Roblox, however, says it’s making private servers available for free in Party Place, so parents and kids can create a place where only those friends they directly invite can join and play.

Roblox's data shows that Party boosts engagement, too. When friends play together, their sessions are an average of 1.9 times longer than sessions of users playing by themselves.

Keeping it restricted to the “Party” system is a smart play because it ensures, at least for the moment, that the chat will only be between friends and people you “know” within the game.

It's not just Roblox that is creating private servers for people to host events. Fortnite recently launched Party Royale mode, where it has held concerts and film screenings. As well as that ...