Introducing the Creator Economy
VRChat has a lot of creators – avatar and world makers, streamers, roleplayers, comedians, actors, musicians, dancers, and many, many more. There’s a good chance you might be a fan of a few of them!
Wouldn’t it be great if you could easily support them from within the VRChat client – maybe even helping them turn their hobby into something that could help pay the bills?
We think so – and that’s why we’ve been working on VRChat’s Creator Economy for the last few years. We last mentioned we were working on the Creator Economy way back in 2021. Since then, we’ve been busy working out exactly how we want it to work, and we’re now ready to start talking about it!
Two big points first: while we’re going to start talking about it today, it’s unlikely that this system is going to be out soon. We expect it to launch sometime this year, but we aren’t ready to make any concrete promise on a release date. Second, we’ll be opening up a beta – but unlike most betas we run, this will be closed. More on that later!
So with that out of the way, let’s get into it.
How Will the Creator Economy Work?
It’s unlikely that one single solution will work for every type of creator in VRChat. So, we’re going to be introducing multiple ways to interact with the Creator Economy.
First, we’ll be releasing a system where you can support creators through the Groups system. By supporting a creator’s Group, you can gain access to special roles that unlock certain features and perks you otherwise wouldn’t have.
World creators will be able to code in different features that dynamically change based on purchased group roles. So, for example, if you have a specific role, you might gain access to a certain room or item that you might not otherwise have access to.
But as we said above, the intent here is to support more than just the traditional groups people think of as creators in VRChat. For example, do you usually host events in VRChat? Well, now you’ll be able to host VIP events for your supporters.
All of this would be happening from within VRChat. If you’re a creator, that means that your supporters don’t have to jump through hoops or sign up for other websites. Likewise, if you’re someone that wants to support a creator in VRChat, you can do so just by clicking a few buttons in the client.
Our goal is to make this as easy as possible. If you have a great time at an event, or you’re playing around in a new world, we want you to be able to say thank you without having to jump through hoops.
What About Avatar Creators?
We’re very aware of how many avatar creators would love a system that makes it easier for users to find and buy their wares. Right now, it’s…complicated.
We’d like to streamline that process, and we have some good ideas for how to do so, but that’s something that will likely come after the initial release of the Creator Economy. We’ll be pushing out the Group-centric systems first.
While we have a pretty good idea of how we’d like things to work internally, we’re going to keep the specifics under wraps for now. Once again, check the bi-weekly Dev Updates for ongoing development information! (You can find those here!)
Closed Beta
Earlier, we’d mentioned that there’s going to be a Closed Beta for the Creator Economy. We wanted to talk a bit about that, as it’s going to look very different from other betas for us.
First, when we say Closed Beta, we really mean it – we only intend on inviting in 10 - 20 creators at first. Up until now, we’ve been testing these systems internally, but before releasing them to the public (even in a beta format) we want to make sure that they both actually work and that creators find them easy to use.
That first point can’t be stressed enough! We have to make sure that this system is solid at launch, as people will be putting their real, actual money into it. A bug could mean someone is losing money into the code void. And we obviously don’t want that!
Second, we don’t want to release something that might seem awesome to us, but that our top creators think is junk. As with all creator-based systems, we want to ensure that they actually interface well with their creative processes. We want to reduce friction for creators, after all, not create more of it!
All of this is to say that the beta is for… well, testing. For anyone that isn’t invited to this particular beta: the only thing you’re missing out on is a lot of jargon, and probably a lot of really annoying bugs! This isn’t an “early access” program, but rather an earnest attempt to make sure we’re delivering the best possible economy we can to VRChat.
Looking Forward
We’ve been working on the VRChat Creator Economy for a long time. We realize that the introduction of the Creator Economy – much like Groups – has the potential to dramatically change the VRChat community. It’s for that reason we’ve been carefully debating every aspect of this system behind the scenes for years.
To be blunt, we want to make sure to get it right.
For that reason, the Creator Economy is going to be in beta for longer than most features. It’s likely that it won’t be until later this year that it’s released to everyone. With that said, though, we’ll be updating the community on its progress as the year goes on in our bi-weekly Developer Updates.
Thanks for reading, and as always, thank you for loving VRChat as much as we do!
For press or media inquiries, please contact press@vrchat.com
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