Roblox forecasts quarterly bookings below estimates as safety features dampen engagement

July 30 (Reuters) - Gaming ‌platform Roblox forecast ​quarterly ​bookings below Wall Street estimates on Thursday, as tougher age-verification measures weigh on onboarding and ‌engagement, sending its shares down about 12% in ⁠after-hours trading.

The company has implemented age verification following heightened scrutiny of ‌its child-safety practices, but the ‌added steps have made it harder to sign up and reduced access to certain features that help ​keep users engaged.

Roblox's average daily active users (DAU) fell 7% sequentially to 123 million in the second quarter, but ⁠were up 10% from a year earlier.

"To date, the short-term impact from ​Kids and Select on engagement and bookings has been in line with our expectations, and we ​have seen an increase in ‌age-check penetration in younger cohorts," the company said.

Roblox, which allows users to build and explore ⁠their own digital worlds on its platform, expects bookings between $1.58 billion and $1.65 billion in the third quarter, compared with estimates ⁠of $1.77 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Having built its business ​around younger players during the pandemic, Roblox has increasingly focused on attracting older users and expanding internationally to diversify growth.

Users over 18 ‌years accounted for 27% of age-verified DAUs in the second quarter, the company said, ‌a particularly valuable group as U.S. users aged 18 and ⁠older generate more than ‌50% higher monetization ​than users under 18.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Sriraj ‌Kalluvila)

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