EA shuts BioWare, Roblox bosses playtime and Biddy Blas blows up - The Debrief, October 2026

Newzoo's report highlights Roblox's user trends, noting 123M daily active players in Q2 2026, down from Q1. Roblox players favor arcade, co-op, and survival-horror games, with sports titles like EA Sports FC 26 over-indexing. The platform faces challenges from age-verification procedures and a decline in viral hits. Lapsed Roblox players often transition to games like Fortnite, Minecraft, and Call of Duty, with EA Sports FC attracting 12% of them.

Cathie Wood's ARK Invest bought $24.7M of Meta (META) shares while selling $3.3M of Palantir (PLTR) and Roblox (RBLX) shares. Meta's stock fell 7% post-earnings due to AI spending concerns, despite revenue growth. Palantir rose 93% YoY, raising its full-year forecast. Roblox gained 2.68% but remains down 58% YoY, facing growth and competition challenges.

A Roblox shareholder sued the company's CEO, David Baszucki, and eight other current and former directors, alleging they misled investors about the impact of age verification checks on user growth. The lawsuit claims the checks significantly reduced daily active users, contrary to executives' prior statements, and that Baszucki profited from 'unusually timed' share sales. Roblox's stock fell 18% after the Q1 earnings call revealed the checks' negative effects.

Roblox (RBLX) stock is down 38% year-to-date to $50.41, following a legal setback and a downgrade by Jefferies. The company faces a child exploitation lawsuit and slowing user spending, with Q2 bookings up just 8% to $1.6 billion. Management has lowered revenue growth forecasts and declined to provide full-year guidance. Comparatively, Take-Two (TTWO) is down 20% and GameStop (GME) is up 31% YTD.

Norway plans to ban under-16s from social media, targeting platforms like Roblox, Snapchat, and TikTok. The government aims to address risks such as harmful content and addictive features, with the bill to be presented by year-end. Tech companies will be responsible for age verification and removing harmful content.

Arizona AG Kris Mayes sued Roblox, seeking a court order to force the company to provide data and documents related to an investigation into child safety protections. The state alleges Roblox failed to respond to requests and may have violated the Consumer Fraud Act. Roblox is also facing scrutiny from the FTC and Florida AG over similar concerns.