One Piece simply bought a brand-new online game, however chances are you’ll not have heard of it.
That’s as a result of One Piece Grand Area, which was launched in early December, is just playable on Roblox. Formally licensed by Bandai Namco Leisure, One Piece Grand Area will permit Bandai to capitalize on Roblox’s huge platform of younger folks and convey the world of One Piece to a brand new era of followers. There’s only one wrinkle: Grand Area isn’t practically as common as all of the unofficial One Piece video games which have been gaining traction on Roblox for years.
An anime and manga sequence created by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece has lengthy served as a cultural touchstone on Roblox due to the recognition of rip-offs and unlicensed video games impressed by the present. One sport impressed by One Piece, known as Blox Fruits, set the report for the variety of concurrent gamers in a single Roblox sport. On Dec. 14, the Blox Fruits staff launched a brand new replace. That very same day, the sport’s Roblox web page logged greater than 2.26 million concurrent gamers.
Once you search “One Piece” on Roblox, the platform surfaces dozens of video games with thumbnail designs that characteristic characters who appear like sequence protagonist Monkey D. Luffy or comprise direct screenshots of promotional supplies from the Netflix live-action present and the anime.
Picture: ONE PIECE official/Roblox by way of Polygon
Almost unplayable clickbait-esque copies of One Piece like these are a dime a dozen on Roblox. These video games would possibly promote utilizing the favored sequence to lure folks in, however find yourself borrowing little or no from the sequence and quantity to empty lobbies the place few gamers hang around. Nonetheless, the sequence has additionally served as the focus for a number of of the preferred video games on the platform.
Blox Fruits, which was once known as “Blox Piece” however has since been renamed seemingly on account of mental property infringement issues, constructed an enormous viewers utilizing One Piece. The titular Blox Fruits within the sport, for instance, look like impressed by the Satan Fruits in One Piece on account of their similarities in design and performance. Blox Fruits additionally at one level contained characters from One Piece, and characters like Buggy the Star Clown had been boss fights within the sport.
Though the builders of Blox Fruits have since distanced themselves from the sport’s One Piece roots, its huge viewers stays. In accordance with its sport web page on Roblox, it has garnered greater than 43 billion complete logins. On the time of publication, Blox Fruits had roughly 384,000 concurrent gamers, whereas One Piece Grand Area had round 314 concurrent gamers.
Anime Vanguards, an motion fight sport that boasts greater than 678 million lifetime visits, blatantly makes use of characters from basic sequence like One Piece and Dragon Ball, and much more latest hits, like Dan Da Dan. Once you log in, the sport instantly permits gamers to decide on between three starter characters, together with one named “Luffo” who seems to be precisely like One Piece’s Luffy, and its roster comprises different characters, like “Sanjo,” who seems to be like a busted Lego model of Sanji, additionally from One Piece.
Picture: Roblox by way of Polygon
It’s one factor for teenagers to share tacky knockoffs as a result of they like One Piece. Nonetheless, it’s completely potential that video games like Anime Vanguards can herald tens of millions of {dollars} in income for the builders. Individuals have shared movies on-line the place they spend upward of $100,000 within the sport simply to unlock all of the characters from sequence like One Piece and the Dragon Ball franchise.
Video games like Anime Vanguards present that they’ve the potential to rake in a great deal of money. So if stealing IP pays large on Roblox, why don’t they get taken down?
Some arguments say that instances of potential IP infringement live on on Roblox as a result of it offers free promoting. One other argument posits that the Roblox platform remains to be obscure sufficient to keep away from DMCA takedowns. Nonetheless, I’d prefer to make a sensible argument: It’s doubtlessly too troublesome for even large-scale firms to persistently average the platform because of the sheer variety of video games and cosmetics.
On Roblox, any creator can use its suite of instruments to make and publish a sport or beauty merchandise. In 2021, Roblox reported that there have been over 40 million video games printed on its platform. For a lot of of its younger creators, it could be the primary time they’ve ever encountered the idea of IP regulation. Roblox shares pointers to assist its builders keep away from copyright infringement, however just like a platform like YouTube, it’s on firms to average the platform and flag instances of alleged infringement. When contacted, a spokesperson for Roblox affirmed the corporate’s dedication to defending mental property rights, and Roblox has labored with a number of manufacturers to monetize their IP on Roblox.
Picture: Kitawari/Roblox by way of Polygon
“As a platform powered by a neighborhood of creators, we’re dedicated to defending mental property rights — from impartial creators and studios, to manufacturers and huge IP holders — and require all Roblox neighborhood members to abide by our Phrases of Use and DMCA Pointers,” a Roblox spokesperson informed Polygon by way of e-mail. “We don’t tolerate copyright infringement and expeditiously reply to any legitimate DMCA request by eradicating any infringing content material, in addition to present IP holders with instruments to implement their rights.”
Regardless of present actions and choices, the platform continues to be flooded with rip-offs of every kind. This story focuses on One Piece, however IP infringement is so widespread that it occurs in 1000’s of various methods on Roblox.
It may be onerous to estimate simply how a lot Roblox content material doubtlessly infringes on IP — one analyst estimated a yr in the past that there have been greater than 10,000 video games that achieve this. A quick search finds video games that use content material from main franchises like Marvel, Harry Potter, and Whats up Kitty. Simply final weekend, I discovered a sport that — judging by the dearth of an official supply — ripped the complete audio from a Sabrina Carpenter live performance and dumped it right into a sport meant to simulate her Quick n’ Candy Tour. Infringement is so widespread that people have even requested if customers can report doubtlessly infringing content material.
Potential IP infringement is only one instance of Roblox’s ongoing battle to average its platform. Earlier studies have discovered that the corporate has did not defend minors from potential predators and take away sexually specific content material. The jumble of IP on Roblox simply highlights one other weak level as the corporate figures out learn how to promote its imaginative and prescient on this new period of user-generated content material.