Roblox plans to debut new global AI tools on PlayStation

Gaming company Roblox plans to launch its immersive digital worlds platform on Sony’s PlayStation devices in October, giving access to the hundreds of millions of people who use the world’s most popular game console.

Roblox will also make its app fully available on Meta’s Quest mixed reality devices this month, after July. That version was downloaded more than a million times in five days, according to the company’s blog post.

The expansion is part of a plan to make Roblox available “everywhere users try to use it,” including mobile, desktop and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) devices, Roblox chief product officer Manuel Bronstein told Reuters before the company’s annual event. developer conference this week.

“I wonder if we should be on every TV,” Bronstein said.

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With 66 million daily users, most of whom are teenagers, Roblox is one of the most popular gaming services for kids and is being watched closely by tech giants like Meta as they try to woo a new generation of users.

Meta’s similar service, Horizon, in which users appearing as avatars can congregate in virtual spaces, has struggled to gain similar momentum. It had fewer than 200,000 monthly users last year, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Horizon is currently only available in VR, though Meta said in February that it was planning to release web and mobile versions soon, with no date set.

At its conference, Roblox announced plans to release an AI-powered global chatbot by the end of the year.

Developers will be able to use a chatbot that closely resembles a tool previewed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg last year to generate virtual objects and scenes on command without coding, according to a demo shown to Reuters.

Meta’s technology, which it has yet to release, used voice commands instead of written conversations.

Another new Roblox tool coming later this year will allow mobile or desktop users to make voice calls with Roblox friends who appear as avatars.

The technology, called Connect, uses the device’s camera to capture a participant’s facial expressions and body movements, then displays it through the person’s avatar.

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Godfrey Kemp

"Bacon fanatic. Social media enthusiast. Music practitioner. Internet scholar. Incurable travel advocate. Wannabe web junkie. Coffeeaholic. Alcohol fanatic."