Money Glossary · Gaming

Active Spender: Roblox's qualifying user for Creator Rewards, one who has spent at least $9.99 in the past 60 days (UGC & Creator Economies).
appAccountToken, purchase token: the UUID set at purchase that Apple returns in the transaction to tie it to your account, and Google's globally unique key for a purchase, which must be acknowledged within three days or it's refunded (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Battle pass: a time-limited reward track with a free lane and a premium lane bought for the season; progress is the sum of awards keyed by the server event that earned them, rewards are entitlements granted on reaching a tier, and upgrading mid-season grants every earlier premium tier at once (Monetization Models).
Cash-out, DevEx: converting a creator's earned currency into money; Roblox's Developer Exchange converts earned Robux (never purchased Robux) above a minimum balance (UGC & Creator Economies).
Chargeback: a payment reversed by the cardholder's bank, possibly months later; virtual goods invite friendly fraud, and a chargeback revokes what it paid for without locking the account (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Content version (UGC): one immutable, reviewed version of a creator's island, experience, mod or item; players get the approved version until a new one passes review (UGC & Creator Economies).
Core Technology Commission: Apple's 5% commission in the EU on digital sales in apps distributed outside the App Store (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Creator: a user who uploads content that runs inside the game and may earn money from it, a payee with identity, tax and age rules of its own (UGC & Creator Economies).
Creator code, Support-A-Creator: a code a player enters so a share of their purchases goes to a creator for a period; an effective-dated attribution whose accruals reverse on refund (UGC & Creator Economies).
Curated Workshop: a Steam Workshop where the developer approves each item, the usual form for paid user content (UGC & Creator Economies).
Dark pattern: a purchase-flow design that tricks players into charges; the FTC's 2023 order bars Epic from charging through dark patterns or without express consent (The FTC's Orders).
Deferred revenue: virtual currency bookings recorded as owed and recognized over time; Roblox recognizes durable items over the estimated life of a paying user, 27 months as of December 31, 2025 (Inventories, Entitlements & Economies).
DLC, expansion, season pass: added content that depends on the base game, and a pre-purchase of DLC not yet made, granted by a job that walks pass holders as each piece ships (Monetization Models).
DMA (Digital Markets Act): the EU law under which the app stores changed what apps in the EU may link to and charge outside store billing; not direct memory access (Stores, Fees & Payments).
DMCA safe harbor, counter-notice, repeat infringer: the US host protection under 17 U.S.C. § 512, in exchange for a designated agent, expeditious takedown on a valid notice, restoration 10 to 14 business days after a counter-notice unless the claimant sues, and a policy terminating repeat infringers (UGC & Creator Economies).
Drops: in-game items a viewer earns by watching a stream, claimed on the streaming platform and granted by the game once the accounts are linked (UGC & Creator Economies).
Durable, consumable: an item owned for good (a skin, a character), and one used up (a boost, a currency pack), refundable only until consumed (Monetization Models).
Earned Robux: Robux a creator earned from other players, the only Robux Developer Exchange will convert, and so a liability the platform owes (UGC & Creator Economies).
Edition: a bundle of entitlements (base license, a cosmetic pack, early access), each sellable alone, never a flag on the account (Monetization Models).
Engagement pool: a share of platform revenue divided among creators by how much paying players engage with their content, as in Fortnite's Engagement Pool (UGC & Creator Economies).
Fee schedule: store rates kept as data per store, program, region and transaction kind, with validity ranges and sources, because court orders and programs keep changing them (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Free-to-play: no price to start, with revenue from a minority who buy items, currency and passes; where the ownership and economy systems become mandatory (Monetization Models).
Gross bookings, net to developer: the sum of purchase prices before tax, and what remains after the store's fee (Monetization Models).
In-App Purchase (IAP): Apple's billing for in-app digital goods, required for in-game currencies; 30% standard, 15% in the Small Business Program, and 26% in the EU from 1 October 2026 (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Link-out (steering): sending a player from the app to buy on the web; allowed in the US App Store since 1 May 2025 with its commission still in court, and in the EU at 15% on sales within 7 days of the link tap (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Luau sandbox: Roblox's scripting language and VM, with file, debug and bytecode loading removed and each script isolated, the model for treating creators' code as hostile (UGC & Creator Economies).
Net Receipts: Microsoft's fee base: customer payments minus taxes collected, refunds and chargebacks, and amounts owed to Microsoft; 12% for PC games and 30% for Xbox console games (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Offer, offer price: a sellable bundle of items with its rules and audience, priced by dated rows per store and market, one live price each, so a price change is a new row with a reason (Monetization Models).
Personalized shop: a shop that shows each player different items chosen by a recommender (Riot's Your Shop, one public example, uses collaborative filtering), with eligibility filters after scoring and the same price for the same item (Monetization Models).
Premium: paying once up front for a license the player owns for as long as the account exists, plus optional DLC (Monetization Models).
Receipt validation: verifying a purchase with the store's server before granting anything; the store transaction moves from pending to verified, granted and acknowledged, or to rejected or reversed (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Regional pricing: prices per store, currency or region with validity ranges, conversion method and cooldowns; Steam offers exchange-rate, purchasing-power and multi-variable conversion (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Rewarded ad: an ad the player chooses to watch for an in-game reward, granted only on the ad network's server-side verification callback, never on the client's word (Monetization Models; Mobile Games).
Seller (merchant of record): the party that takes the payment and owns refunds, chargebacks and usually tax; the store on a closed platform, you on your own web store (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Steam microtransaction: Steam's purchase flow through the Steam Wallet, InitTxn with your order ID, player authorization, FinalizeTxn to grant, and GetReport at least daily to reconcile refunds and chargebacks (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Store fee: the store's share of a sale, from 12% (Epic after the first $1 million, Microsoft PC games) to 30% (Steam under $10 million, Xbox console, Apple IAP), as of October 2026 (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Store transaction: one purchase at any store as a row with a state machine (pending, verified, granted, acknowledged, or rejected and reversed), keyed by the store's transaction ID so it grants once (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Subscription: a monthly fee for a library or online play from the platform, or a benefit for a period inside one game; either way an entitlement with a validity range, not a flag (Monetization Models).
UEFN, Fortnite Developer Program: Unreal Editor for Fortnite, the tool for building Fortnite islands, and Epic's program through which island creators are paid (UGC & Creator Economies).
UGC (user-generated content): content players build that runs inside a game: experiences, islands, mods, maps and items (UGC & Creator Economies).
Virtual currency: a balance bought in packs and spent on items, smoothing regional prices and enabling small purchases while hiding the real price, which is where regulators step in (Monetization Models).
Web store: selling directly outside platform billing for margin and the customer relationship, while taking on tax, fraud, chargebacks, identity and link-attribution tokens (Stores, Fees & Payments).

Active Spender: Roblox's qualifying user for Creator Rewards, one who has spent at least $9.99 in the past 60 days (UGC & Creator Economies).
appAccountToken, purchase token: the UUID set at purchase that Apple returns in the transaction to tie it to your account, and Google's globally unique key for a purchase, which must be acknowledged within three days or it's refunded (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Battle pass: a time-limited reward track with a free lane and a premium lane bought for the season; progress is the sum of awards keyed by the server event that earned them, rewards are entitlements granted on reaching a tier, and upgrading mid-season grants every earlier premium tier at once (Monetization Models).
Cash-out, DevEx: converting a creator's earned currency into money; Roblox's Developer Exchange converts earned Robux (never purchased Robux) above a minimum balance (UGC & Creator Economies).
Chargeback: a payment reversed by the cardholder's bank, possibly months later; virtual goods invite friendly fraud, and a chargeback revokes what it paid for without locking the account (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Content version (UGC): one immutable, reviewed version of a creator's island, experience, mod or item; players get the approved version until a new one passes review (UGC & Creator Economies).
Core Technology Commission: Apple's 5% commission in the EU on digital sales in apps distributed outside the App Store (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Creator: a user who uploads content that runs inside the game and may earn money from it, a payee with identity, tax and age rules of its own (UGC & Creator Economies).
Creator code, Support-A-Creator: a code a player enters so a share of their purchases goes to a creator for a period; an effective-dated attribution whose accruals reverse on refund (UGC & Creator Economies).
Curated Workshop: a Steam Workshop where the developer approves each item, the usual form for paid user content (UGC & Creator Economies).
Dark pattern: a purchase-flow design that tricks players into charges; the FTC's 2023 order bars Epic from charging through dark patterns or without express consent (The FTC's Orders).
Deferred revenue: virtual currency bookings recorded as owed and recognized over time; Roblox recognizes durable items over the estimated life of a paying user, 27 months as of December 31, 2025 (Inventories, Entitlements & Economies).
DLC, expansion, season pass: added content that depends on the base game, and a pre-purchase of DLC not yet made, granted by a job that walks pass holders as each piece ships (Monetization Models).
DMA (Digital Markets Act): the EU law under which the app stores changed what apps in the EU may link to and charge outside store billing; not direct memory access (Stores, Fees & Payments).
DMCA safe harbor, counter-notice, repeat infringer: the US host protection under 17 U.S.C. § 512, in exchange for a designated agent, expeditious takedown on a valid notice, restoration 10 to 14 business days after a counter-notice unless the claimant sues, and a policy terminating repeat infringers (UGC & Creator Economies).
Drops: in-game items a viewer earns by watching a stream, claimed on the streaming platform and granted by the game once the accounts are linked (UGC & Creator Economies).
Durable, consumable: an item owned for good (a skin, a character), and one used up (a boost, a currency pack), refundable only until consumed (Monetization Models).
Earned Robux: Robux a creator earned from other players, the only Robux Developer Exchange will convert, and so a liability the platform owes (UGC & Creator Economies).
Edition: a bundle of entitlements (base license, a cosmetic pack, early access), each sellable alone, never a flag on the account (Monetization Models).
Engagement pool: a share of platform revenue divided among creators by how much paying players engage with their content, as in Fortnite's Engagement Pool (UGC & Creator Economies).
Fee schedule: store rates kept as data per store, program, region and transaction kind, with validity ranges and sources, because court orders and programs keep changing them (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Free-to-play: no price to start, with revenue from a minority who buy items, currency and passes; where the ownership and economy systems become mandatory (Monetization Models).
Gross bookings, net to developer: the sum of purchase prices before tax, and what remains after the store's fee (Monetization Models).
In-App Purchase (IAP): Apple's billing for in-app digital goods, required for in-game currencies; 30% standard, 15% in the Small Business Program, and 26% in the EU from 1 October 2026 (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Link-out (steering): sending a player from the app to buy on the web; allowed in the US App Store since 1 May 2025 with its commission still in court, and in the EU at 15% on sales within 7 days of the link tap (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Luau sandbox: Roblox's scripting language and VM, with file, debug and bytecode loading removed and each script isolated, the model for treating creators' code as hostile (UGC & Creator Economies).
Net Receipts: Microsoft's fee base: customer payments minus taxes collected, refunds and chargebacks, and amounts owed to Microsoft; 12% for PC games and 30% for Xbox console games (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Offer, offer price: a sellable bundle of items with its rules and audience, priced by dated rows per store and market, one live price each, so a price change is a new row with a reason (Monetization Models).
Personalized shop: a shop that shows each player different items chosen by a recommender (Riot's Your Shop, one public example, uses collaborative filtering), with eligibility filters after scoring and the same price for the same item (Monetization Models).
Premium: paying once up front for a license the player owns for as long as the account exists, plus optional DLC (Monetization Models).
Receipt validation: verifying a purchase with the store's server before granting anything; the store transaction moves from pending to verified, granted and acknowledged, or to rejected or reversed (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Regional pricing: prices per store, currency or region with validity ranges, conversion method and cooldowns; Steam offers exchange-rate, purchasing-power and multi-variable conversion (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Rewarded ad: an ad the player chooses to watch for an in-game reward, granted only on the ad network's server-side verification callback, never on the client's word (Monetization Models; Mobile Games).
Seller (merchant of record): the party that takes the payment and owns refunds, chargebacks and usually tax; the store on a closed platform, you on your own web store (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Steam microtransaction: Steam's purchase flow through the Steam Wallet, InitTxn with your order ID, player authorization, FinalizeTxn to grant, and GetReport at least daily to reconcile refunds and chargebacks (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Store fee: the store's share of a sale, from 12% (Epic after the first $1 million, Microsoft PC games) to 30% (Steam under $10 million, Xbox console, Apple IAP), as of October 2026 (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Store transaction: one purchase at any store as a row with a state machine (pending, verified, granted, acknowledged, or rejected and reversed), keyed by the store's transaction ID so it grants once (Stores, Fees & Payments).
Subscription: a monthly fee for a library or online play from the platform, or a benefit for a period inside one game; either way an entitlement with a validity range, not a flag (Monetization Models).
UEFN, Fortnite Developer Program: Unreal Editor for Fortnite, the tool for building Fortnite islands, and Epic's program through which island creators are paid (UGC & Creator Economies).
UGC (user-generated content): content players build that runs inside a game: experiences, islands, mods, maps and items (UGC & Creator Economies).
Virtual currency: a balance bought in packs and spent on items, smoothing regional prices and enabling small purchases while hiding the real price, which is where regulators step in (Monetization Models).
Web store: selling directly outside platform billing for margin and the customer relationship, while taking on tax, fraud, chargebacks, identity and link-attribution tokens (Stores, Fees & Payments).