision that Fortnite is not a game. It is a playground that should be fair and controlled by everyone on the playground. We separately believe that Epic is at a positive inflection point, not only because the company has completed a five-year battle on behalf of developers and won, but because of new and broader strategic partnerships. Since the early days of Signum Growth, we have focused our efforts on UGC platforms, such as Roblox and Fortnite, recognizing the behavioral shift underway and its impact on gaming and entertainment. Signing this agreement with Bloom Games is a direct embodiment of that long-lasting commitment.

Bloom Games, founded in 2024 by Jonathan (Jayth) Danzi and Ethan Guest, specializes in creating unique Fortnite maps using UEFN. Before launching Bloom, Jonathan built a well-earned reputation as a Fortnite Pro under the name Jayth and now serves as Bloom’s CEO. Ethan brings years of full-stack development and UI/UX expertise, and serves as Bloom’s lead developer, level designer, and technical artist on UEFN.

Bloom released its first UEFN game, Zombie Escape Tag, in September 2024. Since then, it has generated over 27 million plays and 538.9 million minutes of engagement, building a loyal and strong community that we are excited to join.

“At Bloom, our primary mission is to build fun, innovative games. Since releasing Zombie Escape, we’ve learned a lot about what players actually want from a UGC game, and more so, what they don’t. Brand integrations are a huge opportunity in UGC, but if not done right, they detract from the player experience. We believe playable integrations should be fun and natural, adding to the experience rather than taking away from it.

We were thrilled to discover that AD8 not only shares this value, but also aligns with our broader goals of scaling Zombie Escape to a much bigger audience. With their support, we’ve been hard at work building title #2 of the Zombie Escape series. This new version is a ground-up rebuild with new game modes, progression systems, artwork and a long-term content roadmap. We’re excited to share more in the coming weeks as we get closer to release!”

- Ethan Guest, Bloom Games

AD8 is proud to be in the trenches with Bloom Games to assist the team in building something great together! This is just the beginning.

Disclaimer: This material is prepared by SIGNUM GROWTH (“SIGNUM”) and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of the date on the front page, and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by SIGNUM to be reliable, are not necessarily all inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by SIGNUM, its officers, employees or agents.

*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. This material may contain ‘forward-looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any asset classes or any investment strategy nor shall any securities be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. Private placement securities are speculative, illiquid, and carry a high degree of risk, including the loss of the entire investment. There are also key specific risks associated with any particular private securities offering.

Regulating individuals’ online activity has been viewed in the past as an attack on free speech reserved largely for authoritarian regimes, but now these efforts are becoming mainstream under the heading of protecting children. In 2023, the UK government increased regulation with the Online Safety Act, shifting the “duty of care” to the platforms and requiring new age-verification policies. Most recently, the ICO fined Reddit £14.47m (~$20m) after finding the company failed to use children’s personal information lawfully. Australia raised the ante even further in December 2025 with an outright online ban for all children under 16. Since the new regulation, Australian officials have announced 4.7 million accounts identified as children who have since been banned. Two months into 2026, a wave of new countries is poised to enact similar policies.

“Today, our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone: a space of addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation, and violence. We will no longer accept that. We will protect them from the digital wild west.”

- Pedro Sanchez, The Prime Minister of Spain (Feb 2026)

The list of major UK/European countries that have approved or proposed social media bans for children includes, but is not limited to, Spain, France, Denmark, Greece, Austria, and the United Kingdom. In the US, many state-by-state proposals have emerged in Utah, Tennessee, and Florida, among others. These regulations and bans will create a myriad of barriers for social media companies, but our current focus is on the age verification process. Platforms can no longer ask a user to self-verify their age. At the moment, we are focused on near-term impacts to these platforms. In the long term, we will need to consider the unintended consequences of restricting young people, often the drivers of online experimentation and innovation, from the internet.

We believe this trend will continue, with more countries adopting stringent regulations. On February 9, 2026, Discord took a big step forward by announcing the rollout of its global teen-by-default policy, which will automatically block access to age-restricted channels, servers, commands, and select message requests. Previously limited to the UK and Australia, Discord announced that age verification will become a global policy in 2026.

However, the company paused its plans on February 24, 2026, with an updated message stating that age verification would instead be released in the second half of 2026. We believe this reflects the company’s commitment to garner core community support and understanding for age verification before enacting it. Relatedly, online identity software provider Persona came under attack for its data collection practices, as Discord tested and subsequently abandoned it. This could further fuel trust and safety concerns around Roblox, one of its customers. Other notable customers are Reddit and OpenAI.

Discord Co-Founder and CTO Stan Vishnevskiy explained in the blog post on February 24, 2026, “In hindsight, we should have provided more detail about our intentions and how the process works. The way this landed, many of you walked away thinking we’re requiring face scans and ID uploads from everyone just to use Discord. That’s not what’s happening, but the fact that so many people believe it tells us we failed at our most basic job: clearly explaining what we’re doing and why. That’s on us.”

In the meantime, Discord will work to make age verification more secure and trusted, including new vendor transparency efforts, stating, “Any partner offering facial age estimation must perform it entirely on-device. If they don’t meet that bar, we won’t work with them.”

“We’re listening. We’ll get this right. And when we ship, you’ll be able to see for yourselves.”

- Stan Vishnevskiy, Discord Co-Founder / CTO

Discord has confirmed three ways for a user to verify their age: an AI-powered face scan or a government ID upload, and the company has announced it will expand this list over the next few months to include credit card verification. Discord emphasizes that most users will never be required to do verify. Instead, the company will largely rely on an age-inference process powered by an advanced machine-learning model that analyzes user behaviors to estimate age. As reported on February 24, 2026, Discord believes that “for 90%+ of users, nothing changes…if you’re among the less than 10% of users who do need to verify, we’ll give you options, designed to tell us only your age and never your identity.” Discord also confirmed that chat history will not be collected as part of the estimation process and that no additional data collection will be required. Discord’s announcement follows Roblox’s age-verification global rollout in January 2026, which was also poorly received.

These initiatives have led us to ask three questions: First, is age-verification possible to provide in a way that protects children and does not infringe on basic individual privacy rights? Second, are these policies easy to circumvent? Third, if only one or a few platforms and countries adhere to these standards, will users search for alternatives? We believe, first and foremost, in child safety, but many of the ethical issues around age verification are nuanced.

We did a deep dive into age verification to predict how other platforms might follow Roblox and Discord’s lead, and we were surprised to find that many platforms have already implemented similar policies.

Instagram (Meta) offers an interesting case study in age verification. Instagram and Discord have similar requirements for their users; however, Instagram slowly introduced its current policies over three years, starting in 2022, while Discord planned to do it in about a week. Instagram’s history for context:

• Phase 1 (June 22-23, 2022) Meta announces that it will begin using machine learning techniques to estimate users’ ages across its platforms. “For large-scale companies like Meta, artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the best tools we have to help us tackle these types of challenges at scale.” Meta provides no information on how these technologies will be used on Instagram. The following day, Instagram announces manual Age verification in the United States, including facial scans, photo ID uploads, and ‘social vouching,’ a technique which includes asking friends for other friends’ ages. Of course, this was promptly canceled, but it was a notable snafu to us, given Meta’s Cambridge Analytica history. The original announcement mentioned AI as a tool but provided no context about how it would be used on Instagram. Over the next two years, Instagram expanded the program, including AI, globally.

• Phase 2 (September 17, 2024): Instagram rolls out Automatic Teen Accounts, which tag users under 18 and add restrictions and parental controls. They also stated that those under 16 would need parental involvement in using the app. Instagram also explained how AI behavioral tracking would be used to prevent users from lying about their age. The behavioral AI model uses age-specific behaviors (‘signals’) and simple message tracking, such as “Happy 16th birthday” from a friend, to trigger a warning that prompts active verification with a face scan or ID.

• Phase 3 (June 2025) Global Rollout of Automatic Teen Accounts, live in every market where Instagram operates, becoming the global standard in under 3 years.

Discord’s 2026 rollout will largely mirror an expedited version of Instagram’s Phase 3 playbook: behavioral AI identifies users who are likely teenagers and flags suspicious accounts, requiring manual verification via face scan, ID upload, or credit card verification. There is, however, one key difference: while Instagram analyzes message content to estimate age, Discord has guaranteed it will not review message data to estimate a user’s age. This is important because it reinforces how Discord is not collecting any new data from its users or putting them at heightened risk of data breaches.

Our Conclusions

• Discord is handling age verification in the most ‘Discord way’ possible, meeting impending regulatory demands without increasing data collection or compromising user privacy.

• Instagram spent three years conditioning its users to accept strict age-verification requirements. Discord announced the same destination in just one week, compressing years of policy development into a single, startling moment. We believe much of the outrage comes from shock, not lasting discontent.

• Even with Instagram’s extended rollout, the platform faced some backlash, but after its global launch, it didn’t report a significant drop in engagement. We expect the same for Discord; people are loud today, but tomorrow they will quietly return to their favorite servers.

• Furthermore, the anger over Discord’s preemptive policy shift will likely appear mild compared to the regulatory shifts happening across the globe and from state to state.

Who is the Most Logical Gatekeeper?

Many have argued that the largest platforms, Apple and Google, might be the most logical starting point.

Under the proposed App Store Accountability Act, companies like Apple and Google would be legally required to handle age verification through its App Stores. Representative John James, who introduced and sponsored the bill in the House, argues, “The App Store Accountability Act holds Big Tech companies to the same standard as local corner stores. It safeguards the next generation by empowering parents and ensures that when it comes to protecting children, no one is above the law.”

Apple, however, argues that parents, not the company, should be responsible for setting age parameters for their children’s accounts. Apple also emphasized that age-related data storage should not be required by app stores or developers, adding that parents should control whether their child’s age range is shared with app developers.

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, surprised the world by giving Apple a shout-out when he joined the conversation on February 24, 2026, highlighting Apple as the only company with a good age-verification solution.

“Let parents, who buy the devices used by kids, set up kids accounts and decide what they’re allowed to do, then pass those decisions to apps through parental controls -- without demanding anyone’s identity papers.”

- Tim Sweeney, CEO Epic Games

Sweeney went on to raise growing concerns over these regulations, stating that “by passing these send-all-apps-your-private-data laws, politicians are breaking everyone’s fundamental right to privacy.” In essence, parents should have the right to decide how to raise their kids, and the focus should be on building the tools to make those choices easier.

Sweeney is uniquely positioned to discuss this because Epic Games has its own verification tool, Kids Web Services (KWS), designed for parents to use as a tool in raising their children. KWS allows parents to verify themselves as a trusted adult once. This is important because the service is offered to the "source," that is, the parents, who then verify their own children and grant permission for features that collect personal information, thereby protecting children and parents from privacy leaks. Also, as more applications and platforms adopt KWS, it becomes increasingly beneficial for parents, since the pool of trusted apps grows. Importantly, Epic Games offers KWS as a free service, and so far, many well-known entities have adopted it: EA, Marmalade Game Studio, Milestone, Among US, 2K, Bungie, InnerSloth, BlueSky, and Niantic, among others.

Blockchain Technology Has Finally Found Product Market Fit

We have believed for many years that one of the most compelling solutions for online data privacy and age verification is a blockchain technology called “zero-knowledge” proofs, or ZK proofs. There are several providers of these. On the topic of Apple and Google as potential gatekeepers for age verification, Google released its own ZK proof service in July 2025. Effectively, zero-knowledge proofs allow users to verify their age without requiring PII (personally identifiable information). Once users have obtained a proof-of-age credential from a wallet provider like Google, visiting a website that requires age verification will simply prompt a Yes/No question about whether the person is over a certain age. The wallet on the device generates a cryptographic proof, which is delivered to the website to confirm the validity of the answer, and access is granted. We believe ZK proofs could be a practical way to address rising concerns about the storage and privacy of age-verification data and could also reduce the need for third-party vendors, each of which comes with its own risks.

The Path Forward

Countries such as Australia, Brazil, Spain, France, Denmark, Greece, Austria, the United Kingdom, and various US states kicked off the requirement for online age verification by enacting legislation to make online child safety non-negotiable. Platforms have adopted various methods to address these challenges, and while it is worth discussing them as they arrive, we believe that age verification will simply be a standard feature for online access. We are confident that, in the post-Cambridge Analytica era, the market will demand privacy protection as table stakes, and blockchain technology is optimally suited to solve this challenge. Ironically, it could be centralized entities, like Apple and Google, who are best positioned to provide it.

Disclaimer

This material is prepared by SIGNUM GROWTH CAPITAL and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast, research or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. The opinions expressed are as of the date on the front page, and may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by SIGNUM to be reliable, are not necessarily all inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by SIGNUM, its officers, employees or agents. An affiliate of Signum Growth is an investor in Discord.

*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. This material may contain ‘forward-looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any asset classes or any investment strategy nor shall any securities be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

This Presentation is for information purposes only and intended for “accredited investors” as defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D under the Securities Act of 1933 and (i) does not constitute an offer of securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities, and (ii) may not be relied upon in making an investment decision related to any investment offering by the issuing company, or any affiliate, or partner thereof. Consult the PPM for investment conditions, risk factors, minimum requirements, fees and expenses and other pertinent information with respect to this investment. This investment opportunity has not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933 and is being offered pursuant to an exemption therefrom and from applicable state securities laws. All information is subject to change. There is no assurance that the investment objectives of this offering will be attained. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All estimates provided should be considered preliminary, and subject to change. Lack of diversification, investment in a single asset creates higher risk and may expose invested principal and there is no guarantee that an exit strategy or liquidity event will occur.

Note Readers: After a long hiatus from Substack, we are back as this appears to be the distribution platform that honors human writing and is not rife with algorithm puzzles. We hope that you will stick with us as we publish analyses here on gaming, entertainment and crypto. The Game Souk, our 9am ET Thursday livestream on X (@daltonan, @popdotplay) will continue, as X is a good format for live.

Roblox Pays Attention to Attention

Roblox reported earnings Thursday night. Having grown up in and around Media land in public markets, I can tell you that Time Spent is the key metric. For Q4, Roblox hours of engagement grew 88% YoY to 35 billion. This is just a massive number, higher than any other social media, especially when one considers that this is off of a high base. DAUs came in at 144m, +69% YoY, which implies time spent per day of ~2.7 hours. Brands - please reach out and JOIN US in our mantra as OLIPOP did - Merge onto the Highway of Behavior that is Already Happening!

Super Bowl Ads in Context - OLIPOP vs Poppi is the New Coke vs Pepsi

Ahead of the Super Bowl, we thought that it would be fun to compare Poppi’s Super Bowl ad from last year to our OLIPOP ad in SpongeBob Tower Defense with Wonder Works Studio. If you have a teenager or young adult anywhere in your orbit, you likely have tried a probiotic soda. OLIPOP and Poppi are the two dominant brands that have taken Coke and Pepsi’s spots in taste tests and cultural zeitgeist. Poppi is literally the Pepsi side of the debate, after the former’s $1.95 billion acquisition by PepsiCo.

2026 is a record high cost for the Super Bowl. According to Ad Meter, a 30-second Super Bowl ad costs ~$8m - $10m, or ~$60-$70+ CPM (cost per thousand impressions) PLUS production costs of $11m-$20m. See comparison of Poppi alongside what we can share on our OLIPOP campaign in SpongeBob Tower Defense, led by Steven Vigilante and team. We introduced a quest line in which players were spending up to eight hours of proactive, lean-forward time to win a chance to pick up a 4-pack of OLIPOP at Walmart. This multi-week, game-within-the-game resulted in ~249 million impressions. Then came “The Carbonator” and there are ~237,000 cars that were collected by players. Jump into the game to see - they are still driving around the game. One of our favorite moments came in December when Miles on our team was sitting in the lobby of the game, in his Carbonator, to listen to Ice Spice’s live performance of her song, “Big Guy” from the new SpongeBob movie, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants.

Fortnite - same story. We loved the post by Zack Billingham, Partnerships Lead, at Good Gamers, which explained that the media cost and the production cost of an ad in Fortnite is <1% of a Super Bowl ad. On impressions, he used 150m for the Super Bowl and 100m for Fortnite, so even if these numbers are simply directionally correct, wouldn’t it make sense to at least have a strategy for Fortnite? Again, he makes the point that the format in Fortnite is interactive, and exposure is not a one time shot, but rather on repeat. The impressions keep flowing, and the actual CPM paid keeps dropping.

More Super Bowl Advertising Madness

The Anthropic teaser of their Super Bowl ad was hilarious. For context, OpenAI’s revenues are dominated by Consumer, while Anthropic’s are dominated by Enterprise. OpenAI has come out with a goal of $25 billion in advertising revenue by 2030. Anthropic’s ad will make fun of Open AI’s move into ads and will also commit not to moving in this direction, demonstrating with humor the absurdity of the idea. This is all entertaining but as we have seen with every new platform that garners mass market behavior, the advertising format is different and more authentic. So even though this will likely spook people, we would bet that when OpenAI actually rolls out advertising it will be a lot more creative than people think. Remember, Sam Altman tapped Fidji Simo to lead this effort. She led Facebook’s pivot to video, launched Facebook Live and Watch, and drove creativity and innovation in advertising. We expect nothing less at OpenAI.

Google Genie’s is Out of the Bottle

The news of Google’s experimental prototype from Google DeepMind that enables users to create 3D virtual worlds using text prompts and images caused a stir and a downdraft in gaming related stocks like Unity. We believe that this is less about real impact and more about the current market spirits, following a period when Enterprise Software stocks have been under severe pressure due to AI, a pressure that does seem more deeply impactful. Both of these, along with the quantum computing potential impact on Bitcoin, didn’t matter until they did.

Generally, our response to Google’s announcement is YES. Yes, we are in the early days of a massive secular growth shift from traditional game publishers who spend hundreds of millions of dollars and years building games to platforms like Roblox and Epic Games’ Fortnite, upon which games can be built, marketed and distributed faster and cheaper, using studio-level tools that have been democratized and now reach 15-year-olds in their bedrooms. In terms of real potential impact, fortunately for gaming companies, they are among the first users of new tech like AI. Take Two’s Strauss Zelnick stated simply this week, “AI tools are not entertainment experiences. Creators use tools to create great entertainment.” Mike liked an even simpler analogy that Strauss laid out on the earnings call this week, “Can ChatGPT write a novel? Yes. Will it be any good? No.” We also were lucky to get Marguerite deCourcelle, Founder & CEO of Blockade Labs, views on the show. She is steeped in experience in developing AI tech for virtual world creation and major gaming platforms. Marguerite believes that Genie is technically impressive but not yet scalable for real game development. It reminded us of the early NFT era. In 2018, Marguerite and I were on a panel with the creator of the ERC-721 standard for NFTs. The mantra of the moment was ‘NFTs will allow one to move a gun from Call of Duty to Fortnite.’ That was a dream, or maybe a hallucination. While it is good to dream, like the early NFT era, Genie shows potential, but execution still has miles to go.

Before we dive into Roblox, first Fortnite - Please Join Signum Growth Dot Play at Unreal Fest in Orlando, where we will co-host the AWS Unreal Fest Kickoff Party for Game Developers on Monday June 2nd, featuring wrestling star and actress Mercedes Moné - The CEO – All Elite Wrestling (AEW) Star, Actress, and Entrepreneur, as she shares her unique path to success in wrestling and in entertainment. You have seen her in The Mandalorian! She will be joined by Nancy Chen, a UEFN entrepreneur and Founder of Girlies Server, now at 33,000 members, and Andrew Temkin, a UEFN brand integration specialist. Miles Dorsey of Braingum, as seen on our (Pop!) Dot Play Game Souk, will be there too, and I’ll be moderating a discussion on the challenges and opportunities of building experiences on UEFN. AWS will be showcasing the latest in gaming technology, with interactive demos leveraging AWS generative AI tools.

Roblox’s Grow-A-Garden is Bamboo in the UGC Rainforest!

I once read that bamboo can grow 35 inches in one day, under the right conditions. During this Memorial Day weekend, Roblox hit an all-time high in terms of the number of players on the platform. I sound like a broken record as this seems to happen every weekend. The entire platform hit 17.8 million concurrent users (CCUs), a record over its all time high last weekend, which exceeded the prior weekend’s top. The mind-blowing statistic that torpedoed Roblox into another stratosphere happened on Saturday, when one game of the platform’s 40 million games, Grow A Garden, hit 8.9 million CCUs. Putting this in perspective, all of Counter-strike was at 1.5 million and all of Fortnite was at 1.07 million. To quote Buffalo Springfield, for most brands, they know that something is happening here, but what it is isn’t exactly clear. Let us help you! We fell down the rabbit hole of Roblox seven years ago, and we are seeing increasingly clearly that this is the new social media. The audience is aging and brands need help in these new waters. We are living our #1 mantra - Merge onto the highway of behavior that is already happening!

Fortnite In Focus After Five-Year Hiatus

This week’s Game Souk featured the biggest story of the week - Fortnite is back on mobile and in the U.S. iOS App Store! After a five year hiatus, Tim Sweeney has fought the monopolist and won, on behalf of game developers everywhere, and on behalf of players in the US. The next market to receive Fortnite on iOS will be the United Kingdom sometime in 2H25, according to the press, and the EU was reopened earlier this year. The judge was blunt - Apple willfully violated a 2021 injunction by restricting third-party payment options in its store. Coinciding with its return, we will be seeing some Mandalorian-themed skins and other Star Wars, and perhaps even Superman, content.

This past week, in speaking at Gamesbeat in Los Angeles, I highlighted this as a major breakthrough for Epic’s creator platform, UEFN, which many would argue is the only alternative platform to Roblox. Also, the importance of mobile among UGC (User Generated Content) players and developers is palatable, with roughly 72% of Roblox players accessing the platform via phones and tablets, leaving only 25% and 3% of players using desktops and consoles, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.

Roblox - The Power of Unleashed Creativity & Easy Tools

As our in-house Roblox expert James Purell can often do, he threw out a controversial statement in the Souk - he didn’t think the news would be that impactful to UEFN because Roblox has spent the last five years building a true platform that enables an “anything goes” environment for creators. Giving game developers freedom unleashes their ability to make money, which builds sustainable platform value. We often hear reports that Epic is drip feeding creators with controlled IP releases and managing developers closely to make sure that each creates a different interpretation of a given IP, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Meanwhile, Roblox is seeing an explosion of content, which leads to more competition, more resiliency, and more time spent. See Grow A Garden above. Wow!

Looking forward to seeing you all at an Epic Unreal Fest next week in Orlando!

Executive Summary - Between the Milestones

When insights come, they are almost never on a check list, but rather, between the lines. While we continue to execute on short term milestones, we remain focused on the long term, even if it will be a windy path. We believe the shortest path to onboarding the masses to web3 gaming will be to onboard the game developers with massive audiences - audiences who will follow.

We have seen the way it can play out through the lens of the cornerstone of Polkadot gaming - Mythical. Sticking to their North Star of building truly fun and engaging experiences for people, not token trading, has meant that the game mechanics are driving engagement. Therefore, long-term media value, while attracting the likes of Pudgy Penguins, the FIFA League (one month from today the FIFA Club World Cup launches in the US!), Romain Schneider and his stellar team at Spectarium, coming soon to Mythical Marketplace, along with several others. As Arron Goolsbey, COO/CTO of Mythical, and Advisor to Dot Play, stated last week, “Mythical Marketplace for games hit #1 in global volumes, ahead of Ethereum. Proof that high quality videogames are the hero use-case for the application of web3 technology, especially when it comes to empowering gamers and creators with true ownership and advanced marketplaces.” My sidenote: the below chart is before the launch of Pudgy Party and FIFA Rivals in a few weeks!

Back in 2016, we were already in a crisis of authenticity (awakened by Cambridge Analytica) and we already needed to break the blockades that false, purchased narratives were building between people.

A national security level crisis might wake us, but why not fix this now? The original vision and ethos of web3 is that a new version of the internet, upon which decentralized applications may be built, is needed to fix this crisis of inauthenticity. In short, Polkadot empowers us - we no longer need to trust the platforms or the centralized orchestrators. This is the meaning of Less Trust | More Truth. Ultimately, we envision a new version of the internet that will allow game developers to create authentic experiences, stay connected to their audiences, maintain their sovereignty, and ‘click in’ to the truth.

Community is the Secret Sauce

The Dot Play team remains confident in our ability to build the pivotal hub for gaming in Polkadot. However, before throwing a party, one must prepare the house. To hone this analogy, we are preparing the playground. While we were previously speaking about building an “Experience Exchange for Gaming” we are now calling this space a playground, where many experiences in Polkadot, even outside of gaming, may be accessed and where shared experiences can happen.

This quarter, we made significant progress in tools and tools providers. First, both Unreal and Unity SDKs for Polkadot are now available, with the Unreal SDK having recently been added by Cedric Decoster from Ajuna. However, the availability of these SDKs is insufficient for mass adoption. More important will be our ability to provide a playground where players can stop in to socialize and find out what is happening in the Polkadot community. A tool that goes beyond the game engine, which provides much easier onboarding to game developers, is required. We are now in the process of understanding and testing S.A.G.E., also built by Cedric, because it offers the ability to build games quickly that tap into blockchain mechanics immediately, regardless of which game engine is chosen. This is music to our ears as we aim to onboard millions of developers, or at least a certain number of developers, each of whom have millions in their audiences. What is next? A sound marketing and distribution strategy, which will include - yes - hackathons for game developers to learn how to build games in Polkadot! Stay tuned.

The purpose of one of our favorite quotes, “Trust the Process” by Sam Hinke is to remind us that we are laying a long term foundation for onboarding the masses to Polkadot gaming. We are not aiming for near term volume that we have seen with other protocols. While this may have delivered a steady drumbeat of flashy blockchain game headlines in the short term, it has also proven to be fruitless labor, as most of these efforts round to zero. These “blockchain games” have been nothing more than short-lived, centralized money grabs wrapped in nice graphics. Learning from others’ past failures in Web3 Gaming, along with our own experiences over two decades in gaming and esports, demands us to look beyond the horizon to build a long term vibrant Polkadot gaming community.

In fact, building an engaged and authentic community is the hard part, and it is everything. Mobile game marketing continues to be challenged, both due to known regulatory challenges, and also due to a strong supply of content. Therefore, game devs scramble to create a community, aware that this is the only hack. Oh, and we only have so much time in the day!

Our team has made a lot of progress in building relationships with indie developers on other platforms. Since they share our ethos, we believe they could create a steady stream of onboarding. However, this depends on our ability to prepare a nice landing spot for them.

While the first two quarters of Dot Play were spent in the trenches with indie developers building a games publisher for Polkadot, this last quarter has been about preparing the playground. Playground prep includes the launch of Polkadot Hub, the launch of Mythical Pulse, the user bridge between Mythical and Frequency, and our desire to build an Experience Exchange with “Dot Pops” as our reward points.

None of these practical plans will matter if we are not nice. “Play nice on the playground” can sometimes seem anathema to our culture when the search for truth can veer into “gotcha” culture. We should be vigilant in making sure that this doesn’t alienate outsiders coming in; it may be a challenge to overcome in our journey if we hope to build a healthy and collaborative ecosystem.

We have been getting to know the Gavun Wud community, and we love these guys! Our livestream with the team, along with JAMTON and Jay at the Kus drew almost 800 live viewers. We had no idea that this was purely a community-driven effort of people, like us, who were inspired by the Dr. Gavin Wood, as the main character in their community. The engagement has been building in advance of the upcoming Wud Universe, teased on the show, along with a tournament series. Also, JAMTON described the rollout of Wud on Telegram as the first application on Polkadot that will be accessible by Telegram users - as of March 2025, Telegram surpassed 1 billion MAUs, a significant milestone that caught our attention. It is not that Wud accessed the Telegram community that excites us. We have seen many meteoric Telegram games, only to drop like a stone when users are on to the next token hunt. What excites us about Wud is more the fact that we are seeing real community engagement so it has a shot of not only building real media value in Polkadot, but of bringing people outside of Polkadot into the ecosystem.

Gavun Wud Livestream

Gaming & Social Media are Blending - Mythical Pulse X Frequency

Also this quarter, alongside Advisor Arron Goolsbey, CTO/COO of Mythical, we are getting excited about a new Mythical gaming offering, coming soon, called Pulse. We believe it will pull together games that are inside and outside of Mythical, such as our favorite Polkadot-native team, EVRLOOT, and supercharge other ecosystems in Polkadot. Since we care deeply about fixing the current crisis of internet inauthenticity, it goes without saying that Frequency, as the first implementation of the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP), i.e., user-controlled social media platforms, is of tantamount importance. Over many brainstorming sessions, we have come to the realization that we need a foundational community layer for Polkadot gaming. If we can get this right, we will be able to replace the difficult-mountain-to-climb, Polkadot onboarding, with a Delorean Time Machine - an instant onboard to fun!

In this effort, we are pulling together a handful of promising candidates to build this, and we aim to keep the UX Bounty/Braille team up to date as we go. One epiphany is the tremendous synergy between Mythical and Frequency. They both see it, and, well, they are both understandably really busy! According to press reports, Frequency’s Frank McCourt has raised $20 billion to bid on TikTok and, as we said in our 2025 preview, we do not believe they will stop there. Meanwhile, see above on what Mythical has been doing. Stay tuned - Dot Play is pushing through and aims to convert some exciting strategy sessions to action.

Esports & Sponsorship Deals - Our Community Service Hat

Having served as the Head of the Audit Committee on the public corporate board of FaZe Clan, prior to its sale to Gamesquare, I have been advocating to create a committee for each industry vertical to pre-negotiate deals before they become fully-baked Treasury proposals. Sponsorship-oriented proposals continue to face negative sentiment from the Polkadot community, and the Faze x Vitality - Unifying ecosystem efforts through Esport - Metaproposal - Referenda 1533 is no exception.

Its rationale is explained up front as, “this Metaproposal is the result of a collective effort by more than 11 ecosystem agents from complementary backgrounds [names] and 7 partners (Airlyft, Braille, Nyvium Labs, ElevateCore, LeNexus, FaZe and Vitality) united by the same conviction: ‘Polkadot needs a clear, coordinated and operational interface to structure its public actions.’ Millions are spent each year on various initiatives to promote the Polkadot brand to consumers and professionals. However, we don't really have the internal tools we need to maximise and make the most of this spend. In fact, much of this money is wasted…”

Despite the fact that this proposal is failing, we are proud of the fact that both companies' proposals were pre-negotiated significantly, and that this team of ecosystem agents brought together two competitors, in collaboration for Polkadot.

Side note - we were one of the voices of concern at the height of spending. We even took on Bill Laboon’s challenge to create a sustainable model that would flow money back to the Treasury - voila, the Dot Play games publisher! The idea is that games publishing is a high cash flow business, and if we can provide expert services in exchange for a revenue share, while acting in a Business Development capacity, we can shepherd indie game developers with large audiences to Polkadot, and at the same time, pay the Treasury back.

The Game Souk - Please Join Us!

As a reminder, Dot Play kicks off each day with an internal meeting at 6am ET, dedicated to longer term projects like the Experience Exchange for Gaming, aka the Playground. We also host our daily community call, The Game Souk, from 9am - 930am ET. A goal that we set for ourselves this quarter was to livestream The Game Souk for the Polkadot community and for the broader gaming community once per week. Update - it is happening! We meet every day from 9:00am ET - 9:30am ET, and we are now livestreaming the Game Souk on Thursdays straight from our X and LinkedIn accounts. Here is the regular crew.

2025 is Now Wide Open! The sole focus of the video game industry this year has been GTA VI, which most expected around YE25, until this morning when Rockstar officially pushed the game more than a year out to May 26, 2026. Take-Two stock dropped 12% on the news, and it blew a crater in the content calendar that’s now fair game for everyone else. Any discussion involving a new game includes its position relative to GTA VI, and no one wants to be in its vicinity, for fear of getting squashed into a tree-falling-in-the forest narrative. In short, many studios have delayed their games until 2026 because "no one wants to compete with GTA." What might occur in response to this news? Other studios might try to rush to a holiday 2025 release, but large studios may face more difficulty in shifting time tables and budgets. To us, this appears to be positive for UGC platforms, Roblox and UEFN, who can more easily fill the holiday void.

Unlike many others in the industry, GTA VI is still set to release exclusively on Xbox Series X, Series S and PlayStation 5 with plans to move to PC a year later (May 2027). We believe this is likely due to console exclusivity deals, with Microsoft and Sony effectively subsidizing the delay. CEO Strauss Zelnick said it’s not that PC doesn’t matter as the platform can account for 40% of total sales. Our UEFN expert Miles Dorsey was comparing GTA VI’s potential impact on UGC platforms and pointed out that GTA VI might be poised to compete with Fortnite UEFN before it affects Roblox. Fortnite players are primarily on console—same place GTA VI is launching first. Roblox players, meanwhile, are split across PC, mobile, and console, and tend to bounce between them. So even if they boot up GTA on Xbox, they’ll still be on Roblox later that night on their iPad. Roblox likely won’t feel it until the PC version of GTA VI drops in 2027.

Good News from Epic. This week will be remembered as a major win for online commerce, a gift brought to the world by Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney. Developers around the world were cheering as Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers held Apple in willful violation of the 2021 injunction in the Epic Games antitrust case. The importance of Tim Sweeney’s relentless crusade to call Apple out on their legal compliance theater cannot be underestimated. It brought me great joy to read his tweet proclaiming, “We will return Fortnite to the US iOS App Store next week with a peace proposal - If Apple extends the court's friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we'll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic.”

Judge Gonzalez Rogers was effectively saying, we see what you did there Apple and it's going to STOP. “This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order.”

As Tim Sweeney said on the Lex Fridman podcast, “You already bought that phone. Why should Apple be adding a 30% fee to all commerce you do? And why do they selectively apply it to some things and not others? I have always viewed this as deeply abusive, and it shuts down the competitive engine that once fueled the app and software economy. It (competition) is still on the web, but not on mobile apps. And they don't provide any useful value to the user. Apple and Google shutting down competition for the software economy has massive implications for everything. “

Good News from Roblox. The company reported earnings, and there were two key metrics in our view:

1) 97.8 million average DAUs, up 26%YoY, several million ahead of expectations. In the backdrop of a steady drumbeat of layoffs across the traditional gaming, it's hard to argue against the growth of this platform. It is already larger than all of AAA gaming on a MAU basis and it still doubles every three years.

2) CEO Dave Developers tweeted only one metric on the quarter - the all-time high of $281.6M paid to creators (annualized $1.13 billion) We agree - this is the number!

We have been talking a lot about the importance of Roblox. Old school game developers still live on three month update cycles, while Roblox creators might update every week. If you’re not updating your game weekly, you can become invisible, which is not a bug, but the culture. Roblox isn’t just a platform; it’s a content economy running on the same fuel as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. The dopamine loop isn’t tied to polish, even though the polish gets a much worse rap than it deserves. It’s tied to frequency. Heard from a Robloxian - “I get bored so quickly. If your next update is in three months? I’m already gone.” Roblox game devs understand how to launch fast, update often and keep it moving.

A respite from the good news - traditional gaming continues to bleed jobs. The industry has been struggling with reports of 80,000+ layoffs since the COVID peak. This week, EA announced a lay off of 2.5% of their employees.

Putting all of these datapoints together on our morning Game Souk - a push out of GTA VI, a stronger Fortnite, a stronger Roblox, and a weaker traditional industry - leads us to believe that we are in ‘the strong get stronger’ mode. DTI or SpongeBob Tower Defense anyone?

When I tell people that I have been excited about the games industry since my first E3 twenty years ago, they are usually wondering if I play First Person Shooters (FPS) like DOOM. The unsurprising answer is no (even though I do love other games!) In fact, I still remember the cold, hard fear I felt while watching the latest version on the mega screen at my first games conference. The real answer is that I am a student of emerging technologies and behavior change, and new technologies are typically first used in the cutting edge environment of video games. While you can find examples in the early 1950s of AI in video games, AI really became prolific commercially in the 1970-1980s with games like Pong and Pac-Man.

What happened this weekend?! In addition to Brie Clark pushing the bounds of the human body, an historic technological breakthrough was demonstrated when Gavin Wood (@gavofyork) demonstrated DOOM running on a Decentralized Web Services Machine. This isn’t about the game DOOM, but rather about demonstrating a regular application that can run on Polkadot. This is important because a blockchain by itself can't typically run regular applications since there is only so much “work” that can be done by a single block.

Shawn Tabrizi explained, “This proves Polkadot is not simply a blockchain. It is a fully fledged, decentralized supercomputer.” This opens the door to all kinds of applications living on chain, which was never before possible.

@Pala_Labs said, “JAM shows blockchains can go beyond transactions, enabling decentralized computing with continuous execution flow. It’s a breakthrough moment for Web3 computing.”

Emil Keitzman explained - This wasn't a modified version of Doom to put it on the blockchain - just the original game recompiled to target the Polkadot Virtual Machine (PVM). PVM powers JAM's computational layer (like EVM in Ethereum). The demo proved JAM can handle general-purpose computation, not just blockchain-specific tasks. It's the first step to bring web2->web3, as JAM just runs arbitrary software. Read more in the post on how it works.

@Alice_und_Bob also breaks it down in several ways - Today developers have to think very constrained. They have to write code that fits inside a block. On short transactions. This is a huge limitation. Gavin’s invention removes that limitation and opens it up to write any program on JAM. It proves you can run normal software on a fully on-chain Virtual Machine - without modifications. Not just smart contracts. Any app!!! This isn’t just about gaming. It’s a glimpse into a future where entire applications run trustless & decentralized - unstoppable, native to the internet. You cannot overstate how significant this is!

Why did Gavin choose DOOM? I haven’t spoken to him about it but to me, it is poetic. The DOOM engine, used to make the game in 1993, had a major impact on the future. Even 30 years later, its DNA is deeply embedded in game development, given its technical ingenuity. It inspired modern shooter mechanics, the foundations of online competitive gaming, engine cross platform support, and even the earliest glimpses of UGC (User Generated Content.)

Those of us who know Dot Play know that we believe UGC platforms are the major disruptor to gaming broadly, as evidenced by the platform Roblox, now larger than all of AAA gaming combined.

Stay tuned for web3 gaming industry takes from ETH Denver. In the meantime, we will point you to a great presentation by Shawn Tabrizi along with a big idea, which reflects our thesis on web3 gaming -

• Developers should just build applications

• Users should just interact with applications

• Blockchains only need to exist underneath to achieve consensus

EU’s Peace Efforts. Not an event this weekend, but February 24th marked the three-year milestone of Russia’s brutal attacks on Ukraine. The EU also passed the 16th sanctions package, banning the export of video game consoles and accessories to Russia because, again, the tech is powerful and why put anything that can be used as a weapon into their hands. The sanctions specifically restrict the export of gaming controllers, gamepads, joysticks, and other input devices for video game consoles or entertainment systems. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony had already blocked sales of their products to Russia in early March 2022. The EU ban aims to prevent third-party resellers within the European Union from supplying these goods to Russia.

Please Join Our Next Game Souk! We meet every day from 9:00am ET - 9:30am ET, and while it is always open to all, we advertise the Game Souk on Thursdays.

Events - Where We Have Been This Quarter!

• Slush, Helsinki, Finland: By far, the biggest event that we have hosted so far was at Slush. We were invited by the largest studio on Roblox, Gamefam, to host the only Official Gaming Side Event at Slush, a very difficult conference ticket to access. As the sole representatives of Polkadot at the conference, the entire team attended, along with a few of our partners who were invited to speak. Over 400 people checked in or joined for a part of our one-day event. The event was budgeted for 250 people, and fortunately, we allowed for extras. And yes, we are ordering more of the pink scarves. Slush attendees: investors, companies, creators, game developers, entertainment industry professionals. See pictures below. Speaking of the scarves, we set one aside for our Dot Play Bounty curator, Chrissy Hill, whom I was able to meet at Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty Conference in Washington DC!

• OODA Con Cyber Security Conference, Washington DC: Our friends Matthew Devost, CEO and Co-Founder of OODA, and Bob Gourley, CTO of OODA, host an incredible cyber security conference every year, and this year did not disappoint with one of our favorite themes - Convergence. Angela Dalton was interviewed in a fireside chat, as the only representative of a blockchain protocol my panel is "Blockchain in the Context of Cybersecurity" and Polkadot was the only branded blockchain. The audience included CEOs, CIOs, and CISOs of T Rowe Price, Citi, DELL and UBS Global and focused on the geo-politics and security of disruptive technologies.

• 2025 Game Awards, Dot Play + CAA Inaugural Frame & Pixel Party: Angela Dalton was invited to the Game Awards as the guest of Death Row Games (Snoop, Cordell Broadus). Thanks to intro by Immix Law, CAA invited Dot Play to be added as a Co-host for an Evening Celebrating Video Games & Hollywood with approx 125 guests from Film, Media, Athletes, Gaming, Legal

• Game Souk, Hosted by Dot Play, Angela Dalton, London. Approximately 35 people attended to learn about Polkadot and Gaming

• Pocket Gamers Keynote Presentation, Angela Dalton, London How UGC Platforms Like Roblox & UEFN are Accelerating the Convergence of Entertainment and Gaming

SLUSH 2024

OODACon 2024

The Vision

Dot Play’s goal is to connect the dots in a fragmented entertainment landscape. We aim to proactively reach the highest growth genres in gaming, and to demonstrate the ways in which web3 can empower game developers to maintain their sovereignty and to stay close to their audiences. This is a big vision, and we don’t see anyone else in the market who is brave enough to tackle it. At the same time, we aim to respond to and assist all types of game developers, regardless of size or whether they intend to launch a token. Importantly, we aim to empower creators with essential tools, and provide sustainable business development support for trans media* extension, with Polkadot as behind the scenes infrastructure.

*Trans media: the consumption and expansion of an IP or experience across social media, gaming, television and film

Powered by Polkadot is our new mantra to anyone and everyone we meet. So far, we have created two trailers to showcase the concept.

Nitro Nation World Tour’s global launch is planned for Q225. The game assets will be secured by the Mythos chain, Powered by Polkadot.

Sortium, Polkadot’s 3D asset generation tool, will be provided to game publishers in the Polkadot ecosystem to be able to create games faster and more efficiently.

The Strategy

Unchanged from the original strategy, we view the business development process as the top of funnel entry point to educate and onboard game developers, studios and other companies and investors to Polkadot. This is an intense process of coordination that we all must dedicate to in order to execute. Initial meetings (“INTRO I”) are either referred to a best fit in the ecosystem, or they continue down the funnel. The middle of the funnel consists of due diligence, INTRO IIs, followed by meetings with others in the ecosystem. The bottom of the funnel are potential game publisher partners of the Dot Play Bounty, or recipients of capital from other investors. In the future, this will include the AD8 Dot Play New Superstars Fund.

The gaming industry is evolving rapidly, with three powerful trends shaping its future: User-Generated Content (UGC), Web3, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). These technologies are converging to create a new wave of opportunities, fundamentally democratizing the way in which games are developed, distributed, and monetized. As Eliza Jäppinen, our Head if IP Development says,

“Studio level professional tools are in the hands of 15 year olds.”

The intersection between these three technologies is where disruptive change is occurring. The accelerated capabilities of AI is currently acting as fuel for UGC and Web3, both on the asset generation and game development fronts. IP rights is an emerging topic, as we approach what will most likely be an era in which we see an explosion of digital assets, alongside an explosion of a crisis in authenticity. Polkadot’s secure infrastructure, which will ensure provenance and authenticity, along with its ethos of Less Trust, More Truth, will be perfectly positioned to onboard creativity.

Also unchanged - the Roblox and Fortnite creator platforms are the perfect hunting ground for the web2 to web3 gaming migration as they are full of successful independent game developers and these are the most active platforms in gaming. It is surprising, even to people in traditional video games, that Roblox is larger than all of AAA combined!

We believe that independent game developers in UGC (User Generated Content) spaces are behaviorally built like crypto engineers - they value their freedom and privacy. When we discuss the ethos and values of Web3 (without referring to “tokens” or “blockchain”) they embrace the ideals.

Heard from almost every important game developer -

“I want to be able to figure out a way to stay close to my audience as my content evolves.”

Also heard -

“If we have a hit, I would like to be able to take my content to other mediums without constraints.” (note: remember when YouTube was going to empower content creators, and then they repeatedly tweaked the algorithm until creators had nothing? We are back to those early days of YouTube, but in game development.)

“I have heard of Bitcoin of course. I think I recognize Ethereum. I have never heard of Polkadot but it sounds cool!”

Notably, we have yet to receive the question -

“Is Polkadot EVM compatible?”

We do, however, believe that both Moonbeam and Laos will be feeders into Dot Play’s Experience Exchange.

Finally one negative on crypto that we still hear -

“I can’t have a money grab in my game. I don’t trust crypto.”

A final piece of our strategy is to offer a community service - our industry expertise, extensive experience in contract negotiations and general business practices. Currently, there are proposals that are going through the treasury that have not been vetted or negotiated because there is no way in the current system to do so. We aim to become an active part in changing this so that Polkadot can negotiate contracts that are in our best interest. A compounding aspect to this challenge is that the process is public, which invites competition. This should be a good thing for Polkadot, but we have no way to respond to it. An example of this is the plethora of esports referendums. There are currently two esports proposals, led by two separate community members, and neither has been negotiated. As this is a public process, it wasn’t surprising to receive a call from FaZe Clan, the largest and most valuable esports organization, where I formerly served on the Board of Directors. The activity got their attention, prompting the company to consider throwing its hat in the ring to compete with the others. We have been speaking on the AAG to educate the community before voting, and in addition, we submitted this esports report to all of the DVs and offered time to meet with them this week.

The Technology to Execute on the Strategy - “The Experience Exchange”

In addition to onboarding game and entertainment content, our strategy led to the creation of an Experience Exchange, a complementary vision of the Polkadot Hub and Cloud. We have been meeting with as many potential partners and developers, both in and outside of the Polkadot ecosystem. However, our goal is to use what has already been built if at all possible. For example, we aim to connect to Moon Bearer’s community activities as he has already started a new rewards program which we could extend into our various games.

The Experience Exchange will be an all-in-one community engagement and rewards platform designed for UGC creators, mobile game developers, and Web3 game developers to seamlessly onboard content, engage, and retain their audiences. By integrating automated newsletters, Discord role syncing, and social media challenges, our Experience Exchange will enable creators to track in-game activity, fan engagement, and event participation, while rewarding their communities with exclusive badges, leaderboard recognition, and VIP perks—all within platform guidelines and Powered by Polkadot. Our solution streamlines communication, enhances player loyalty, and drives organic growth, giving creators powerful tools to scale their communities effortlessly.

Polkadot Hub will be core to the Experience Exchange, and we will work closely with Joe Petrowski, a Curator on the Dot Play Bounty, to make sure that it is a seamless integration.

Polkadot Hub Key Concepts that we will expand upon in our next newsletter -

• The Polkadot Hub is the entry point to Polkadot for all users and application developers.

• The Polkadot Hub is the set of functionality available on Polkadot that does not involve deploying and running a parachain.

Interoperability is a key concept. Joe reminds us that even the original Polkadot whitepaper did not describe Polkadot as a single chain, but rather as a “multi-chain framework.”

The protocol itself is a singular concept, with many chain components -

“Polkadot is a scalable heterogeneous multi-chain.” - Polkadot whitepaper

To create a scalable and customizable platform that connects developer rewards and events, the Experience Exchange will be designed to adapt to each developer’s brand and business needs.

Rather than requiring individual funding for each game, we aim to structure it as a self-serve business model, where developers customize their own engagement strategy within the platform.

Rather than build new technology components, we aim to use existing components in the Polkadot ecosystem. Likely candidates are below, and we are tapping into technical expertise that exists in our Dot Play Curator group:

• Personhood

• KILT’s DID

• Mythical’s gaming User Interface called Pulse

• Unique/NFT Mosaic - advisory on putting the pieces together

• Blockdeep - web2 to web3 onboarding tools

• Frequency - interested in using Mythical games to bring new users to Frequency

• Esports orgs, funded by the Polkadot Treasury, will be leveraged and actively negotiated to maximize their ability to augment the voice of Dot Play

Meeting notes from ecosystem developers and studios around the Experience Exchange:

Overall sentiment: This has important implications for the entire ecosystem. Most acknowledge the need for something that can pull together developers and fragmented community efforts. From a gaming perspective, we would like to have a way to onboard game developers in a simplified, standardized way.

Polkadot Hub Upgrade: Polkadot’s core user functionality has several planned upgrades in Q2 and Q3 of this year that will enable great onboarding UX and powerful tools for the development of the Experience Exchange.

Kilt: Ingo has been particularly helpful in offering help in brainstorming and identifying the appropriate technology implementation for the Player ID. As the intricacies of interoperable assets and platform logins proliferate, we aim to simplify and secure the user experience.

Mythical: We aim to develop the user interface through their application called Pulse, which is geared towards community management.

Frequency: We have been meeting with Braxton Woodham to discuss the ways in which interoperability between chains can be a positive driver of new users. For example Mythical, could provide a new gaming solution to frequency which would enable Mythical gamers to onboard to Frequency.

Unique (now “NFT Mosaic”): Alex Mitrovich would like to be instrumental in helping us onboard a system for the Player ID. Alex believes that the Unique product on Polkadot + Tap Nation will provide easy onboarding of games. Tap Nation comes with a stable of hyper casual games. He has also suggested an iPhone / Android native company, who we will meet next week.

3Thix: Building blockchain-powered advertising and data tracking technologies, 3Thix has been an invaluable brainstorm partner. We are exploring how advertising spend can further support overall monetization (also for users) and provide opportunities for the creators and users of the Experience Exchange.

Current sources of games in the ecosystem:

• Mythical

• Tap Nation

• Laos

• Moonbeam

• Polkadot native, e.g., Evrloot

The Day to Day Operations

Given the multiple time zones of Dot Play, we begin our days at 6am ET, typically with a European-based company/project meeting. Then, after an internal organizational meeting at 8:45am ET, we host a daily, open Game Souk from 9am - 9:30am ET. Our message to joiners of the Game Souk - come ready to sell your wares at the souk! (wares = ideas) In this meeting, we host a round robin on developments and datapoints in the news that impact our long term views in gaming, entertainment, web3 and AI. During the day, we are meeting with gaming companies until our end-of-day meeting from 3:00pm - 3:30pm ET. In this last touchpoint, each team member reports back on in-process teams, stumbling blocks and wins.

We have been surprised by the volume of inbound interest in meeting to discuss new opportunities, from new studios interested in building on both Polkadot and Mythos, to Polkadot-native existing games like Evrloot, to Web2 studios who are learning for the first time about Polkadot and Web3. At the same time, we have set up a steady outreach to potential web2 to web3 migrations. This stronger than expected pace of meetings has led to more follow up meetings, more due diligence required, more note taking, and more feedback required to teams. We underestimated the human resources required to execute this fast-paced business that requires an all-hands-on-deck approach and an ability to quickly change strategy based on new information that may come from the due diligence process. All in, we have found that a high level of organization, teamwork and our ability to stick to our process are the keys to successfully execute.

Finally, we have added two “Ambassadors” for Polkadot in Roblox and Fortnite, the two largest independent game developer platforms. Our Roblox Ambassador is James Purell, CEO of BuildingBlox, funded by Dot Play Bounty, and our Fortnite Ambassador is Miles Dorsey, who has not yet received funding. Both regularly join our daily team and company meetings to provide a deeper level of insight and to learn about Polkadot.

Dot Play Bounty

In July 2024, we submitted our proposal to create a gaming bounty structured to:

• Set up the first games publisher on Polkadot, negotiating revenue share deals in exchange for funding and for providing services like marketing, brand integrations and 3D asset generation tools

• Return a profit to the Treasury

• Setup and evaluate a new structure for bounties, consisting of boards and Curators

Return a Profit to the treasury

• Why? Establishing alternative methods to replenish the Treasury can benefit the ecosystem. Returning a profit in stablecoins can relieve the pressure to purchase USD stables

• How? As described in our proposal with net revenue shares in games, taking place in the biggest platforms with the largest audiences

• When? The first proposals were submitted in October/November 2024, presented live on a special segment on the AAG show. As soon as we have a 1x capital return, we will distribute 80% of the profits (“net revenues” in gaming language) to the Treasury.

Thanks for reading and see you at the next Game Souk!

Quick side note - if attending CES, a few investors will gather on July 7th in Las Vegas- we are excited to discuss what Nvidia will have to say and to see more AI in action broadly!

It is Friday at 430pm ET right now, and our team is together in Roblox watching a LIVE version of Heathers! It was ironic to live in Brooklyn with a theater kid, only a couple of miles from actual Broadway, and to find it difficult to find community theater opportunities. On Roblox, theater kids are thriving—auditioning, rehearsing for weeks, and then performing LIVE shows on a schedule, all within a virtual world. By blending the experience of live theater with the accessibility of gaming, these creators are redefining cultural experiences. With avatars standing in for actors and voice channels enabling live audience participation, this is the Metaverse’s standing ovation moment and proof that art, even in digital form, can bring people together in surprising and magical ways.

Those who have been reading Bits for a while can attest that we have been pretty obsessed with LIVE since the Marshmello concert in Feb 2019. Why? Because it is the most valuable media on the planet. Also, a key investment theme at Signum Growth is playing out - a blending of online plus offline events, along with digital plus physical purchasing, represents the next wave of behavior and entertainment. In the same way that the Super Bowl and other live sports draw the biggest media dollars, LIVE and ‘we’re all here together’ is powerful online too. It is the metaverse that we always envisioned.

While we and others are apt to point out the fact that Roblox is many years ahead of Fortnite’s UEFN when it comes to engagement, tools, and discovery, on the topic of LIVE, Epic Games’ Fortnite seems to have a magic formula in the bag. As evidence of the impact of LIVE, Fortnite hosted two recent record-setting events -Snoop Dogg's concert that we were lucky enough to attend in Times Square with Keven Undergaro and the one and only Mercedes Moné. It drew over 11 million live viewers, comprised of 9.8 million watching online and ~1.5 million enjoying the show in person. Then Fortnite broke its own record in November in The Finale, featuring Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Ice Spice, which drew over 14 million concurrent players.

On records, Roblox is breaking records and smashing expectations. With games like Blox Fruits hitting peaks of 2.7 million concurrent players (CCPs) over the last couple of weeks, the platform now rivals—and occasionally surpasses—the biggest mobile games that are distributed by heavyweight Steam. Now, as Roblox bridges LIVE entertainment and community-building, Roblox is proving that the future of gaming is far more than just play—it’s a platform for connection and innovation.

Neutrality Unplugged: The Net Gets Tangled

The recent court ruling striking down net neutrality has sent ripples through the digital world. Once the backbone of a fair and open internet, net neutrality ensured all online traffic was treated equally. With its removal, critics fear a power shift favoring tech giants who can now dominate traffic and stifle smaller competitors. As the FCC steps back from regulation, the internet's future becomes a battleground of innovation, control, and politics, raising questions about who truly holds the keys to the web. Today on the ARK Invest brainstorm, Cathie Wood closed with a quick thought wondering if this further advantages Elon Musk, SpaceX, and T-Mobile? She was referencing the Federal Communications Commission’s approval of a license for the partnership of SpaceX and TMobile in November 2024. Starlink satellites use direct-to-cell technology to transmit signals to compatible T-Mobile devices so they wont need terrestrial infrastructure. Importantly, T-Mobile will have exclusive access to Starlink for the first year.

See also ARK’s Sam Korus’ tweet today “Still working to update w/ incremental info from the SpaceX report, but I'm always amazed at how robust wrights law cost declines are. This is $/Gbps in orbit:” -

That’s a wrap on the week and the merch and snack bar session just ended after the show!

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful weekend!

In 2024, we added Dot Play to Signum Growth - ask us about the pivotal hub for gaming in Polkadot and the sponsor of our podcast, Bits of Signum, Creator Stories!

A good pun is just too tempting - I’m referring to literal book recommendations - Frank McCourt’s Our Biggest Fight and Carley Beck’s Women in the Web3 Space. Also, among so many readings by Cathie Wood and ARK Invest, we focus on the enormous topic of AI as we head into 2025. Before we do, one note - the ARK Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) managed ~$4.37 billion in AUM as of yesterday - kudos to the Cathie and the ARK team on this major win of 2024.

The other theme across our New Year’s Day reflections - Women Warriors of Innovation and the importance of Sig Segalas, Founder of Jennison Associates, in this history. See Signum Growth Dot Play’s three big topics as we head into 2025, along with a 2024 dinner for the books in Austin with a lot of our favorites at the table.

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Topic 1: We need to fix the internet ASAP. Our Biggest Fight, by Frank McCourt. Dot Play will be talking more about this incredibly important fight. MeWe’s CEO Jeffrey Edell laid out the network map for us at a Belgian waffle house a few weeks ago in LA, and a thought nags at us - should Dot Play build a gaming app on Project Liberty’s blockchain Frequency? As most are aware, we are already all-in on another company, Mythical, and their blockchain built on and secured by Polkadot called Mythos. Speaking of Web3, our friend and author Carley Beck, along with seven speakers at the UNGA 78th Science Summit, authored the excellent book, Women in the Web3 Space Inclusive Futures. Thank you, Carley, for the work you do for women, gaming and Web3, and for the shout outs to Mythical and Signum Growth Dot Play. Carley, you win our 2024 award as a road maker and innovation warrior!

We are watching Frank McCourt’s bid for TikTok very closely. The press seems to be focused on the idea that President-Elect Trump does not want TikTok to be banned in the US. Our read is that Frank McCourt has a win/win solution. It is true that Trump filed a brief on Friday asking the Supreme Court to suspend a January 19 deadline until after he takes office. A lower court upheld a law passed by Congress in April to force the sale or ban of TikTok by its Chinese owner, ByteDance. Frank McCourt has a solution - keep it alive and kill the algorithm that is responsible for the national security threat! Frank has spent five years building Project Liberty, and its blockchain network Frequency, and he has also circled $20 billion to buy TikTok. This move would keep the users and the brand intact, while killing the algorithm. Interestingly, four years ago, President Trump believed that Tik Tok should be banned. When it was reported that Microsoft was interested in buying TikTok, President Elect Trump was reported to respond, “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States.”

Topic 2: Polkadot. Normally I spend most of my time talking about the games, the entertainment, and the meat of the highway of behavior change onto which we are merging. Today, we are highlighting a few truths about Polkadot. If you don’t already follow the Kusamarian, Jay and team do a phenomenal job of keeping our community up to speed and of creating a weekly space for live brainstorming, discussion, debate, and yes, a few rants. Here is a must watch Kusamarian retrospective - see easy subscribe button :). Separately, Founder Gavin Wood surfaces from life as a builder about once a year with a must-read reflection on the year - Polkadot Roundup MMXXIV. People are often surprised to learn that we don’t really interact with Gavin - we are in different trenches, sharing a common vision of Less Trust, More Truth! We believe that AI is pouring gasoline onto the fire of inauthenticity on the internet. Since we care a lot about creators and users of games and entertainment, we are passionate about building tech to protect them. Ask our Head of IP Development Eliza Jappinen about her 14 billion views on TikTok and how little control or transparency she had.

Some 2024 Metrics on the Kus!

0:00 Spammening Recap! Smashed the world record for most transactions per second recorded on chain (“TPS” in payments and other online transactions) at 182,000 TPS

5:08 Gaming & Memecoins - Everloot launched!, Mythical’s Pudgy Penguins coming soon, FIFA Rivals, FIFAs first web3 mobile game, coming next summer. Important Note: Mythical has 6 million addresses on the Mythos chain ready for these new games!

6:16 DOT Data Dump! 23,000 active accounts, Polkadot Treasury ~$322m

Topic 3: AI. Yes, saved the biggest topic for last, and Cathie Wood is the Godmother Woman Warrior of Innovation! ARK’s investment in OpenAI is important to highlight - here is What We Think About OpenAI | In The Know With Cathie Wood. The ARK analyst team also boiled it down to a series, which was capped with a must-listen FYI podcast with OpenAI’s CFO Sarah Frier, hosted by Cathie and ARK Futurist Brett Winton. Sarah is another innovation warrior. At one point, the pod brought tears as Cathie called out Sig Segalas, Founder/CIO of Jennison Associates, a life mentor whom I was lucky to share. Sig is on my mind during the holidays as we approach the two-year anniversary of his passing tomorrow. I am so grateful for all that I learned from Sig and for his incredible support of me and other women in technology. A key message that I took from Sarah’s comments, which also reminded me of something Sig would say - it is very early. Sarah argued, in the early days of major disruptive change, the best approach is to go all in on the #1 player, who will be more likely to be able to extend their lead and create a real moat.

In this ITK episode, Brett explains ARK Invest’s 2030 Forecast of AI Revenue and Gross Profit -

In the Know with Cathie Wood - What We Think About OpenAI, Summarized by OpenAI’s ChatGPT -

In the episode “What We Think About OpenAI” from the series “In the Know” with Cathie Wood, ARK Invest’s CEO/CIO Cathie Wood and Chief Futurist Brett Winton discuss their perspectives on OpenAI and its impact on the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape.

Key Highlights:

• OpenAI’s Role in AI Advancement: Cathie Wood emphasizes OpenAI’s significant contributions to the rapid progression of AI technologies, particularly in generative AI models like ChatGPT.

• Investment Perspective: The discussion includes insights into ARK Invest’s approach to investing in AI-driven companies, highlighting the transformative potential of AI across various sectors.

• Ethical and Societal Considerations: Brett Winton addresses the ethical implications of AI development, including concerns about job displacement and the importance of responsible AI deployment.

• Future Outlook: The conversation explores the future trajectory of AI, with predictions about how AI could reshape industries and the global economy.

Short note on the ARK Venture Fund from ARK’s site - All US self-directed investors can download the SoFi app and, with as little as $500, invest in a portfolio of private and public companies through the ARK Venture Fund. SoFi provides members with the ability to invest in a standard brokerage account, or through a Traditional or Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The ARK Venture Fund is also available to unaccredited investors on Titan, a members-only wealth platform.

In 2024, we added Dot Play to Signum Growth - ask us about the pivotal hub for gaming in Polkadot and the sponsor of our podcast, Bits of Signum, Creator Stories!

Over about a week, we were on a whirlwind tour in California, and honestly, it has been so exhilarating that I don't know where to start. Many people will ask what all of this has to do with Polkadot. Simply, we care about empowering developers and creators, who are increasingly one and the same. They are also the ‘New Superstars’ - the script has flipped, and the broadcast model that dominated TV, film, and social media is over. The new model is about the developers/creators/players as Superstars. The big picture is that this is about the audience, most of whom are creators themselves, and they are at the center of it all. We believe Polkadot will provide the security layer for creators’ rights in a decentralized world, and it will all be happening in the background like an AWS server. A datapoint this week that backed our thesis - The Spammening - when Polkadot smashed the record among all blockchains, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, for transactions per second recorded on chain at >128,000. Jay of the Kusamarian and developer Erin Grasnick explain. Here we go -

The Game Awards Eve - Frame & Pixels, CAA party, with Signum Growth Dot Play and Immix Law as headline co-hosts - thank you, CAA and Derek Douglas, for including us. Fallout series Executive Producers Jonah Nolan (The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Westworld, Christopher Nolan’s brother) and Todd Howard (Bethesda, Fallout Game Creator) discussed the path that led to Fallout the game’s adaptation as a movie. It was a story of Jonah’s deep passion for the content and Todd’s trust in Jonah to tap into this passion and create something new for the big screen. After the fireside chat, it was a lot of fun to reconnect with collaborators at Gamefam, Ricardo Briceno and Alli Guglielmino, the Roblox War Tycoon Creator, Kizmotek. along with UGC creators across Fortnite, including JJ Armstrong and Grace Lind pictured below, Tommy Hall and Andrew Tempkin of Gridsnap, and Chris Hui of Super Jump Games. Signum Growth Dot Play Theme: invest in games with transmedia potential paths.

Los Angeles: The Game Awards with the one and only, Mercedes Moné, The CEO of AEW, and first cousin of Snoop Dogg, who performed - Sending huge thanks to my new favorite innovator and Fortnite enthusiast, Cordell Broadus, along with his business partner Shiv Jain and the Death Row Games team. Congrats to all of the winners, especially Jonah Nolan and Todd Howard for FALLOUT! Viewership across all channels worldwide came in at a mind blowing 154 million. See analysis below from Super Joost.

Los Angeles: Snoop’s after The Game Awards to celebrate his album drop Missionary

Watching Snoop celebrate the last 32 years, when Dr. Dre produced his first album, was truly EPIC. The energy was palpable - sitting so close to such a legendary talent felt like plugging in to charge my own creative battery. For hours on end, he was simultaneously singing, dancing and receiving a steady drumbeat of guests in camera-ready mode. The album is a layered retrospective that taps into Snoop and Dr. Dre’s first production 32 years ago and also brings in a maturity and depth that folded in some Easter eggs like Sting.

In one of my favorite lines in Last Dance With Mary Jane, featuring Tom Petty and Jelly Roll, Snoop reflects “it's a family affair” which seems to be a thread that runs through his life as a performer. There is no question that the talent DNA runs deep in this family, and it started before Snoop. For us, meeting his son Cordell at Epic Games’ Unreal Engine developer conference was as exciting as meeting CEO Tim Sweeney for the first time. Our thesis on Epic Games is based on the power of the flywheel - the game engine, Unreal Engine, plus the UEFN Creator Platform, wrapped in a package of Distribution, the Epic Game store.

Even though our conviction in our positive investment thesis on Epic Games has only strengthened since we first wrote about it after the first Marshmello concert in Feb 2019, the reality is that we have leaned-in more on the Roblox platform. Why? Diversity - diversity of content, diversity of players, diversity of developers. Cordell, Shiv and the team at Death Row Games are challenging this very concept, and again, the way they champion diversity and women in gaming also runs deep in the family. Cordell and Snoop opened their presentation of Best Ongoing Game at the Game Awards with the statement, “This year, my father and I started Death Row Games with the dream of bringing minority stories to the gaming world.”

And in the film about the new album, Dr. Dre says, “There’s a Dre and a Snoop Dogg in their bedroom, a 16 year old kid who is going to come out and be even bigger and more spectacular than we have ever been - that’s what I’m hoping for.” Snoop’s response without missing a beat - “yeah he or she is out there.” This reminded me of my walk with Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney at the Unreal Engine Developer Fest. In reference to the UEFN Creator platform, Tim commented that developers at the conference are just like Epic when they started two decades ago. He commented that they are going to be even bigger than Epic so he wants to be a part of that. Finally, it reminded me of one of our mantras at Signum Growth Dot Play: the power of UGC lies in the fact that there are 15 year olds in their bedrooms, with studio level tools in their hands. We haven’t seen that before.

We expect Death Row Games to bring something new and different to Fortnite UEFN, and Signum Growth Dot Play wants to be a part of it. When we met Cordell at Epic’s Unreal Fest, we challenged him to collaborate on a fashion game, starring the one and only, his cousin Mercedes Moné. If Dress to Impress can be one of the biggest games in the world across all platforms (over 5 billion visits and only a bit over a year old!) what could we create with Mercedes, who as a child dreamed of being the world’s greatest wrestler of all time and a fashion designer? With a history of running through brick walls to get what she wants, Mercedes aims to change the perception of women’s wrestling to one of athleticism, strength, leadership, and artistic craft. Her mantra - Be the CEO of Your Own Life. Developers - bring us your ideas - lets do this!

Mercedes Moné Still Breaking Records - New Japan Pro Wrestling Title Defended

The Mercedes NJPW Strong Style Evolved match was more than just a title defense; it was a testament to the resilience, strength, and unbreakable spirit that define Mercedes Moné. She continues to remind the world why she’s the greatest at what she does. Stay tuned for Mercedes’ match against Mina Shirakawa on January 5th in Tokyo as they compete title-for-title at the Tokyo Dome.

In Other Kinds of Records - Roblox Games and Fortnite Live Events Are Crushing It!

Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen significant spikes in activity, which should only grow through the holidays when kids are at home. As our own James Purell pointed out in his LinkedIn post (follow him if you care about Roblox!), “Roblox SHATTERED its previous record of 10.5M concurrent players, soaring to an unprecedented 11.5M people playing at the same time!” As a comparison to Fortnite, we have really only seen these kinds of numbers at Live events such as Snoop’s Times Square concert. At this concert celebrating the launch of Fortnite Remix, The Prelude, there were 9.8 million people in attendance online, plus another ~1.5 million in-person, pushing the total attendees (physical + digital) close to 11 million concurrent viewers. This was followed by another record breaking live online event, when 14.3 million players gathered in Fortnite for a concert with Snoop Dogg, Juice WRLD, Ice Spice, and Eminem.

Back to Roblox, of the 11.5m concurrent players, two games dominated - Dress to Impress, a newer game, came in at 1.8m, and Blox Fruits, a long-standing game, broke the platform’s record of 2m concurrents for a single game, at 2.4m concurrents! At the time, this was higher than all of Fortnite at 2.2m and matched the biggest Steam (Valve corporation) games of 2024 - the high was Black Myth: Wukong at 2.4m concurrent players.

All-time highest player counts for Roblox games:

🍎 Blox Fruits: 2.4M (⭐ new entry)

🐾 Adopt Me: 1.8M

👚 Dress to Impress: 1.8M (⭐ new entry)

🐾 Adopt Me: 1.7M

🍎 Blox Fruits: 1.6M

🐶 Pet Simulator X: 1.4M

🏘️ Brookhaven: 1.1M

As James said, “what we're witnessing isn't just a trend - it's a fundamental shift in how games are made and played. User generated content isn't just competing with traditional AAA gaming giants - it's winning.”

Roblox: A Case Study for Unexpected Innovation

Yes, Roblox is a platform to build games, but could it evolve to become a multifaceted tool, with applications ranging from gaming to education? Case in point: a 13 year old daughter of one of our community members and investors is a Latin student who recently used Roblox’s Bloxburg to build a 3D rendering of a Roman Forum for an academic project. The result? A high quality model that rivals professional software. This unexpected use highlights how a platform like Roblox, with creativity and player agency at its core, can transcend their original purposes, opening up new avenues for creativity and education.

Game Awards - A Note on Being Precisely Wrong and Directionally Right

As many of you know, our mantra is ‘merge onto the highway of behavior that is already happening’ because it is really difficult to change behavior when it comes to new technology adoption. Often, getting the direction right, even if the precise calculation at any given moment is wrong, is the way to win in investing over the long term.

Understanding why and how large audiences gather has always fascinated us. The Super Bowl. The Oscars. Friends back in the day. We wrote earlier about this year’s Super Bowl LVIII, which delivered the most-watched telecast in history with a 123.4 million average viewers across all platforms (thank you Taylor Swift!)

On the game awards, Super Joost’s Joost Van Druenen commented -

The Grammy’s, which peaked in 2012 with 39 million people watching the event, has since declined to 16.9 million, or less than half. Similarly, the Video Music Awards has dropped 67 percent to 4.1 million viewers, down from 12.5 million in 2011. And the Academy Awards show a 58 percent decline from when 46.3 million watched it in 2000 to 19.5 million today. Collectively, all awards ceremonies have declined to about half since The Game Awards first aired in 2014.

The report also concluded that The Game Awards has been bigger than the Super Bowl for three years. There were many comments in response, pushing back on the way these numbers are calculated and whether they are comparable. Taking a huge step back, we believe the below is directionally correct. It is inarguable that the traditional gatherings have been cut in half over a decade, while we are confident that The Game Awards audience continues to grow leaps and bounds.

As many of you know, Signum Growth Dot Play is embarking on an exciting journey of building UGC content in Roblox, Epic Games’ UEFN/Fortnite (and stay tuned for Build A Rocket Boy’s Everywhere.) Even though I spent many wonderful years in technology and public equity capital markets, and even though I’m quite familiar with the Hindenburg research approach (TLDR: short the stock!) when I read this Hindenburg Research short report on Roblox, I wasn’t nervous. 

Matthew Warneford, the CEO of Dubit, an incredible thinker in this space, runs a fashion business in Roblox. Yesterday, in speaking with him, he mentioned that he spent all of last weekend (before this report) coding up a Roblox data scraper to be able to ascertain how many “alt” accounts players have, to arrive at a “de-alt” number. There is a well-known expectation that some players have more than one account and of course, like in every nook and cranny on the internet, there are bots. Even according to Roblox disclosures, daily active users (DAUs) “are not a measure of unique individuals accessing Roblox” because they can include numerous accounts run by a single person, such as alternate or bot accounts.”  We look forward to seeing Matthew’s analysis soon, but his conclusion is that the alt accounts comprise a smaller percentage than expected. Again, this is a challenge that every social media platform, video game and online community faces.

Our Reactions to the Hindenburg Roblox Report 

Below are some of our initial reactions. Our new collaboration partner, James Purell, made some very good points on our morning call, and SuperJoost created a great chart below.

Hindenburg Key Points & Our Responses

Hindenburg criticizes the high valuation - “Its stock trades at 8.6x sales, a 57% premium to gaming peers, pricing in expectations of rapid future growth and profitability.

• Our Response: Correct, and it is also growing multiple times faster than other publicly-traded gaming companies in the same market cap neighborhood. Also, the last time I checked, there have been ~85,000 industry layoffs since the recent market peak, while Roblox continues to grow and hire.

Hindenburg stuck a pencil in Roblox’s eye by saying, “Our research indicates that Roblox is lying to investors, regulators, and advertisers about the number of “people” on its platform”

• Our Response: To Hindenburg, lying is an irresponsible, low quality word to use to describe this company. It is one of, if not the most open public companies I have seen in ~20 years. As I mentioned on September 6th at the Roblox Developers Conference, I don't remember seeing a public market CEO sitting on stage as ~100 developers line up at a mic to ask questions that haven't been prepped in advance. Kudos to CEO Dave Baszucki. 

Hindenburg criticized Roblox’s ability to moderate, and pointed to a quote from the Q224 report to prove it - “For the second quarter of 2024, in a push toward profitability, Roblox reported a 2% year-over-year decline in its trust and safety expenses.” Hindenburg also showed many images of lewd behavior in Roblox.

We have multiple responses to this:

1. The Power of Software to Drive Lower Costs: At the Roblox Developers Conference, a meeting with one of the leads on the Moderation team, @TeaAndTulips, was full of insights on the topic. Even though we learned that she is ivy-league educated and that she resigned from Facebook to join Roblox due to the latter’s growth and highly positive and engaging culture, we only learned her Roblox name, which is common practice in the community. Interestingly, this is a lot safer than giving one’s birth name! I pointed out my concern in this Bloomberg report - “Roblox has about 3,000 moderators, significantly fewer than TikTok, which has three times the number of daily users but employs 40,000 moderators.” TeaAndTulips response made a lot of sense - she explained that both 3,000 and 40,000 are very small numbers compared to the number of interactions on the platform, or any significant platform on the internet. Notably, the top 100 places on Roblox all have over 1 billion visits. The top three have received 44 billion visits each, on average. Therefore, Roblox is embracing the fact that humans simply can't keep up, and they are using the latest AI software to empower the team to be in millions of places at once. So it makes sense that their trust and safety expenses are dropping as they are able to use software to make their humans immensely more powerful. 

2. Call of Duty: Just two days ago, gaming journalist Dean Takahashi reported that Activision’s Call of Duty, with 425 million copies sold as of October 2023, is taking a leadership position in reporting on the efficacy of its moderation software. 

“Since rolling out an improved voice chat enforcement in June 2024, Call of Duty has seen a combined 67% reduction in repeat offenders of voice-chat based offenses in Modern Warfare III and Call of Duty: Warzone. In July 2024, 80% of players that were issued a voice chat enforcement since launch did not re-offend. Exposure to disruptive voice chat continues to fall, dropping by 43% since January 2024.”

3. TikTok: Finally, thank you for releasing this yesterday right on cue to help illuminate the point - 

“TikTok is laying off hundreds of employees from its global workforce, including a large number of staff in Malaysia, the company said on Friday, as it shifts focus towards a greater use of AI in content moderation.” 

Conclusion - increased moderation at a lower cost makes sense.

Next, Hindenburg argues that Roblox is not safe for children and that Roblox offers inadequate protections against sexual predators and inappropriate content, even referring to it as a “Pedophile Hellscape”. 

• Our response: Serious question - how many of the 5.3 million total experiences on the platform (Q224) did the analysts sample? Do the authors actively monitor and understand their kids’ online activity? My subjective parental reaction to this point was that Roblox content is incredibly safe compared to any other platform my 13 year old might have on her list of daily online destinations. In fact, SuperJoost was able to confirm this! Thank you SuperJoost for pulling the data to illuminate the reality of where Roblox ranks in the pedophile hellscape rankings. 

The only two on this list that my daughter visits other than Roblox are Snapchat and TikTok. According to the SuperJoost data, these two rank roughly 25 times and 44 times more dangerous to her, respectively, than Roblox. And if she were to venture into Instagram or Facebook, those two are 858 times and 1349 times more dangerous, respectively, than Roblox. Overheard among a group of 12-13 year old girls recently - “Instagram is for old people.” 

As James Purell astutely pointed out, this might have put the ugly side of the internet in front of our faces, along with parents’ often ignored responsibility in monitoring it. But in fact, this is not a Roblox-isolated issue. 

On the lewd images that were displayed in the Hindenburg report, see SuperJoost chart above. Now imagine these scary images as actual photos, like on Instagram and Facebook, versus Lego-like 2D cartoons as seen in Roblox. The internet, generally, can be an ugly place. Some physical spaces are as well. Yes, there should be zero tolerance for content that could be harmful to children, but a 38 page report on the dangers of Roblox is touching a spot on the elephant.

Also, it is worth highlighting this is a run-of-the-mill picture used in the Call of Duty article, which was likely barely noticed…

…compared to an equally scary scene from the Roblox First Person Shooter, Phantom Forces?

Hindenburg, even though you unfairly used Roblox to illuminate all child safety challenges on the internet, specifically in games and social media, and even though you are still a bacon, welcome to Roblox!

UPCOMING LA UGC GATHERING: We would welcome seeing you in LA next week at Tech Week! We will host a panel at a private LA home called “Where UGC Meets Entertainment” with senior entertainment and music execs and we have a few spots left. In addition to a Michelin chef, DJ, and mixologist, we will host a brainstorm with special guests Mercedes Moné, the New CEO of AEW, and Notef Kawamoto, the CEO of the leading Japanese UGC studio, Neighbor.  

Stay Tuned for Your New C.E.O. ~ Mercedes Moné