Investment analyst Clay Griffin of research firm MoffettNathanson has expressed skepticism about the vision of Roblox’s metaverse in a new report. Griffin suggests that Roblox’s vision for the future of the sandbox gaming platform and metaverse may be overblown, and its efforts to focus on the big picture simply obscure current setbacks facing the company.
An article published by MarketWatch and shared via Dow Jones Newswire states that an analyst report titled Roblox: Growing Pains, Initiating at Underperform, $19 PT describes the Roblox experience as “light and derivative,” which may explain why the company promotes its fundamental vision. . . for the metaverse, not to solve today’s problems.
“But in an increasingly crowded market here and now, Roblox seems intent on shifting the narrative towards a distant and, in our opinion, optimistic picture of the future,” Griffin wrote. “And, of course, his role expanded in this one.”
This year, Roblox’s stock price has dropped to around a third of its value. In 2021, the company reached its maximum capitalization of $78 billion, while as of October 3, the limit was only $20.7 billion.
However, Griffin isn’t exactly thrilled with Roblox. He wrote that he expects a “pretty good margin profile” for the Metaverse. However, he is not sure that “Roblox’s reality is as big as his vision.” Noting that Roblox was and still is primarily a gaming platform, he suggested that the advertising could be a “gimmick” for the company. However, he suggested that it was too early to say what impact these promotion strategies might have on the company as a whole.
He also noted that Roblox continues to have some anticipation for what he considers a “metaverse mania,” specifically citing the NFT craze that swept the investment world in late 2021 and 2022.
The analyst offered a price target of $19, compared to Friday’s closing price of $35.84.
Roblox is taking steps to rebrand itself as a metaverse for people of all ages and backgrounds, as opposed to the company’s longstanding image as a kids’ game company. The company recently changed the ESRB age rating from 10+ (E10+) to teen (T) and introduced voice chat for users 13 and older. Some of these efforts to appeal to an older audience appear to be working, with users aged 13 and over now accounting for more than half of gamers on the platform.
Whether Griffin’s analysis is correct or not, there is no doubt that the Roblox of the future will be very different from the Roblox of the past.
You can check out the best Roblox games in 2022 to decide if Griffin is right to be skeptical of the platform’s popularity. Don’t forget to also get a free avatar with codes from our October Roblox Promo Codes list and visit our October Roblox Music Codes to play songs on your boombox.
Source : PC Gamesn
