We clearly don't get enough Like a Dragon/Yakuza series spin-offs. Forget about the fact RGG unleashed a Goro Majima pirate adventure a matter of months ago, I need Tojo Clan tales 24/7 and 365 days a year. Enter Roblox, which is very much the terrifying user-generated everything platform's terrifying user-generated everything platform.

The company that oversees it, Roblox Corp, have just announced a new "Roblox License Manager" that'll allow fellow corps to let Roblox players submit to build games based on stuff like Squid Game, Saw, and Twilight, then split the Robux revenue these games generate between the two parties. Sega have signed up and are offering the Like A Dragon series, but not to just anybody.

Getting down to brass tacks, in order to build what would be an officially licenced but fan-created Like A Dragon Roblox game, with the permission to use characters like Kazuma Kiryu and locations like Kamurocho that entails, there are a few hoops you'd have to jump through.

Rather than just making it open season and giving their blessing to what'd essentially be a Roblox mod-verse of Kiryu and co getting up to all sorts of hijinks that might make corporate lawyers flip their lids, Sega appear to be looking to let a select number of established Roblox creators add more official Like A Dragon bits to the platform. I assume as accoutrements to the official Like A Dragon Roblox experience that's already been in development for a couple of months.

Sega say they'll only lend the licence to creators who've already made an unofficial Like a Dragon Roblox game that's attracted over 1,000 daily active users, and are pretty insistent that any of these games stick to the series' established canon. The publishers say (thanks, Game Developer) these fan-created Like A Dragons should "primarily reference the story, characters, and settings as depicted in the official Like A Dragon mainline video game series. This includes plotlines, character arcs, and locations established within these titles."

"While we encourage creative expression, please make sure your works stay true to the world and lore as portrayed in these canonical entries," they added, just to be crystal clear that you can't go too off the beaten path with this series that recently let a present-day Japanese gangster fight frigates with laser cannons and play instruments to summon spectral sharks in a proper spin-off game.

Sega are offering creators who meet those criteria a 50/50 revenue split on the Robux their Like A Dragon game generates, after platform fees are taken into account. It's worth noting that Netflix is only offering game-makers a 15% revenue share on the likes of Squid Game via this licencing initiative, though they also aren't gating access behind a daily user number requirement.

All of this comes within the context of Roblox's notoriously problematic ecosystem, with the company behind it having regularly faced accusations of exploiting creators who're often just kids or teenagers, and giving them a raw deal when it comes to the money they make from their games.

All of that makes for sobering reading, and while Roblox has made some positive changes over the years, it's hard not to feel icky about big corporations seemingly looking to earn cash from games that may well be made by young people on terms thoroughly dictated by the former.