The former head of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Ybarra, has said that players should be able send tips to developers after finishing their game.
In a post on Twitter, the industry vet wrote that he sometimes wished he could send extra money to creators of games that he has enjoyed. He did concede, however, this is not necessarily a popular idea, not least because games are already expensive and there’s societal pressure to tip in lots of scenarios.
“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’,” he wrote.
“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.”
Mike Ybarra left Blizzard in January 2024. He joined the company back in 2019 having left Microsoft earlier that year after two decades.