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Live Nation launches Roblox game that lets players build their own festivals, with CORTIS as the first featured artist
Live Nation has launched Music Festival Tycoon on Roblox, allowing players to create and manage virtual music festivals by booking artists and building stages. The move extends Live Nation’s festival business into gaming, giving fans a year-round way to engage with artists and giving sponsors new opportunities for virtual activations.
The game, developed with Livewire, has recorded more than 3.5 million visits and 23 million in-game performances, according to Live Nation. K-pop group CORTIS is its first featured artist, alongside Lollapalooza as the first real-world festival; players can use Lollapalooza-themed items and CORTIS content, while the group makes its US festival debut in Chicago from 30 July to 2 August.
In short
- Live Nation has launched a festival-building game on Roblox.
- CORTIS and Lollapalooza are the first featured partners.
- The game offers new virtual sponsorship and fan-engagement opportunities.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Advocates view this as genuinely innovative fan engagement that meets audiences where they already gather, particularly valuable for reaching younger fans. The game makes festival experiences accessible to people excluded by cost or geography, whilst offering artists new platforms for connection with audiences and generating supplementary revenue. By bringing the festival concept into gaming, Live Nation helps evolve the music industry to engage declining concert attendance among younger demographics, creating possibilities for year-round artist engagement that real-world festivals simply cannot provide.
The case against
Opponents argue this exemplifies problematic overcommercialization that exploits young gamers' passion for music by repackaging genuine cultural experiences as corporate gameplay. They contend that embedding festivals into commercial platforms specifically designed to monetise engagement undermines authentic artist-fan relationships and creates transactional rather than meaningful connections. Concerns extend to data harvesting, fair artist compensation, the potential cannibalisation of real festival attendance, and whether describing this as 'fan engagement' masks its fundamental purpose as sophisticated marketing targeting vulnerable younger audiences.
Explained simply
Live Nation is the world's largest concert and music festival promoter, responsible for organising major live music events. Roblox is an online gaming platform where millions of players, predominantly young people, create and play games together.
Live Nation has launched Music Festival Tycoon on Roblox, allowing players to design and manage virtual music festivals by booking artists and building stages. The game gives Live Nation a way to engage fans year-round beyond physical festivals, whilst also creating opportunities for artists and brands to promote themselves within the gaming environment.
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