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

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.