What's going on?

Roblox announced late on Wednesday that it�d be resuming postponed plans to list on the stock market � and the gaming platform�s hoping it�ll score big when it does.

What does this mean?

Roblox was supposed to �go public� last year, but it delayed the move after Airbnb and DoorDash � whose price surges following their initial public offerings suggested they’d sold their shares too cheap � spooked the company. So to make sure it doesn�t miss out on a lot of cash, Roblox is cutting out the investment banks and planning to sell straight to public investors via a �direct listing�. That means the market � not bankers � will set its share price, and that every investor � retail and institutional alike � will get to buy in at the same time.

Why should I care?

For markets: Roblox ain�t no guinea pig.

Companies only used to be able to sell existing shares via a direct listing, but recent regulatory changes now mean they can sell new shares and raise fresh capital. Still, Roblox has opted not to take advantage of those new rules: it might not have needed to, given that it also announced it�s raised cash separately from private investors. For the record, that latest fundraising round valued the company at $30 billion, or around $45 a share � which hints at what investors might pay when Roblox does list.

The bigger picture: Top of its game.

Roblox�s stock market debut will follow a breakneck year: its daily active users and revenue in the third quarter of 2020 were almost double what they were the same time a year before. Video games have been so popular during the pandemic, in fact, that they�re expected to have made more money last year than the global movie and North American sports industries combined. And given the hype around certain recent console releases, analysts reckon this just be the start�