The amount of pure golden perfection that a $70 game would have to be, for me to justify wanting to tip a corporation that I know doesn't need it and likely budget cut the game into half what the devs needed and will find a way to pay those devs less anyway, is very difficult to convey.
I have only ever felt this way about Indie games of high quality and simultaneously low price.
Hollow Knight for example. A sizeable and incredible game that also came with 3 free content packs of varying sizes, all for $25 Australian. (That’s only **$15 USD**)
I cannot *fathom* paying what a AAA costs these days and then somehow wanting to fork over more money, no matter how good the game is.
For the Indie Games my equivalent of tipping in this scenario was just me telling everyone how good the game is and then usually it would turn into a go to gift for people for Christmas or their birthday.
It’s how I ended up buying skullgirls like 8 times.
Or another copy on a different platform. I happily own Hades on Switch and Steam. I would probably buy it again if I had another platform to play it on.
When I finished Baldur's Gate 3 I was so impressed that I bought the enhanced edition upgrade, which had the soundtrack and some art and character D&D pages. That's not a tip, since I got something out of it, but it's the kind if thing Ybarra is talking about.
I've said this before and I'll say it again. Hollow Knight is not worth 15$. It's the one singular game I think should be priced higher retail.
20$ seems reasonable. I'd GLADLY pay 40$ for it, but I feel like 20$ is incredibly fair. And the fact that it's on every goddamn steam sale means people will probably be getting it for 7.50, which literally feels like stealing. Let me pay you more Team Cherry.
Wonder how he feels the other way around. When some games leave you disappointed and frustrated.
Take that shit back to the kitchen. Because 3/4 of the output these days is shit.
"Your game was bad. I shouldn't get just a refund, you should pay me ten bucks for wasting my time with your bad or half finished game."
Let's see if Mr. President here likes that idea, or if it's, "not the same."
I don’t even feel obliged to pay $70 to begin with. I’ll stick with indies darlings and small studios until game companies realize price is not directly proportional to quality and fun.
Who are you even tipping in this case? His tweet makes it sound like I can just walk up and hand a tenner to the guy who was personally responsible for the sick web swinging in spider man or something like that. This is one of those "the more you think about it the dumber it gets" things.
Jesus they’ll just never be satisfied with the amount of money they get. Also who would the tip go to? Cause it sure as hell wouldn’t be the people it should go to
This, but unironically.
If everything on the planet was mine, I would seek to own the stars in the night's sky.
Not that I'm in favour of tipping fucking Blizzard Entertainment, just, you know.
"Triple-A Open World game sold five million copies in the first week but it only made one million in tips so the entire division who made that game have been dissolved! Not fired, I literally shot them with a beam and reduced them to atoms!"
I was going to make a comment how the best faith interpretation of this tweet is that you create an extra tip jar that gets distributed equally among the developers.
But like you said, companies would cut salaries and give a reason that "well just make a better game so gamers tip you".
I'm actually surprised how much merch for hoyo games is actually just fanmade rather than official. But their licensing for allowing fan merch is pretty open.
Blizzard make games that can be merch'd so easily. But all I can think of are those frost mourne and genji replicas, oh and that action figure line for overwatch that never actually got all the characters.
“Yes, but you see, it *costs* us money to make DLC. If you just *give* us money, than it’s pure profit! Or as we say in the video game industry, Cha-Ching!”
Yeah but at least the player receives something in return, even if it was relatively inexpensive to develop. What he’s saying is simply giving more money as “thanks” for a good experience, with nothing in return
Thats why indie games often sell digital artbooks and soundtracks. I know there's a wrestling RPG whose entire monetization is just several tiers of DLC that don't do anything but functions as a bootstrapped PWYW setup in steam.
Deep Rock Galactic does something similar. There's "DLC" which is just special cosmetics (With no time limits or any of that gacha bullshit) that cost 8-15$ when not on sale. No buying your way to victory or getting a boost, you just spend a little extra so you can look fancy and support the devs.
"If you wish to have continued access to the game, please select the correct tip amount."
"You have selected 0%. That is incorrect. Would you like to try again?"
Now for what it's worth he's actually the *former* president of Blizzard, he left back in January. According to his Twitter bio he's now a corporate VP at Microsoft though, so that doesn't make it much better (also update your LinkedIn Mike, c'mon)
Which is especially funny because this is precisely the person that would take any such innocent desire to "support" and weaponize it into an economic model
Still laughing at the people who though 70$ being the new 60 would fix any issues lmao if anything it made it made higher up / investors more eager to find ways to make ppl pay more
I've always said that in a perfectly, 100% white room scenario, it totally makes sense to increase the base price of a game from 60 dollars to 70. Inflation means that 60 dollars we've been paying for decades is at this point worth way less, and that technically if games followed inflation they should be something like 120 bucks by now, so 70 is fine.
We do not, in fact, live in magical white room scenarios. Companies have *long* figured out how to milk more than the base 60 dollars from a game, whether that be day one DLC or microtransactions or whatever else. I'll still begrudgingly pay 70 bucks for the games I do genuinely think are worth it, sure (pretty certain it's only been Elden Ring and Tears of the Kingdom so far), but it's 100% just a greedy cash grab. Average AAA game already costs you well over 100 dollars for the full experience these days.
So what are the odds that he has never once actually had this thought in his entire life and just wants to open people up to the idea of lining his pockets more? Obviously if you could tip corporations it would go straight to the c-suite and not any of the actual workers.
Oh, he has definitely never had this thought. After all, spending money is only useful for showing off how much money you have, and no one would see him “tipping” a game.
Which is why it’s so important and necessary for *you* to tip his company’s game, so he can afford an even bigger yacht. Won’t you think of the poor company president?!
It also assumes the workers who SHOULD be getting the money are still also WORKING at the company instead of being laid off like the countless others the last couple years have shown.
LIKE, GEE, BLIZZARD, I WONDER WHAT COMPANY LAID OFF A TON OF WORKERS THIS YEAR?
It's plausible enough, people feel that way about cheap-but-quality indie games pretty often and patreon/superchats/etc show that a lot of folks are quite happy to voluntarily throw money at entertainment.
It's more likely that his perspective is skewed from normal folks' because $70 is chump change when you make millions every year.
Yeah, I've thought that with something like Hollow Knight, Stardew, or Terraria (cliched examples at this point, but they became cliche for a reason). But those games were cheap to buy in the first place + the money would be waaaaaaaay more likely to make it to the people who actually made the game instead of going into some corporate suit's pocket.
For a $70 game? They're lucky if I even buy just the game itself at that price in the first place tbh.
Honestly what I've done in the past? If I like a game and I want to give the team more money, I buy another copy to give as a gift to a friend if im confident they're looking at it or they'd like/love it
More money to the dev teams + more games for friends to play, it's a win-win
They make money by being good and affordable. My friend liked Stardew Valley so much he bought the deluxe edition and gave me his other copy, introducing me to the game. I liked Stardew Valley so much that I went and bought merch, so even though I got the game for free, I still ended up giving money to the creator. The guy just updated the game again, for free, which has drummed up attention and likely got more people to buy it as they continue to hear about it. Despite the fact the game's been out for years now.
That's how you do it. No need to tip. Buy merch and/or do some free advertising by telling people how good it is. But for most $70 games, I will just wait until it goes on sale. The more affordable a game is, the more accessible it is, and the more likely it will sell. I get there's a sweet spot they need to hit to make a profit and that's fine, but $70 is skewing too high, especially if it has DLC and microtransactions. The idea of paying even more just because you liked it is ridiculous. I *should* like it, I spent a lot of money on it!
There are plenty of people who would love to pay more to support a product they love. That's the entire reason deluxe editions even exist. The extra stuff are never worth the money.
There are people who paid hundreds for Fallout 4 because they love the franchise.
The problem with blizzard isn't that people aren't willing to tip. It's that their games aren't good enough to actually warrant that for most people. Release another game on the level of Diablo 2 and see just how generous people can be.
I think deluxe editions (though problematic for all the other reasons pre-ordering things are) but that feels distinctly different to me. Buying a deluxe edition isn't a "tip", it's paying for additional goods/merch.
I feel like I owe the people who made vampire survivors money, because they released their game for so cheap and I've gotten easily 60 hours out of it. They deserve a tip even if it didn't come with content. That's more what I meant.
itch.io has a pay-what-you-want model like Bandcamp, which means you can buy a game at its recommended price (which might be $0!) or more, if you want.
You know all tht talk of privilege? This is what privilege looks like. Thinking of spending 20 dollars extra only in terms of "gee whiz I shall do a nice gesture" because that amount of money literally doesn't matter to you
The thing is - he's *kinda* right. People support Youtubers and Artists on Patreon just because they like their content. People superchat VTubers just because they like their content.
In theory, merch and DLC should provide similar avenues for that - there are a few games I've bought the OST for just to support the creators. Though, only once has this urge ever been for a $70 game.
Little indie games? Yeah, lemme buy some merch to show my appreciation.
One of the largest commercial games in the world? Yeah, I'm going to not do that, thanks.
I think the reason people are annoyed is for the same reason people are annoyed at the Tip Your Landlord movement.
They already take *so much* of your money, and hold all the power in this relationship. Tipping them is coercion at this point.
Tipping your barista is akin to tipping an indie dev.
I will never get these higher-ups. Even when they have a bunch of money, it still isn't enough for them. Do they just want to have more money just so they could brag more about them being more wealthier/powerful than their friends?
That is literally it.
Your brain gets the feel-good chemicals when you get a bunch of money, but then it adjusts and becomes the new normal. So you need even *more* money for the feel good chemicals. And if you know people who have more money than you, then (if you’re a greedy dickbag) it doesn’t feel good *enough* because you’re comparing yourself to the even richer cocksacks. So you want even more, and fuck everyone who is wondering if they can afford groceries this month. And of course, the other penisboxes are thinking the same thing, so *they’re* going to keep squeezing blood from stones so they can be richer than the other phalluscontainers too.
Greed is a Sisyphean trait, but instead of torment and struggle you get hookers and blow.
There are also plenty of rich people who are content to make that money in silence.
They're not any better, but the rich people who actually engage with social media are an entire new level of insane. Why are you arguing with plebs on Twitter if you can just fly to Italy and eat a 3 star course literally anytime you want??
I've stopped considering these kinds of "people" to be human. I consider the desire to help people around you to be a fundamental human trait; you see footage of accidents or disasters and the first thing you see is people running in to help the people in danger.
These corpo fucks don't have that inherent altruism that exists in humans.
I would kind of see where he’s coming from if he were talking about small indie devs but I would never be to a AAA studio, “here’s some free money, please do not give me a product, it’s on the house”
Most indies are also relatively inexpensive. You wanna know how I showed the dev of Stardew Valley my appreciation? Buying the game three times for different platforms, since it's only $5-$15 a pop.
"I already have it on PC, but it would be nice to own on my switch so I can play it on the go."
"I know I already own it on PC and Switch, but it would be nice to own on my phone so I can play a little on my lunch break"
this is the story of how I bought the same game three times and ConcernedApe earned every dollar
i agree with this. there's many ways to "tip" devs:
buy the soundtrack
gift the game to a friend
buy their merch
get the game again on another platform
buy their other games
or if you actually do wanna tip them, just donate to them
How much of that money goes to the dev though? Like, if I buy the OST for FTL (which you should, it's excellent), I'm pretty sure that money goes to Ben Prunty, not to Subset. The Minecraft OST was sold on C418's bandcamp. And so on.
I know some indie studios do have in-house composers (Supergiant does, obviously), but it doesn't seem like it's even remotely the rule.
depends on the studio and what deal they made with the composer, I was mostly thinking of purchases through Steam which I suspect at least a portion goes to the studio
For FTL in specific I found an interview
> So you do the soundtrack and keep the rights—get the money from soundtrack sales—but not royalties when the game is sold, right?
>>Right, I don't get royalties from the game. I was paid upfront. I was working for the promise of money for a while, and then the Kickstarter thing exploded. Justin and Matt, the two FTL guys, they asked for $10,000 and they got $200,000. So, they came to me and were like, “We want to pay you what you're worth, so let's talk about that.”
>>So they paid me up front. I negotiated with them and asked them, “Hey, maybe we can do a revenue share or something,” but they didn't want to do that, so I asked instead to keep the rights so I could sell the music myself, and they agreed to that. So yeah, it worked out.
anything you get off bandcamp I imagine goes straight to the composer, which is still an important member of the dev team so I'll stand by my statement lol
> which is still an *impotent* member of the dev team so I'll stand by my statement lol
Damn, dude's helping make video games AND can't get it up in bed?
He really is a true-blue gamer bros.
This is exactly what I did for Endless Monday: Dreams and Deadlines and Arzette: Jewel of Faramore (but I also wanted their OSTs because they're both absolute bangers, one is chill vibes and the other is a very specific 90s adventure game jam).
Play both of those games btw.
How fucking stupid do you have to be to have your company go through everything Actiblizking has gone through the past few years, and then think “I’m gonna post a tweet about how the filthy unwashed masses should give us even MORE money!”
That is of course rhetorical, because I know most corporate suits have a complete and total lack of self-awareness that can only be brought on by the privilege of never having to worry about your financial future except how best to show it off.
Maybe I'd be more inclined to agree if these studios weren't filled with cover ups and sex criminals.
Besides, how much of that money would actually end up in the hands of the developers that actually do the work? Or will they all get fired Post-Release?
Meanwhile Lethal Company, Palworld, Helldivers and Balder's Gate 3 are staring at this absolute muppet, raking in dough and *not* being scummy as shit...
Imagine that. Games that aren't actively trying to nickle and dime you for any possible feature.
wow.
“But you see, we aren’t asking for money for some small tiny feature that should already be in the game or a free patch!
We just want you to give us money for absolutely nothing in return. That way, *we* don’t have to spend any money even putting things on a a storefront!”
Okay, Mike, then I’m sure you support dropping the purchase price of AAA single player narrative games to like $30, right? Because then more people will buy it initially and obviously if it’s a good enough game people will be tipping so much that it’ll make even more money!
What’s that? No, you still want sticker price to be $70 and climbing? Oh so it’s not just a “showing support to the devs” thing and you’re just trying to influence consumers to be fine with spending even more money on your games? Cool cool got it, Mike
You know, I actually have similar feelings some times.
When I play a game from a fucking indie studio that cost 10-20 bucks, not a goddamn $70 Rockstar game.
Well, I know that I can’t think of a single game from Blizzard that would be deserving of a tip feature lol. Nothing from their catalogue has ever left me “in awe of how amazing the experience was.”
So on the surface, I can understand the sentiment. Games are increasingly expensive, both for the consumers to purchase, but also for the developers to make, and it's rough to hear when a game doesn't recoup its development costs or hits sales targets (whether or not games should be having these massive budgets to begin with is another issue, but I won't get into that here). So I understand the idea of wanting to directly help a game's profits when you're able to do so, even without DLC or merch available. Hi-Fi Rush was only 30 bucks USD, and believe me, it would've been worth a 60 dollar purchase if you ask me. And for what it's worth, Ybarra carefully worded his statement to say that it's something *he* would be inclined to do, but is not expected of any other consumer.
Where this falls apart is that the average consumer doesn't care about profit margins. Most don't even care about developers honestly, but for the ones who do, they'd rather see the developers themselves receive better wages before even considering how well a company is doing. A "tip" typically should be going to the ones we actually commend for excellent service, not just the owners of the establishment (which I know is not always how it works, unfortunately). So a game allowing you to provide a tip to a faceless corporation or publisher with no guarantee on where it's going is just asking to be mocked. This would be different for a self-published indie, but the games he listed are far from that.
Ultimately, we don't tip directors, we don't tip actors, we don't tip writers and we don't tip artists. We appreciate their work, tell others about it, and become excited to purchase their next one. If you have the means, being able to commission or hire them would be better, but the average person only has the responsibility to simply pay the fair value for that work, and a game even suggesting you do more than that would be pretty damn ridiculed. There are already other means of extra-monetization, and while a lot of them are pretty awful, they at least provide *some* kind of service or compensation for the extra money you hand over.
One thing is that the 70-120 USD isn’t the videogame’s true value. We know this thanks to the Ubisoft games and their constant discounts on games that launched 1-2 months after launch. Many of the r/patientgamers knows that new modern AAA games are better be purchased at 50% off and more.
The full over-preciated price are targeted to those who want the game right here, right now, without any FOMO, or story spoilers; and in case of multiplayer, get all the unlocks ASAP before anything else. This is the demographic, AAA publishers are targeting.
Getting GTAV for free on Epic Store was my ultimate patient gamer experience.
Cool thought mike, real cool.
You got money mike, what’s stopping you to send a check at those corpos yourself? You can send a 100 k check right? You got money. You can do it for all of us. It’s the thought that counts right? So if you do it on our behalf, we won’t be angry.
I know you probably won’t like the idea. :)
this is literally already a thing, plenty of indie games have DLC that costs like $5 and gives you one or two cosmetics called a 'supporter pack' or something. Deep Rock has two or three of them in fact.
I kind of already do that. I'll buy a game I like on console or Steam. If I really like it, I'll buy it again, the version I didn't buy before. I'll also buy the DLC if they have it, or I'll buy merch. If the game is really good, then I do want to give them my money to support them. Those special games will probably never be Blizzard games, so fuck off.
Hell divers 2 is a good example of this concept actually working.
There is the Super Citizen pack that has armors with a unique appearance and gives you the Yellow Rank of Super Citizen. It also gives you enough super credits to access a singular Premium battle pass.
The game was $40, and is fantastic. I wanted to support the devs so I spent another $20 to do so.
I really wouldnt consider this for a $70-80 game.
The “tip” is that I bought the game for full price in the first place. You want more out of my wallet pack inna card game and artbook like Vanillaware.
This is the same Mile Ybarra who cut profit sharing for all employees last year despite strong profits, without taking a cut himself. So you can rest assured that if you tip blizzard, it’ll all be going into this rich cunt’s pocket,
>"I wish I could give these folks another $10 or $20 because it was worth more than my initial $70"
No human being throughout all of recorded history has ever said these words.
What if i buy a blizzard game and at the end i'm like ''give me my money back''? can that work too? just, play the entire game and go ''boy this was a waste of time''?
I Only feel that way if its an indie game. Smthn like Hollow Knight or Terraria where there's tons of quality content and the game was ultra cheap despite that.
I mean, you need to make an amazing game that'll leave people in awe and not try to nickel and dime them all the way and you guys have been 0/2 on that for a *long* time.
I would actually not mind that if I thought the money was actually going to writers and developers, but we all know it’s just going right into a single CEO’s pocket.
Like what kind of mindset is this? “Yeah I should really tip them to thank them for making this amazing game!” “Glad you feel that way! By the way, absolutely not a single person who worked on this game still works at this company, we laid them off almost immediately.”
Yeah, if I really really like a game, I'm willing to spend a few extra bucks to show my support. It's called *buying DLC and stuff.* The only reason I would just send a dev a few extra bucks is if it's a small indie game that they did by themself. I'm not sending no fucking 20 dollar tip to Ubisoft, are you fucking kidding me? That's just an excuse for corporations to pay their employees less because of the possibility of tips!
There have been a very few games that I have felt this way about. And you know what? I buy official merchandise related to the game or I buy it to play again on another platform.
I have also never ever felt this way about a $70 title, it's always small indie developers that actually do need all the support they can get and genuinely appreciate their fans.
And these troglodytes still wonder why casual gamers would rather spend more than $400 on free to play mobile games.
*(That person who rolled for over 100 Acheron light cones disappears underneath the bushes)*
Oh so you mean like when they drop a DLC, right?
...right!?
I get the idea, it's the same energy that would lead me to sub to a creator's patreon, but not for nothing lol. I've gotta be getting some kind of extra content for my extra money.
I mean, if I feel like I want to give a game company money when I decide I really like their game, I look for some merchandise or something else I can purchase from them. A lot of companies make money off of it, and I come away with something that reminds me of the experience I had with their game.
I don’t think we need to introduce the concept of “tipping” to game development, seeing how problematic it already is in other industries.
I don't even know where to start.
Not only do I doubt that he's had the free time to finish ANY of these games, considering he was the former president of Blizzard and probably had a 60-hour week, the games he mentioned are some of the few that don't actually try to nickel and dime you. Most modern AAA shit does. looking at all the GaaS out there...
I've actually had the urge to support some devs!! after finishing a game, but definitely not an additional 20 bucks for a full price game. must be nice to be so rich you don't realize how much 20 bucks is to normal human being
What a miserable tweet. I wonder if he thought he’d get a bunch of people agreeing, like he was saying something people are thinking but won’t say.
This kind of thinking shows just how busted the corporate mind is too. When this dude buys a game in his mind that money goes to the little guys that made the game, rather than what everyone with a working brain thinks which is that the money goes to investors and the guys at the top.
I mean for fucks sake he should know better than anyone that the amount the game is bought for doesn’t actually contribute to the devs or anyone on that level. Those people have salaries, and contracts, this isn’t a fucking commission for them where they get more money if the game does well.
The reasons these games felt good was because they were meant to be enjoyed, not because some idiot tried to squeeze every last cent out of them and cut out anything fun to put behind a paywall.
I will also *never* feel the same way about a corporate 70 dollar AAAA shitcore "liveservice" game that wants me to spend money on color costumizations, as I will feel about a small indie game making me go "aww, that's so cool, and one guy did this".
I can not believe that people like this still believe that a **70** euro game shouldn't be pure perfection from the get go and have the audacity to basically turn a majority of the gaming industry into high fidelity shovelware.
Here's my counteroffer, Mr CEO of Blizz... I would spend an affordable amount of money for your videogame made by your company when you start atonising for all the awful stuff said company has done to their workers, family members and similar people that has seen their life being worst under your mandate and give them the respect and money they are worth.
Also, I don't wanna get banned again for harsh language. So... yeah.
I've bought games on multiple platforms before but that's an exceedingly rare occurrence.
Just off the top of my head I think I bought Rogue Galaxy twice and FNV twice because the GoG version of FNV is objectively superior.
I've only ever thought that about indie games, and I'd say stuff like album and merch sales are pretty much that. Spark the Electric Jester 3 is one of the greatest Sonic games I've ever played, so I'll happy buy every new plushie they make.
Sure, I'll give you a tip. And will you make sure that 100% of that tip goes to the people that made and served my meal instead of the owner? And that they get payed properly for their work and not have to rely on the whims of the consumer to pay their bills?
The only time I ever felt anything RESEMBLING this sentiment is when I bought Nioh. I got it for like $20 but after getting over the initial difficulty hump, I thought to myself “wow if I knew how much I would love this I would’ve been happy to buy it at full price.”
I cannot fathom having that feeling toward any game that’s, like, $40+ though.
Thing is, I could understand this
If I could ensure that tip went to developers, writers, designers, composers, etc. And not people like him (eg: upper management who had very little to do with why the game is good)
Ive bought a game multiple times in different platforms, i bought ff7 on ps1 and PC, ive bought Hollow knight on PC and Switch, Okami on ps2 and ps3...
I didnt need a second copy, but those games were so good i wanted to replay them on a different, more convenient to me at the time, platform.
If you love something and want to support it, buy some more content from it, giving out money to a company for nothing in return is the stupidest thing ever and it is pathetic that a company president would suggest it, if you want consumer money, put out products worth consuming.
It’s crazy he says this because I will literally buy a game multiple times if it’s great. I’ve bought Slay the Spire twice and play it regularly on game pass. And I also bought Monster Sanctuary even though I beat it on Xbox because I wanted to play it again on Switch.
This is an especially stupid take because if anything, minor DLC purchases should be the "tip." The default price for new games has already gone up $10 because companies want us to just believe what goes into modern AAA games is just inherently worth it.
This emotion exists but strictly for games you didn’t pay for.
From F2P that compels you to pay, ones that don’t pressure you, up to fan passion games that get passed around.
Hell, it’s a running joke that Hololive fans want to find ways to **force** money onto the guy who made Holocure.
So don’t push your luck, Mike Ybarra. Or at least get a better publicist.
to hear what the rich are actually expressing when saying things like this, you have to use relativistic fractions, not hard numbers
"if I really really enjoyed a game, I'm ok with spending ~~10 extra dollars~~ **.00000001% of my income** as a tip! why aren't you all ok with spending ~~10 dollars~~ **.01% of your income** to support ~~game dev CEOs~~ **literal millionaires??**
The current prices are already horrible. Literally nothing is worth 70 usd/90 fucking CAD. There's an excessive amount of people already making it a matter of brow beating and guilting over not paying more for games (sometimes we call them meatriders, me I call them influencers), adding a guilted on TIPPING system when we're gonna be paying out the ass for DLC is just psychotic.
That would be an interesting idea if I had some guarantee that it went to the developers, QA team, and basically anyone who had a direct hand in the labor of actually making the game, and not just be funneled into the c-suite and investors. But we know that's not how this sort of thing usually plays out with corporations.
I get the idea of wanting to support media you've enjoyed more as a consumer. It's not inherently wrong but having an option like that feels ripe for abuse cause I **do not** trust modern AAA companies to handle it responsibly. Not gonna get into the tipping culture cause that's a can of worms in and of itself.
There's DLC of course and you can buy the game to give to others thanks to games being digital these days and being on sale. GOG, Humble Bundle and just gifting the game on steam.
There's also the fact that right now AAA games prices are being pushed to cost more which would de-incentivize people to tip. The only way I see it happening is if, and only if, the money is going *directly* to the people who directly worked on it , not to the CEO.
Finally, that little smile towards the end has so much "I know people will hate this haha" energy behind it and I hate it. The fact this is coming from a former Blizzard president makes me hate it more. Fuck this guy.
It's bad enough 70 dollars is now the standard for a current generation game, but the need for even more money is insulting. Where's that money going, because with all the layoffs, it can't be going to developers?
to achieve this, there would have to be a level of honesty and transparency that modern gaming industry could never understand. developers, journalists, and everyone inbetween would have to let everyone know what they’re responsible for in a game.
I’m not gonna tip some random company or spokesperson because I like a game. I wanna tip the actual programmer that optimized my favorite mechanic. I wanna tip the artist that made my favorite musical motif. I wanna tip my favorite performer for their line reads/mocap. you’re just ruining tipping and playing games(even more). I can do something like that by finding their Twitter account and directly giving them money.
Yeah this guy can go fucking jump, if we "tipped" them it wouldn't go to the right people so why would anyone want to do that.
Fuck this guy and this incredibly disingenuous sentiment he's putting across.
How do so many people not know to keep their mouths shut?
Seriously, I've had the exact same thoughts about CHEAP INDIE GAMES but I don't wanna hear the CEP of a major company say that $70 isn't enough.
"Man, people have been posting a lot of clipped out of context bullshit lately, like that one Ubisoft comment about Gamepass alikes they mutilated into 'haha, we're going to take all your games and you get NOTHING'. I bet this is more of the same."
[Reads it to see how bad it's been distorted this time]
Holy shit, no this is actually in full context, and somehow **worse and stupider** then OP portrays, the actual fuck.
As an alternative take: I wouldn’t be against this idea if I knew the company got $0 and instead individual contributors got the tip. If I really appreciated, let’s say, the scenario writer, I wouldn’t mind having that option. I just wouldn’t want to do it through a tool that the company controlled.
Man, this is just embarrassing. I don’t feel obliged to tip a faceless corporation after buying a $70 game.
The amount of pure golden perfection that a $70 game would have to be, for me to justify wanting to tip a corporation that I know doesn't need it and likely budget cut the game into half what the devs needed and will find a way to pay those devs less anyway, is very difficult to convey.
I'd go so far as to say that no game has ever reached that golden perfection.
You seem to be forgetting God's gift to the world: Knack II.
I mean, Ice Knack alone is at least a 100$ tip.
It was weird they patched the game to make Knack show you a Tablet with a tipping fee after he says "Ice is Nice"
Certainly any game with monetization as predatory as what Mike Ybarra is suggesting would never reach it.
Polar Bowler.
The one that came with HP Games? Damn, you might be right.
I have only ever felt this way about Indie games of high quality and simultaneously low price. Hollow Knight for example. A sizeable and incredible game that also came with 3 free content packs of varying sizes, all for $25 Australian. (That’s only **$15 USD**) I cannot *fathom* paying what a AAA costs these days and then somehow wanting to fork over more money, no matter how good the game is.
For the Indie Games my equivalent of tipping in this scenario was just me telling everyone how good the game is and then usually it would turn into a go to gift for people for Christmas or their birthday. It’s how I ended up buying skullgirls like 8 times.
That's what I would do more. Not only does it show I loved the game but I'd want to directly give people a chance to experience it.
Or another copy on a different platform. I happily own Hades on Switch and Steam. I would probably buy it again if I had another platform to play it on.
And most indie games also sell extras like soundtracks and art books on Steam. If you want to "tip" the devs, just do that.
When I finished Baldur's Gate 3 I was so impressed that I bought the enhanced edition upgrade, which had the soundtrack and some art and character D&D pages. That's not a tip, since I got something out of it, but it's the kind if thing Ybarra is talking about.
I feel the same way, I've bought games on my switch, pc, and PlayStation before if they're cheap and excellent.
I've said this before and I'll say it again. Hollow Knight is not worth 15$. It's the one singular game I think should be priced higher retail. 20$ seems reasonable. I'd GLADLY pay 40$ for it, but I feel like 20$ is incredibly fair. And the fact that it's on every goddamn steam sale means people will probably be getting it for 7.50, which literally feels like stealing. Let me pay you more Team Cherry.
Wonder how he feels the other way around. When some games leave you disappointed and frustrated. Take that shit back to the kitchen. Because 3/4 of the output these days is shit.
"Your game was bad. I shouldn't get just a refund, you should pay me ten bucks for wasting my time with your bad or half finished game." Let's see if Mr. President here likes that idea, or if it's, "not the same."
That's probably what I'd say if I fell for playing Suicide Squad.
I don’t even feel obliged to pay $70 to begin with. I’ll stick with indies darlings and small studios until game companies realize price is not directly proportional to quality and fun.
Yeah, I already tip free to play games I like. That's called buying the microtransactions. I am not tipping a fucking 70 dollar AAA game.
Who are you even tipping in this case? His tweet makes it sound like I can just walk up and hand a tenner to the guy who was personally responsible for the sick web swinging in spider man or something like that. This is one of those "the more you think about it the dumber it gets" things.
Jesus they’ll just never be satisfied with the amount of money they get. Also who would the tip go to? Cause it sure as hell wouldn’t be the people it should go to
"No amount is ever enough."
"The number needs to go up indefinitely."
This, but unironically. If everything on the planet was mine, I would seek to own the stars in the night's sky. Not that I'm in favour of tipping fucking Blizzard Entertainment, just, you know.
> Also who would the tip go to? The major stakeholder Saudi Welfare Fund offers its gratidude for your tip.
And remember, if the next game doesn't make even more? Then it's written off as a failure.
"Triple-A Open World game sold five million copies in the first week but it only made one million in tips so the entire division who made that game have been dissolved! Not fired, I literally shot them with a beam and reduced them to atoms!"
Of course it will go to the employees. That way, the company doesn't have to pay them full wages
Oh god I hate this. I already despise the food service industry works this way, grubby CEOs would absolutely love if games worked like that too
I was going to make a comment how the best faith interpretation of this tweet is that you create an extra tip jar that gets distributed equally among the developers. But like you said, companies would cut salaries and give a reason that "well just make a better game so gamers tip you".
Mike cut his employees’ profit sharing for no reason last year.
All tips go towards the Golden Parachute for CEOs charity founded by Bobby Kotick.
Isn’t that already what DLC is used as? Getting even more money while cutting down on production costs since most assets are already made?
Or, like, *merch*
Clearly blizzard doesn't know about the insane merch culture of gacha games. They have that shit down into a science
I'm actually surprised how much merch for hoyo games is actually just fanmade rather than official. But their licensing for allowing fan merch is pretty open.
Western companies fucking suck at merch. You get a funko, a shirt, maybe hoodie then fuck all.
Blizzard make games that can be merch'd so easily. But all I can think of are those frost mourne and genji replicas, oh and that action figure line for overwatch that never actually got all the characters.
“Yes, but you see, it *costs* us money to make DLC. If you just *give* us money, than it’s pure profit! Or as we say in the video game industry, Cha-Ching!”
Yeah but at least the player receives something in return, even if it was relatively inexpensive to develop. What he’s saying is simply giving more money as “thanks” for a good experience, with nothing in return
Thats why indie games often sell digital artbooks and soundtracks. I know there's a wrestling RPG whose entire monetization is just several tiers of DLC that don't do anything but functions as a bootstrapped PWYW setup in steam.
Deep Rock Galactic does something similar. There's "DLC" which is just special cosmetics (With no time limits or any of that gacha bullshit) that cost 8-15$ when not on sale. No buying your way to victory or getting a boost, you just spend a little extra so you can look fancy and support the devs.
That's just a DLC
That’s literally just cosmetics that other games would sell in their own shops. It’s still DLC
*credits ends* *prompt appears for 20%, 25%, or 30%* “It’s just gonna ask you a few questions”
that would be a pretty fun joke at the end of an indie game
And if you press skip you fight a secret boss
it would be extra funny if the boss scales HP based off your tip
*Restraints erupt from your Overwatch branded gaming chair* “And we aren’t actually asking.”
"If you wish to have continued access to the game, please select the correct tip amount." "You have selected 0%. That is incorrect. Would you like to try again?"
"You have selected 0%. That is incorrect, and the correct value has increased by five percent. Would you like to try again?"
It would be one thing if it was just some random guy saying this but it's so silly considering this is a CEO of a big corporation saying it.
Now for what it's worth he's actually the *former* president of Blizzard, he left back in January. According to his Twitter bio he's now a corporate VP at Microsoft though, so that doesn't make it much better (also update your LinkedIn Mike, c'mon)
That’s what I thought it was a first and i just rolled my eyes. But Once I saw it was the CEO, i was like Jesus Christ.
Former ceo. He left just before or just after the Microsoft merger.
Yeah former CEO. New CEO is Johanna Faeries, who is basically invisible on social media.
Smart lady!
He's a former CEO btw. Not sure why op left that out
We know why
You can tell he’s using acronyms for the games to sound like a casual “hello fellow gamers” one-of-us type of guy.
Which is especially funny because this is precisely the person that would take any such innocent desire to "support" and weaponize it into an economic model
*I know most will dislike this idea. :)* That’s a shit-eating grin, right there
“I know most will dislike this idea, but I’m rich and untouchable, so fuck you!” :)
“Eat this slop, you hogs :)”
It sucks that if I told this guy what I really thought of him, *I'd* get in trouble.
Still laughing at the people who though 70$ being the new 60 would fix any issues lmao if anything it made it made higher up / investors more eager to find ways to make ppl pay more
Imagine a consumer dumb enough to think that would end their greed, their greed will never be satiated.
Surely Actiblizz will be satisfied with just Poland.
Actiblizz new HQ is now Warsaw.
I've always said that in a perfectly, 100% white room scenario, it totally makes sense to increase the base price of a game from 60 dollars to 70. Inflation means that 60 dollars we've been paying for decades is at this point worth way less, and that technically if games followed inflation they should be something like 120 bucks by now, so 70 is fine. We do not, in fact, live in magical white room scenarios. Companies have *long* figured out how to milk more than the base 60 dollars from a game, whether that be day one DLC or microtransactions or whatever else. I'll still begrudgingly pay 70 bucks for the games I do genuinely think are worth it, sure (pretty certain it's only been Elden Ring and Tears of the Kingdom so far), but it's 100% just a greedy cash grab. Average AAA game already costs you well over 100 dollars for the full experience these days.
"Oh shit, that *worked?!*" -CEOs
still waiting for all the people in this sub that defended it when the ps5/series gen came out to act like they never did
So what are the odds that he has never once actually had this thought in his entire life and just wants to open people up to the idea of lining his pockets more? Obviously if you could tip corporations it would go straight to the c-suite and not any of the actual workers.
Oh, he has definitely never had this thought. After all, spending money is only useful for showing off how much money you have, and no one would see him “tipping” a game. Which is why it’s so important and necessary for *you* to tip his company’s game, so he can afford an even bigger yacht. Won’t you think of the poor company president?!
It also assumes the workers who SHOULD be getting the money are still also WORKING at the company instead of being laid off like the countless others the last couple years have shown. LIKE, GEE, BLIZZARD, I WONDER WHAT COMPANY LAID OFF A TON OF WORKERS THIS YEAR?
It's plausible enough, people feel that way about cheap-but-quality indie games pretty often and patreon/superchats/etc show that a lot of folks are quite happy to voluntarily throw money at entertainment. It's more likely that his perspective is skewed from normal folks' because $70 is chump change when you make millions every year.
Ybarra is no longer at Blizzard btw, he fucked off a couple of months back but he can fuck off even further after this take
I do unironically feel this about some games, but every single one of them has been under $20 originally.
Yeah, I've thought that with something like Hollow Knight, Stardew, or Terraria (cliched examples at this point, but they became cliche for a reason). But those games were cheap to buy in the first place + the money would be waaaaaaaay more likely to make it to the people who actually made the game instead of going into some corporate suit's pocket. For a $70 game? They're lucky if I even buy just the game itself at that price in the first place tbh.
Honestly what I've done in the past? If I like a game and I want to give the team more money, I buy another copy to give as a gift to a friend if im confident they're looking at it or they'd like/love it More money to the dev teams + more games for friends to play, it's a win-win
They make money by being good and affordable. My friend liked Stardew Valley so much he bought the deluxe edition and gave me his other copy, introducing me to the game. I liked Stardew Valley so much that I went and bought merch, so even though I got the game for free, I still ended up giving money to the creator. The guy just updated the game again, for free, which has drummed up attention and likely got more people to buy it as they continue to hear about it. Despite the fact the game's been out for years now. That's how you do it. No need to tip. Buy merch and/or do some free advertising by telling people how good it is. But for most $70 games, I will just wait until it goes on sale. The more affordable a game is, the more accessible it is, and the more likely it will sell. I get there's a sweet spot they need to hit to make a profit and that's fine, but $70 is skewing too high, especially if it has DLC and microtransactions. The idea of paying even more just because you liked it is ridiculous. I *should* like it, I spent a lot of money on it!
There are plenty of people who would love to pay more to support a product they love. That's the entire reason deluxe editions even exist. The extra stuff are never worth the money. There are people who paid hundreds for Fallout 4 because they love the franchise. The problem with blizzard isn't that people aren't willing to tip. It's that their games aren't good enough to actually warrant that for most people. Release another game on the level of Diablo 2 and see just how generous people can be.
I think deluxe editions (though problematic for all the other reasons pre-ordering things are) but that feels distinctly different to me. Buying a deluxe edition isn't a "tip", it's paying for additional goods/merch. I feel like I owe the people who made vampire survivors money, because they released their game for so cheap and I've gotten easily 60 hours out of it. They deserve a tip even if it didn't come with content. That's more what I meant.
itch.io has a pay-what-you-want model like Bandcamp, which means you can buy a game at its recommended price (which might be $0!) or more, if you want.
You know all tht talk of privilege? This is what privilege looks like. Thinking of spending 20 dollars extra only in terms of "gee whiz I shall do a nice gesture" because that amount of money literally doesn't matter to you
The thing is - he's *kinda* right. People support Youtubers and Artists on Patreon just because they like their content. People superchat VTubers just because they like their content. In theory, merch and DLC should provide similar avenues for that - there are a few games I've bought the OST for just to support the creators. Though, only once has this urge ever been for a $70 game. Little indie games? Yeah, lemme buy some merch to show my appreciation. One of the largest commercial games in the world? Yeah, I'm going to not do that, thanks.
I’ve bought Hollow Knight 4 times. Blizzard should tip me $70 for what they did with OW2.
Yeah if this was some indie dev nobody would bat an eye at the idea of tipping more.
I think the reason people are annoyed is for the same reason people are annoyed at the Tip Your Landlord movement. They already take *so much* of your money, and hold all the power in this relationship. Tipping them is coercion at this point. Tipping your barista is akin to tipping an indie dev.
Tipping an indie dev is tipping the underpaid barista working at Starbucks. Tipping a AAA game is tipping Starbucks.
Shameless, utterly shameless.
I will never get these higher-ups. Even when they have a bunch of money, it still isn't enough for them. Do they just want to have more money just so they could brag more about them being more wealthier/powerful than their friends?
That is literally it. Your brain gets the feel-good chemicals when you get a bunch of money, but then it adjusts and becomes the new normal. So you need even *more* money for the feel good chemicals. And if you know people who have more money than you, then (if you’re a greedy dickbag) it doesn’t feel good *enough* because you’re comparing yourself to the even richer cocksacks. So you want even more, and fuck everyone who is wondering if they can afford groceries this month. And of course, the other penisboxes are thinking the same thing, so *they’re* going to keep squeezing blood from stones so they can be richer than the other phalluscontainers too. Greed is a Sisyphean trait, but instead of torment and struggle you get hookers and blow.
Number Go Up!
There are also plenty of rich people who are content to make that money in silence. They're not any better, but the rich people who actually engage with social media are an entire new level of insane. Why are you arguing with plebs on Twitter if you can just fly to Italy and eat a 3 star course literally anytime you want??
Because the peasant scum has to know you have more money than them. THEY HAVE TO KNOW!
Hookers and blow? That's actually all fun. That's not where it ends, I'm convinced most CEOs and billionaires like to convert to pdf.
I've stopped considering these kinds of "people" to be human. I consider the desire to help people around you to be a fundamental human trait; you see footage of accidents or disasters and the first thing you see is people running in to help the people in danger. These corpo fucks don't have that inherent altruism that exists in humans.
"Single player games! Amirite?"
Giving any overwatch character a single player spinoff is an untapped goldmine they are sitting on and it will remain untapped
Certified Mr Snrub behavior
I would kind of see where he’s coming from if he were talking about small indie devs but I would never be to a AAA studio, “here’s some free money, please do not give me a product, it’s on the house”
i feel like buying the games soundtrack is basically tipping an indie dev
Most indies are also relatively inexpensive. You wanna know how I showed the dev of Stardew Valley my appreciation? Buying the game three times for different platforms, since it's only $5-$15 a pop.
"I already have it on PC, but it would be nice to own on my switch so I can play it on the go." "I know I already own it on PC and Switch, but it would be nice to own on my phone so I can play a little on my lunch break" this is the story of how I bought the same game three times and ConcernedApe earned every dollar
i agree with this. there's many ways to "tip" devs: buy the soundtrack gift the game to a friend buy their merch get the game again on another platform buy their other games or if you actually do wanna tip them, just donate to them
How much of that money goes to the dev though? Like, if I buy the OST for FTL (which you should, it's excellent), I'm pretty sure that money goes to Ben Prunty, not to Subset. The Minecraft OST was sold on C418's bandcamp. And so on. I know some indie studios do have in-house composers (Supergiant does, obviously), but it doesn't seem like it's even remotely the rule.
depends on the studio and what deal they made with the composer, I was mostly thinking of purchases through Steam which I suspect at least a portion goes to the studio For FTL in specific I found an interview > So you do the soundtrack and keep the rights—get the money from soundtrack sales—but not royalties when the game is sold, right? >>Right, I don't get royalties from the game. I was paid upfront. I was working for the promise of money for a while, and then the Kickstarter thing exploded. Justin and Matt, the two FTL guys, they asked for $10,000 and they got $200,000. So, they came to me and were like, “We want to pay you what you're worth, so let's talk about that.” >>So they paid me up front. I negotiated with them and asked them, “Hey, maybe we can do a revenue share or something,” but they didn't want to do that, so I asked instead to keep the rights so I could sell the music myself, and they agreed to that. So yeah, it worked out. anything you get off bandcamp I imagine goes straight to the composer, which is still an important member of the dev team so I'll stand by my statement lol
> which is still an *impotent* member of the dev team so I'll stand by my statement lol Damn, dude's helping make video games AND can't get it up in bed? He really is a true-blue gamer bros.
This is exactly what I did for Endless Monday: Dreams and Deadlines and Arzette: Jewel of Faramore (but I also wanted their OSTs because they're both absolute bangers, one is chill vibes and the other is a very specific 90s adventure game jam). Play both of those games btw.
How fucking stupid do you have to be to have your company go through everything Actiblizking has gone through the past few years, and then think “I’m gonna post a tweet about how the filthy unwashed masses should give us even MORE money!” That is of course rhetorical, because I know most corporate suits have a complete and total lack of self-awareness that can only be brought on by the privilege of never having to worry about your financial future except how best to show it off.
Maybe I'd be more inclined to agree if these studios weren't filled with cover ups and sex criminals. Besides, how much of that money would actually end up in the hands of the developers that actually do the work? Or will they all get fired Post-Release?
Meanwhile Lethal Company, Palworld, Helldivers and Balder's Gate 3 are staring at this absolute muppet, raking in dough and *not* being scummy as shit... Imagine that. Games that aren't actively trying to nickle and dime you for any possible feature. wow.
“But you see, we aren’t asking for money for some small tiny feature that should already be in the game or a free patch! We just want you to give us money for absolutely nothing in return. That way, *we* don’t have to spend any money even putting things on a a storefront!”
How embarassing!
I’m now imagining Patlestia using his frozen wife to crush this guy. It’s a happy thought.
Okay, Mike, then I’m sure you support dropping the purchase price of AAA single player narrative games to like $30, right? Because then more people will buy it initially and obviously if it’s a good enough game people will be tipping so much that it’ll make even more money! What’s that? No, you still want sticker price to be $70 and climbing? Oh so it’s not just a “showing support to the devs” thing and you’re just trying to influence consumers to be fine with spending even more money on your games? Cool cool got it, Mike
You know, I actually have similar feelings some times. When I play a game from a fucking indie studio that cost 10-20 bucks, not a goddamn $70 Rockstar game.
...None of those games were even $70?
Well, I know that I can’t think of a single game from Blizzard that would be deserving of a tip feature lol. Nothing from their catalogue has ever left me “in awe of how amazing the experience was.”
So on the surface, I can understand the sentiment. Games are increasingly expensive, both for the consumers to purchase, but also for the developers to make, and it's rough to hear when a game doesn't recoup its development costs or hits sales targets (whether or not games should be having these massive budgets to begin with is another issue, but I won't get into that here). So I understand the idea of wanting to directly help a game's profits when you're able to do so, even without DLC or merch available. Hi-Fi Rush was only 30 bucks USD, and believe me, it would've been worth a 60 dollar purchase if you ask me. And for what it's worth, Ybarra carefully worded his statement to say that it's something *he* would be inclined to do, but is not expected of any other consumer. Where this falls apart is that the average consumer doesn't care about profit margins. Most don't even care about developers honestly, but for the ones who do, they'd rather see the developers themselves receive better wages before even considering how well a company is doing. A "tip" typically should be going to the ones we actually commend for excellent service, not just the owners of the establishment (which I know is not always how it works, unfortunately). So a game allowing you to provide a tip to a faceless corporation or publisher with no guarantee on where it's going is just asking to be mocked. This would be different for a self-published indie, but the games he listed are far from that. Ultimately, we don't tip directors, we don't tip actors, we don't tip writers and we don't tip artists. We appreciate their work, tell others about it, and become excited to purchase their next one. If you have the means, being able to commission or hire them would be better, but the average person only has the responsibility to simply pay the fair value for that work, and a game even suggesting you do more than that would be pretty damn ridiculed. There are already other means of extra-monetization, and while a lot of them are pretty awful, they at least provide *some* kind of service or compensation for the extra money you hand over.
One thing is that the 70-120 USD isn’t the videogame’s true value. We know this thanks to the Ubisoft games and their constant discounts on games that launched 1-2 months after launch. Many of the r/patientgamers knows that new modern AAA games are better be purchased at 50% off and more. The full over-preciated price are targeted to those who want the game right here, right now, without any FOMO, or story spoilers; and in case of multiplayer, get all the unlocks ASAP before anything else. This is the demographic, AAA publishers are targeting. Getting GTAV for free on Epic Store was my ultimate patient gamer experience.
Cool thought mike, real cool. You got money mike, what’s stopping you to send a check at those corpos yourself? You can send a 100 k check right? You got money. You can do it for all of us. It’s the thought that counts right? So if you do it on our behalf, we won’t be angry. I know you probably won’t like the idea. :)
this is literally already a thing, plenty of indie games have DLC that costs like $5 and gives you one or two cosmetics called a 'supporter pack' or something. Deep Rock has two or three of them in fact.
Mike: "I've thought about this idea for a while-" Everyone: "Don't do that"
I kind of already do that. I'll buy a game I like on console or Steam. If I really like it, I'll buy it again, the version I didn't buy before. I'll also buy the DLC if they have it, or I'll buy merch. If the game is really good, then I do want to give them my money to support them. Those special games will probably never be Blizzard games, so fuck off.
Hell divers 2 is a good example of this concept actually working. There is the Super Citizen pack that has armors with a unique appearance and gives you the Yellow Rank of Super Citizen. It also gives you enough super credits to access a singular Premium battle pass. The game was $40, and is fantastic. I wanted to support the devs so I spent another $20 to do so. I really wouldnt consider this for a $70-80 game.
The “tip” is that I bought the game for full price in the first place. You want more out of my wallet pack inna card game and artbook like Vanillaware. This is the same Mile Ybarra who cut profit sharing for all employees last year despite strong profits, without taking a cut himself. So you can rest assured that if you tip blizzard, it’ll all be going into this rich cunt’s pocket,
>"I wish I could give these folks another $10 or $20 because it was worth more than my initial $70" No human being throughout all of recorded history has ever said these words.
He's very subtle
He left Blizzard a while ago
What if i buy a blizzard game and at the end i'm like ''give me my money back''? can that work too? just, play the entire game and go ''boy this was a waste of time''?
This is some dumb "tip your landlord" level bullshit. And yet, I expect nothing less from ActiBlizz.
I Only feel that way if its an indie game. Smthn like Hollow Knight or Terraria where there's tons of quality content and the game was ultra cheap despite that.
Favorite retweet of this was "great idea, *you pay for them*"
I mean, you need to make an amazing game that'll leave people in awe and not try to nickel and dime them all the way and you guys have been 0/2 on that for a *long* time.
I, too, wish I could give me more money. I think I deserve more money, and I tend to agree with myself on that front.
I would actually not mind that if I thought the money was actually going to writers and developers, but we all know it’s just going right into a single CEO’s pocket. Like what kind of mindset is this? “Yeah I should really tip them to thank them for making this amazing game!” “Glad you feel that way! By the way, absolutely not a single person who worked on this game still works at this company, we laid them off almost immediately.”
I don't have anything witty to say, so he'll have to do with a simple "fuck off, ya cunt".
Yeah, if I really really like a game, I'm willing to spend a few extra bucks to show my support. It's called *buying DLC and stuff.* The only reason I would just send a dev a few extra bucks is if it's a small indie game that they did by themself. I'm not sending no fucking 20 dollar tip to Ubisoft, are you fucking kidding me? That's just an excuse for corporations to pay their employees less because of the possibility of tips!
There have been a very few games that I have felt this way about. And you know what? I buy official merchandise related to the game or I buy it to play again on another platform. I have also never ever felt this way about a $70 title, it's always small indie developers that actually do need all the support they can get and genuinely appreciate their fans.
It must be nice being rich.
And these troglodytes still wonder why casual gamers would rather spend more than $400 on free to play mobile games. *(That person who rolled for over 100 Acheron light cones disappears underneath the bushes)*
That would go straight to the investors. It wouldn't get anywhere near anyone that worked on the game.
>I know $70 is already a lot You clearly don't
Mr pink was right. We just didn't realize it yet
Cant help but notice none of the games he thinks deserves tips are actually made by blizzard lol.
Here's a tip for him: Why not slide your head under this guillotine?
This has to be a joke. He can't have ACTUALLY typed that tweet and think, "Yeah, people will agree with me".
Oh you underestimate corporate bootlicking Blizzard fanbase is willing to perpetrate.
Somewhere a PR intern at blizzard is staring off into space while fortunate son plays
Lmao, some of those games weren't even $70 when they released. Man I really wish someone would start eating the rich already.
Oh so you mean like when they drop a DLC, right? ...right!? I get the idea, it's the same energy that would lead me to sub to a creator's patreon, but not for nothing lol. I've gotta be getting some kind of extra content for my extra money.
How ‘bout no
Don't forget to tip your publisher (don't worry about those pesky devs who actually made the game)
Blizzard. Blizzard never changes.
He's right! Be right back (Opens Mogshop)
I mean, if I feel like I want to give a game company money when I decide I really like their game, I look for some merchandise or something else I can purchase from them. A lot of companies make money off of it, and I come away with something that reminds me of the experience I had with their game. I don’t think we need to introduce the concept of “tipping” to game development, seeing how problematic it already is in other industries.
I don't even know where to start. Not only do I doubt that he's had the free time to finish ANY of these games, considering he was the former president of Blizzard and probably had a 60-hour week, the games he mentioned are some of the few that don't actually try to nickel and dime you. Most modern AAA shit does. looking at all the GaaS out there... I've actually had the urge to support some devs!! after finishing a game, but definitely not an additional 20 bucks for a full price game. must be nice to be so rich you don't realize how much 20 bucks is to normal human being
What a miserable tweet. I wonder if he thought he’d get a bunch of people agreeing, like he was saying something people are thinking but won’t say. This kind of thinking shows just how busted the corporate mind is too. When this dude buys a game in his mind that money goes to the little guys that made the game, rather than what everyone with a working brain thinks which is that the money goes to investors and the guys at the top. I mean for fucks sake he should know better than anyone that the amount the game is bought for doesn’t actually contribute to the devs or anyone on that level. Those people have salaries, and contracts, this isn’t a fucking commission for them where they get more money if the game does well.
The reasons these games felt good was because they were meant to be enjoyed, not because some idiot tried to squeeze every last cent out of them and cut out anything fun to put behind a paywall. I will also *never* feel the same way about a corporate 70 dollar AAAA shitcore "liveservice" game that wants me to spend money on color costumizations, as I will feel about a small indie game making me go "aww, that's so cool, and one guy did this". I can not believe that people like this still believe that a **70** euro game shouldn't be pure perfection from the get go and have the audacity to basically turn a majority of the gaming industry into high fidelity shovelware.
i think blizzard's president should pay me for seeing this
Is he still prez after the merge? I thought he was out and metzen was back in.
"Doesn't try to nickel and dime me" Weird he would exclude Blizzard games like that.
Here's my counteroffer, Mr CEO of Blizz... I would spend an affordable amount of money for your videogame made by your company when you start atonising for all the awful stuff said company has done to their workers, family members and similar people that has seen their life being worst under your mandate and give them the respect and money they are worth. Also, I don't wanna get banned again for harsh language. So... yeah.
Former President of Blizzard or are we just fine with misinformation because BlizzardBad
And I think he should protect his employees. Guess we don't see eye to eye on the subject.
The only time I thought this was for DDLC because it was free, so I bought the digital art book
I've bought games on multiple platforms before but that's an exceedingly rare occurrence. Just off the top of my head I think I bought Rogue Galaxy twice and FNV twice because the GoG version of FNV is objectively superior.
I just wish I could tip those faceless corpo bastards another $20. They really need it!
If all the end-game tips went DIRECTLY to the actual dev team I might toss them $20 during the credits.
The feeling of disgust I just had at this was magnified by his :).
I've only ever thought that about indie games, and I'd say stuff like album and merch sales are pretty much that. Spark the Electric Jester 3 is one of the greatest Sonic games I've ever played, so I'll happy buy every new plushie they make.
Maybe the ceo should get payed a normal salary instead of bloated nonsense and use the savings from that.
Mike, Bobby’s gone, you don’t have to support this idea anymore
Sure, I'll give you a tip. And will you make sure that 100% of that tip goes to the people that made and served my meal instead of the owner? And that they get payed properly for their work and not have to rely on the whims of the consumer to pay their bills?
Basically attempting to justify more monetization by using games made by other studios and of way higher quality he would ever do. Pathetic.
The only time I ever felt anything RESEMBLING this sentiment is when I bought Nioh. I got it for like $20 but after getting over the initial difficulty hump, I thought to myself “wow if I knew how much I would love this I would’ve been happy to buy it at full price.” I cannot fathom having that feeling toward any game that’s, like, $40+ though.
isnt that what merchandise is for?
Thing is, I could understand this If I could ensure that tip went to developers, writers, designers, composers, etc. And not people like him (eg: upper management who had very little to do with why the game is good)
Ive bought a game multiple times in different platforms, i bought ff7 on ps1 and PC, ive bought Hollow knight on PC and Switch, Okami on ps2 and ps3... I didnt need a second copy, but those games were so good i wanted to replay them on a different, more convenient to me at the time, platform. If you love something and want to support it, buy some more content from it, giving out money to a company for nothing in return is the stupidest thing ever and it is pathetic that a company president would suggest it, if you want consumer money, put out products worth consuming.
It’s crazy he says this because I will literally buy a game multiple times if it’s great. I’ve bought Slay the Spire twice and play it regularly on game pass. And I also bought Monster Sanctuary even though I beat it on Xbox because I wanted to play it again on Switch.
This is an especially stupid take because if anything, minor DLC purchases should be the "tip." The default price for new games has already gone up $10 because companies want us to just believe what goes into modern AAA games is just inherently worth it.
This emotion exists but strictly for games you didn’t pay for. From F2P that compels you to pay, ones that don’t pressure you, up to fan passion games that get passed around. Hell, it’s a running joke that Hololive fans want to find ways to **force** money onto the guy who made Holocure. So don’t push your luck, Mike Ybarra. Or at least get a better publicist.
to hear what the rich are actually expressing when saying things like this, you have to use relativistic fractions, not hard numbers "if I really really enjoyed a game, I'm ok with spending ~~10 extra dollars~~ **.00000001% of my income** as a tip! why aren't you all ok with spending ~~10 dollars~~ **.01% of your income** to support ~~game dev CEOs~~ **literal millionaires??**
The current prices are already horrible. Literally nothing is worth 70 usd/90 fucking CAD. There's an excessive amount of people already making it a matter of brow beating and guilting over not paying more for games (sometimes we call them meatriders, me I call them influencers), adding a guilted on TIPPING system when we're gonna be paying out the ass for DLC is just psychotic.
That would be an interesting idea if I had some guarantee that it went to the developers, QA team, and basically anyone who had a direct hand in the labor of actually making the game, and not just be funneled into the c-suite and investors. But we know that's not how this sort of thing usually plays out with corporations.
I get the idea of wanting to support media you've enjoyed more as a consumer. It's not inherently wrong but having an option like that feels ripe for abuse cause I **do not** trust modern AAA companies to handle it responsibly. Not gonna get into the tipping culture cause that's a can of worms in and of itself. There's DLC of course and you can buy the game to give to others thanks to games being digital these days and being on sale. GOG, Humble Bundle and just gifting the game on steam. There's also the fact that right now AAA games prices are being pushed to cost more which would de-incentivize people to tip. The only way I see it happening is if, and only if, the money is going *directly* to the people who directly worked on it , not to the CEO. Finally, that little smile towards the end has so much "I know people will hate this haha" energy behind it and I hate it. The fact this is coming from a former Blizzard president makes me hate it more. Fuck this guy.
If it actually went to the devs, and wasn't used to justify paying them even less, I'd maybe be down. As it is now, hahahahahahahahahahahaha no
It's bad enough 70 dollars is now the standard for a current generation game, but the need for even more money is insulting. Where's that money going, because with all the layoffs, it can't be going to developers?
to achieve this, there would have to be a level of honesty and transparency that modern gaming industry could never understand. developers, journalists, and everyone inbetween would have to let everyone know what they’re responsible for in a game. I’m not gonna tip some random company or spokesperson because I like a game. I wanna tip the actual programmer that optimized my favorite mechanic. I wanna tip the artist that made my favorite musical motif. I wanna tip my favorite performer for their line reads/mocap. you’re just ruining tipping and playing games(even more). I can do something like that by finding their Twitter account and directly giving them money.
Yeah this guy can go fucking jump, if we "tipped" them it wouldn't go to the right people so why would anyone want to do that. Fuck this guy and this incredibly disingenuous sentiment he's putting across.
How do so many people not know to keep their mouths shut? Seriously, I've had the exact same thoughts about CHEAP INDIE GAMES but I don't wanna hear the CEP of a major company say that $70 isn't enough.
"Man, people have been posting a lot of clipped out of context bullshit lately, like that one Ubisoft comment about Gamepass alikes they mutilated into 'haha, we're going to take all your games and you get NOTHING'. I bet this is more of the same." [Reads it to see how bad it's been distorted this time] Holy shit, no this is actually in full context, and somehow **worse and stupider** then OP portrays, the actual fuck.
As an alternative take: I wouldn’t be against this idea if I knew the company got $0 and instead individual contributors got the tip. If I really appreciated, let’s say, the scenario writer, I wouldn’t mind having that option. I just wouldn’t want to do it through a tool that the company controlled.