Jason Kilar Former CEO Of WarnerMedia Joins Roblox

Jason Kilar, a former CEO of WarnerMedia, has joined the board of directors at the maker of the Roblox online gaming platform. Kilar will join board chairman and CEO of Roblox David Baszucki, lead independent director Anthony P. Lee, and board members Gregory Baszucki, Christopher Carvalho, Gina Mastantuono, and Andrea Wong as a result of the nomination, which became effective on September 13.

Given Kilar’s former experience as the CEO of media and entertainment firms for more than 15 years, most recently as CEO of WarnerMedia, the move indicates Roblox’s interest in growing beyond gaming to be more of a broad entertainment platform. Kilar formerly served as the co-founder and CEO of the subscription video service Vessel, which Verizon purchased in 2016. In addition, he assisted in the founding of Hulu and held the position of CEO until 2013, when he announced his retirement and joined the board of directors of DreamWorks Animation.

Kilar now holds board positions at Wealthfront Inc. and Opendoor Technologies Inc. According to Roblox’s release, the executive also possesses an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in journalism and business administration from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

The inclusion comes at a time when Roblox’s user base is aging up and the firm is aiming to appeal to its slightly older demographic with new experiences.

As part of a larger drive to cater to consumers 17 and up, the business recently revealed at its annual developer conference its plans to provide avatar-based audio calls. Roblox CEO David Baszucki predicted that over the following five years, thousands of adults would eventually connect on Roblox and develop genuine connections during his keynote address to the conference.

The business also sees a time when consumers may utilize generative AI capabilities to create avatars or personal apparel by employing language cues. Additionally, the app is gaining popularity in the virtual reality space, where its Meta Quest VR app has surpassed 1 million downloads.

Today, Roblox has 66 million daily active users, and as of last year, the over-17 demographic made up almost 40% of its user base. According to the corporation, it wants to appeal to this demographic by creating virtual worlds with more violence, romance, crass comedy, and representations of drinking and gambling. This would make Roblox more of a media and entertainment company than its kid-friendly games, such as those where you make pizza, construct theme parks, engage in pretend play or move through obstacle courses (also known as obbys), or adopt cute animals.

Kilar’s expertise could help the business in those attempts and with the difficulties posed by serving audiences from various demographics on a single platform.

“Jason Kilar is a well-respected leader in the entertainment and media industry, and his experience in the space is of value to the Board as Roblox continues to scale globally,” said Roblox CEO David Baszucki, in a statement.

“I am honored to join Roblox, a company I have long admired and cheered from afar as they leaned into the future,” noted Jason Kilar. “Roblox is changing the way people come together and changing how creators can create delightful experiences for them. I am excited to join the board and do all I can to help bring Roblox’s vision to life.”

On X, Kilar’s news solicited a number of congratulations, including from analysts, investors and media, as well as Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, who dubbed the move “A great combo!”