Former Blizzard Boss Mike Ybarra Suggests Tipping for Developers After Completing Games

Mike Ybarra, former president of Blizzard Entertainment, suggested that upon finishing games, players should be able to tip developers.

Posted on his personal X/Twitter, Ybarra said, “When I beat a game, there are some that just leave me in awe of how amazing the experience was.”

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I’ve thought about this idea for a while, as a player, since I’ve been diving into single player games lately.

When I beat a game, there are some that just leave me in awe of how amazing the experience was. At the end of the game, I’ve often thought “I wish I could give these…
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— Mike Ybarra (@Qwik) April 11, 2024

“At the end of the game, I’ve often thought ‘I wish I could give these folks another $10 or $20 because it was worth more than my initial $70 and they didn’t try to nickel and dime me every second.'”

Acknowledging that “most will dislike this idea”, Ybarra said, “We are tired of ‘tipping’ in everything else – but I view this different from a pressure to tip type scenario many face and give feedback on.”

In the same post, Ybarra listed out games that he thought “are that special”, which include Horizon: Zero Dawn, God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Elden Ring.

In recent years, publishers have raised the prices for their releases for this home console generation of games to $70, with many citing rising development costs and economic shifts.

For independent developers, there tend to be ways for players to donate to studios such as virtual tip jars, Patreon, and launching early access, but this is a rarity for AAA games.

As such, many AAA publishers would launch microtransactions as an alternate way to monetize their games, which tends to spark up controversy among the consumers.

Ybarra departed from Blizzard Entertainment last January during a mass layoff at Xbox Game Studios, when Johanna Faries, former general manager of the Call of Duty franchise, was appointed as the company’s new president a week later.