Former Blizzard president thinks you should be able to leave a tip after beating $70 games, but my 10 years in the hospitality industry knows that’s an awful idea

I’ll take “Terrible ideas that should never be implemented ever” for $500, Alex.

Image credit:FromSoftware/ Bandai Namco

Mike Ybarra, former president of Blizzard , has some up with the slightly baffling idea that players should be able to tip developers after beating $70 games.

In today’s episode of “how do we let these people run massive companies,” the now former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, who left the company back in January , has suggested introducing a tipping system into video games. “I’ve thought about this idea for a while, as a player, since I’ve been diving into single player games lately,” wrote Ybarra on Twitter. “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 [ Horizon Zero Dawn , God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2 , Baldur’s Gate 3 ], 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. I know most will dislike this idea… I realise 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.”

As someone with over a decade’s worth of experience in the catering industry, I can quite easily tell you why tipping like this just doesn’t work. You see, with the introduction of service charge in a lot of restaurants in the UK, many people don’t leave a tip anymore. Service charge is sort of meant to be a tip - except a lot of places just use it to top up your wage, so that you (maybe) have a liveable wage, and they don’t have to pay you as much.

Businesses can’t keep the tips themselves (in theory), but it does mean they get to make a lot more money than they would do otherwise. If we introduced tipping into video games, exactly the same thing would happen - devs wouldn’t be getting paid anymore than they already do, while executives would rake in more because they can replace wages with tips.

On top of that, $70 is ridiculously expensive already, and a recent study from Newzoo even found that most people are playing six plus year old games, and predominantly free ones like Fortnite, Roblox, League of Legends , and The Sims 4. So no, Mike, I don’t think we should be able to tip developers. Instead, they should just get paid properly in the first place.