Roblox has introduced that every one static and traditional face designs have to be transformed into animated dynamic heads or threat being faraway from gamers’ inventories for good, all within the title of supporting “self-expression.” Beginning immediately, all new head designs should adhere to the circumstances of a dynamic head that enable for animation, and a five-week deadline has been given for asset sellers to transform their traditional faces. Later this yr, Roblox will give creators a remaining probability to transform any non-compliant heads, and if they do not, they’re going to be stripped out of your stock.
Roblox first launched dynamic heads again in 2022, permitting for animated facial options and extra detailed expressions. Elevating eyebrows, blinking eyes, opening and shutting mouths, and extra had been made attainable. Ever since, Roblox has been step by step pushing for wider adoption of this characteristic, creating dynamic variations of among the free PC sport’s hottest traditional faces. Nonetheless, those who benefit from the previous type have been importing static faces by the dynamic heads system, which has admittedly saturated {the marketplace} and made it more durable to seek out correctly animated heads. Now, Roblox is planning to stamp out this workaround for good.
“Efficient instantly, all new Head submissions should embrace a Caged Mannequin, outlined eye and mouth areas that reply to animation, and minimal FACS controls for expressions,” a brand new put up on the Roblox developer discussion board reads. FACS right here stands for the sport’s Facial Motion Coding System.
Nonetheless, this is not only a case of banning new submissions and hoping the adoption of traditional heads ebbs away. “Non-compliant present Heads will likely be taken off-sale on March 3, 2026, and will likely be faraway from consumer inventories if not up to date by June 15, 2026.” That is proper, from June, static faces, whether or not they be traditional heads or these created utilizing the dynamic heads workaround, will likely be no extra.
“After this level [June 15], Roblox will try a greatest effort to replace all remaining Heads to be compliant whereas respecting creative intent,” a coverage replace put up explains. “Creators can have the chance to reject these adjustments if they don’t approve. If heads aren’t up to date by creators or by Roblox, we’ll take away the Head from consumer inventories.”
When it comes to justifying why it is making this transformation, Roblox says it is all about self-expression. “We’re constructing a platform the place each consumer can specific themselves authentically,” a separate put up reads. “We simply introduced an replace to our Heads coverage in pursuit of this mission. Traditional Heads and Faces are static and don’t assist the outlined cage areas or animation necessities of this coverage, nor do they permit for customers to specific themselves. Whereas we wish to empower creators to maintain the identical appear and feel in the event that they’d like, animation is significant in consumer self-expression.”
In an try to reassure gamers who take pleasure in their traditional face designs, Roblox has additionally supplied some examples that’ve been transformed to the dynamic head fashions. They definitely seem crisper and sharper, however they are going to nonetheless have animated parts.
Whereas there are doubtless tens of millions of gamers unbothered by this transformation, particularly newer followers that bought into Roblox after the 2022 dynamic heads rollout, this choice has angered lots of people locally.
Creator ‘Gogithy’, who has been making static face designs and promoting them on the Roblox retailer for years, says the choice is extremely damaging. “That is my sole revenue and the way I present for my household and pay lease, I’ll lose all of it in a month,” he says.
Different followers are merely bemoaning the very fact these historic property are being altered – a few of these static designs have been round in Roblox since customized faces had been first launched all the way in which again in 2009. For a lot of, it is a nostalgic aesthetic that they’d prefer to maintain round.
There’s additionally the difficulty of gamers having forked out Robux for an asset that’s now both about to be forcefully transformed or faraway from inventories. Digital possession, eh? I am not sure if Roblox will buckle or backtrack on this given how set it’s on getting everybody onto dynamic heads, however we’ll see.
