Photo: Courtesy of roblox.com

A leading game is experiencing an outage affecting users all weekend long. While some blamed a popular restaurant chain, the gaming company has said that is not the case.

What Happened

Roblox, a game from Roblox Corporation (RBLX), is unavailable to play for users over the weekend. Issues were first reported on Thursday, Oct. 28 before the game was completely unavailable for more than two days.

The company has been regularly updating its Twitter followers on the progress it is making and how it has identified the root cause of the issue. No estimate has been given to when the game will be restored.

Roblox said it is working “around the clock” to resolve the outage and confirmed that it was not the result of a hack, the company told The Verge on Saturday.

“We are in the process of performing the necessary engineering and maintenance work to get Roblox back up and running as soon as possible. We apologize that our community is unable to be on Roblox during this time,” a Roblox spokesperson told The Verge.

Why It’s Important

The outage for Roblox comes as Facebook Inc (FB) rebranded itself as Meta and all eyes were on the metaverse and related companies. Roblox is considered a meta verse stock and could benefit from increased interest in the sector.

The outage also comes as Roblox had a promotion with Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) for $1 million worth of free burritos. The Chipotle promotion started on Oct. 28, the day the issues first started for Roblox. “We know that this outage was not related to any specific experiences or partnerships on the platform,” Roblox said.

Chipotle moved to Roblox for its annual Burrito Halloween event in 2021, which could turn into a disaster for the restaurant chain. The digital only promotion included $5 entrées, virtual costumes, and exclusive Roblox items. As Roblox enters brand partnerships and hosts virtual concerts, outages could affect its monetization efforts. 

Roblox has more than 40 million daily active users. In the fast moving video game and mobile game market, an outage that lasts for hours or a day can significantly impact the retention of players, as they search for a different game or source of entertainment. A multi-day outage could impact a game even more, potentially effecting Roblox’s popularity.

Additionally, Roblox counts over 50% of its user base as kids under the age of 13, who get to play the game more on weekends outside school hours, and the game could see some upset users.

Price Action

RBLX shares were up 2% Friday to $84.02. Shares have traded between $60.50 and $103.87 over the last 52 weeks.