Roblox is killing off classic heads for good, and it's not going down well

Roblox has announced that all static and classic face designs must be converted into animated dynamic heads or risk being removed from players' inventories for good, all in the name of supporting "self-expression." Starting today, all new head designs must adhere to the conditions of a dynamic head that allow for animation, and a five-week deadline has been given for asset sellers to convert their classic faces. Later this year, Roblox will give creators a final chance to convert any non-compliant heads, and if they don't, they'll be stripped from your inventory.

Roblox first introduced dynamic heads back in 2022, allowing for animated facial features and more detailed expressions. Raising eyebrows, blinking eyes, opening and shutting mouths, and more were made possible. Ever since, Roblox has been gradually pushing for wider adoption of this feature, creating dynamic versions of some of the free PC game's most popular classic faces. However, those that enjoy the old style have been uploading static faces through the dynamic heads system, which has admittedly saturated the marketplace and made it tougher to find properly animated heads. Now, Roblox is planning to stamp out this workaround for good.

"Effective immediately, all new Head submissions must include a Caged Model, defined eye and mouth regions that respond to animation, and minimum FACS controls for expressions," a new post on the Roblox developer forum reads. FACS here stands for the game's Facial Action Coding System.

However, this isn't just a case of banning new submissions and hoping the adoption of classic heads ebbs away. "Non-compliant existing Heads will be taken off-sale on March 3, 2026, and will be removed from user inventories if not updated by June 15, 2026." That's right, from June, static faces, whether they be classic heads or those created using the dynamic heads workaround, will be no more.

"After this point [June 15], Roblox will attempt a best effort to update all remaining Heads to be compliant while respecting artistic intent," a policy update post explains. "Creators will have the opportunity to reject these changes if they do not approve. If heads are not updated by creators or by Roblox, we will remove the Head from user inventories."

In terms of justifying why it's making this change, Roblox says it's all about self-expression. "We are building a platform where every user can express themselves authentically," a separate post reads. "We just announced an update to our Heads policy in pursuit of this mission. Classic Heads and Faces are static and do not support the defined cage regions or animation requirements of this policy, nor do they allow for users to express themselves. While we want to empower creators to keep the same look and feel if they'd like, animation is vital in user self-expression."

In an attempt to reassure players who enjoy their classic face designs, Roblox has also provided some examples that've been converted to the dynamic head models. They certainly appear crisper and sharper, but they will still have animated elements.

While there are likely millions of players unbothered by this change, especially newer fans that got into Roblox after the 2022 dynamic heads rollout, this decision has angered a lot of people in the community.

Creator 'Gogithy', who has been making static face designs and selling them on the Roblox store for years, says the decision is incredibly damaging. "This is my sole income and how I provide for my family and pay rent, I'm going to lose it all in a month," he says.

Other fans are simply bemoaning the fact these historic assets are being altered - some of these static designs have been around in Roblox since custom faces were first introduced all the way back in 2009. For many, it's a nostalgic aesthetic that they'd like to keep around.

There's also the issue of players having forked out Robux for an asset that is now either about to be forcefully converted or removed from inventories. Digital ownership, eh? I'm unsure if Roblox will buckle or backtrack on this given how set it is on getting everyone onto dynamic heads, but we'll see.