Former Blizzard President Wishes He Could Tip Developers An Extra $10 Or $20

Taking to Twitter to share his thoughts on games with incredibly well-made set pieces, Mike Ybarra, the former president of Blizzard Entertainment Inc., wishes for an option that would let him tip developers somehow. While I can see this making sense in an alternate world, there’s no way this would benefit anybody but the corporates in our reality that are already making hefty bucks. 

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 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.’ Games like HZD, GoW, RDR2, BG3, Elden Ring, etc. I know $70 is already a lot, but it’s an option at the end of the game I wish I had at times. Some games are that special,” tweets Mike.

“I’ve thought about this idea for a while, as a player, since I’ve been diving into single player games lately,” says Mike before going on to exemplify with the likes of Elden Ring, God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, the recently-released Baldur’s Gate 3 which went on to win last year’s Game of the Year, and Horizon Zero Dawn. 

People’s Reaction To Mike’s Tweet Is Met With A Resounding No

As expected, really. Folks on the internet aren’t having it. One u/Gnubeutel on Reddit inquires, “Sure, former Blizzard president, so I get to name an employee and they will get the money, right? Or will it go into a company pool that will mostly benefit shareholders?” 

So the conflict here is mainly stemming from the authenticity of these “would-be” tips. People would rather prefer to donate to indie developers who are pouring their heart and soul into their games, and then selling them off for $19.99 on Steam or elsewhere. It’s a more logical route as compared to tipping AAA game studios with thick wads of cash backing up their projects. 

But then again, as PC Gamer’s Ted Litchfield notes, such devs are already available to be approached that way on platforms such as Patreon, so there’s that.