Roblox development company Gamefam is set to debut two new Nickelodeon-themed experiences before the end of 2023. These experiences, one related to SpongeBob SquarePants and the other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, will appear on the Roblox platform in partnership with Paramount+, and likely feature minigames, fan-favorite characters, and more. Despite what many sites have reported, however, this isn't the first time Nickelodeon has entered the Roblox Metaverse, with its original Nickverse experience debuting in July of 2022.
Details surrounding the new Gamefam x Nickelodeon collabs are scarce at the time of this article's publication; the only information comes from an interview conducted by GameRant, in which Paramount's Senior Vice President Doug Rosen stated the following:
"We are creating immersive new experiences on Roblox to let the millions of SpongeBob SquarePants and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans inside these worlds play and explore alongside the iconic characters they know and love."
Despite the eagerness coming from the participating development/executive teams, fans are far from reciprocating—instead voicing their disappointment with Gamefam's involvement in the project and its creation altogether. When the previous Nickelodeon experience was released, a push was made to remove it from the platform and instead re-instate its fan-made "better version" that was removed due to copyright violation.
Since its release on July 6, 2022, Nickverse has been met with mixed reviews. With over 10 million visits and 75,000 favorites, it's unsurprising that the experience has nearly 10,000 likes. What is surprising, however, when looking at Nickverse from the surface, is that the experience also has nearly 5,000 dislikes. Considering how popular and beloved Nickelodeon is across the globe, that many dislikes seems strangely immense.
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It isn't until the social media platform Twitter gets involved that the reason behind the overwhelming backlash toward Nickverse becomes evident. When Nickelodeon tweeted a video announcing the experience's release, it was met with a plethora of negative replies that all reiterated the same statement: "Bring back The Spongy Construction Project."
Released in the beginning of 2022, The Spongy Construction Project was a fan-made experience created by a small development team of the same name that allowed players to choose from eight SpongeBob characters and explore an incredibly in-depth and well-designed recreation of the beloved Bikini Bottom. During its short runtime, The Spongy Construction Project managed to receive 8.2 million visits, 25,000 favorites, nearly 8,000 likes, and only 400 dislikes. Unfortunately, this experience was deleted due to a copyright strike from Paramount, Nickelodeon's parent company, on June 26, 2022.
Since the experience's deletion, many players have voiced their opinion on Twitter regarding the decision, including their feelings toward Nickverse. Included within these statements were notes that The Spongy Construction Project was a not-for-profit experience, meaning that the developers didn't earn any money from its existence and were not financially profiting off of Nickelodeon's intellectual property. The creators attempted to contact Nickelodeon numerous times regarding a license, but that they never received a response. Because of this fact, many players feel The Spongy Construction Project was removed unfairly and without proper reason.
On top of the pre-existing disapproval that fans have for SpongeBob being added to Roblox (specifically related to the bad taste that's been left in their mouth after the treatment of The Spongy Construction Project), they've also reported being worried/disappointed about the involvement of Gamefam—a development company that has a notorious reputation within the Roblox community for treating its employees unfairly and producing underwhelming, unfinished, or even "bad" events/experiences. In some cases, events that have been teased by Gamefam are never actually created, and instead fall into irrelevancy until players forget they were ever announced.
One of Gamefam's biggest "scandals" was brought to light in December 2022 via a TwitLonger from ex-employee Digital Purgatory, in which the company was accused of greatly underpaying its employees, requiring excessive overtime, neglecting to communicate important details with employees, and laying off/terminating staff without warning. In his statement, Purgatory said the following:
"Gamefam is a predatory company ... and I would not generally trust them. They underpay some of their positions and [working there] was a constant struggle due to heavy crunching in the development team. [It] took a heavy toll on my mental and physical health as I had to devote a lot of time to not just the development of the game, but also to taking care of my dad. When I tried explaining [my situation] to the team and higher ups, [even though they seemed as if they mostly understood], they cut me from full to half time hours without any notice. They have absolutely no communication when it comes to decisions, and when I tried speaking about the matter as professionally as I could with human resources, I was basically ghosted."
"I slaved away every week, working nights putting my best effort into every task while also taking care of my dad, just to be belittled, ignored, and [ultimately] have my pay cut in half, going from 17 an hour, which [isn't] even half of the salary of a [market] 3D artist, to getting cut in half even more. At that point it's even more than just robbing me of my time and money."
After this statement was released, waves of community members sent support to Purgatory and voiced their disgust toward Gamefam, and, despite its best attempt at damage control, the reputation of the already struggling company was seemingly solidified. Now, with the announcement of their newest Nickelodeon collab, the disappointed tweets continue.
"Me reading the 1st line of text: YES, THAT'S AWESOME! Me after reading the 2nd line of text: GREAT, ANOTHER EVENT I WON'T PLAY!" said one user. "Would've played it if it wasn't being made by Gamefam," said another user. "Sure, we want a SpongeBob SquarePants game created by a studio that underpays their employees and fires them! No thanks! Out of all the studios you could’ve chosen, YOU CHOSE GAMEFAM?!" expressed a third user.
At the time of this article's publication, neither Gamefam nor Paramount+ has yet to make a public statement regarding the collab, or addressing the community discourse, though the latter is unlikely. When an official release date for either experience is revealed, or any more information is released regarding a possible transfer of hands due to the current controversy, an updated article will be released accordingly.
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Published: Feb 20, 2023 03:06 pm