Former Xbox Exec Likes The Idea Of 'Tipping' Developers After Beating Their Games

Surely actually buying the game is the tip in and of itself especially at full price never have I thought to myself "I just payed for and beat this game and enjoyed it so I'll give them even more money for nothing in return".

That's like going to the cinema and after watching the movie they ask you if you liked the movie enough you should consider leaving a tip. No one is going to do that.

Considering you have Ubisoft asking £130 already for some editions. (And many other digital editions £80+) it’s a bit much.

Plus cost of living, gaming is doing very well in revenue terms. Even with people getting more chooses.

And are any games actually really releasing in a perfect state to warrant this? If games actually released pretty much bug free and so on, maybe more will buy at full price. And then won’t need tips!

I get Ybarra's reasoning, but personally it would depend on who the money is going to.

For example, if I leave a tip at a restaurant, it's on the understanding that the person who served me did a good job or went above and beyond to make sure my experience was positive, and that the money goes to that person and not the employer.

If I thought for a second that, say, Ubisoft would take any money given as tips and give it to the rank and file developers who actually did the work on the game, then I'd happily leave a tip. However, there's no way in hell that would ever happen; no one who put the blood, sweat and tears into the game would see a penny.

Not in a million years why would I tip a company that sacks most its staff to make more profits like they all have lately I'd tip indie developers or smaller double a studios I'm not tipping multi million/billion dollar companys maybe throw some of the massive profits to climate change or the million other problems they could help instead of filling up there own pockets one of the most stupid things I've ever heard how the world is now

I've messaged a few developers upon completing their games (when did we start using the word 'beating' like it's an accomplishment in anything other than Souls games?!). They're always appreciative and if a gamer has the spare disposable income to tip a smaller dev then I see nothing wrong with that. (I personally detest what tipping culture has become - certainly tied to a lack of wages rising with inflation/cheap capitalist employers). The developers I've messaged were for Alien Isolation, LOU2, Deliver Us The Moon, Terminator Resistance and Aliens Dark Descent.

I would consider a small tip for true indie games I love like Balatro and Incsryption. The prospect of tipping for a game made by the likes of EA, Ubisoft or Blizzard just seems mad to me. For starters I have absolutely zero trust that any developers would ever see any of that money. Secondly I imagine a fairly significant chunk of Devs creating these games are contractors so would be working for a completely different company by the time I come to tip them.

No. Not going to happen.
Devs can't even ship a finished game these days and they want a flipping TIP on top of the $70 price tag?
GTFO.

The only time I think I would find that acceptable was if I got to play the Game 'free' or at most, an extremely low cost. The sheer cost of games these days is such that I feel they are way over-priced and I should be getting more for my Money, being 'tipped' by the Devs/Publishers (either with money or game content).

With Game Pass titles, If I feel like the Devs deserve a 'tip' for their game after I have played, I may buy it and/or buy extras like DLC but I have 'never' bought a game and thought the Devs deserve more money from me. The majority seem to 'owe' me something back, should tip/refund me for under-delivering, over-promising etc.

@Zenszulu americans might if you give em enough time to get used to it 😭

The £70 purchase price is enough of a tip for me, thanks very much. When you currently need to remortgage your house to buy a litre of olive oil then this idea is rather out of touch. People don't have the money for pleasantries like this at the moment - outside of the world of millionaire 'execs'. And it's not as if your tip is going to end up in the pockets of ground level employees.

They will nickel and dime you any way they can. With the fat cats in this business earning more in a year than they should in a lifetime whilst firing the devs that make the games, they will still put their collection cup out asking for more. Disgusting.

Rich guy thinks everyone has money to throw around.
Nothing new.

Back into days when Larian released their first Divinity Original Sin I was so impressed that wanted to send them some extra money. But their community manager thanked me for the interest to the game and told, that if I'd like the game that much, I'd better buy some copies for my friends or random people over the Internet who had not enough money to enjoy the Original Sin at that moment. I even asked some more indie devs throughout the internet same question throughout the years, but all of them answered with something like "dude, you've bought the game already, that's awesome, now buy yourself a beer and enjoy the day".

But, of course, big companies with AAAAA products are those, who need "tips" the most. How about them giving more money to developers and stuff who actually make games and draw in claws with their corporate greed a bit.

If they lower the price by half I could be inclined to do it but bearing in mind games more often than not cost 80€...

This just reeks of some corpo idea to pay developers less.

Tipping culture is getting out of control. Just pay people living wages please.

If you need a tip on top of the cut you get for making the game, then prices and wages need to go up and let the market decide what is bearable.

Many devs that do this as a job/career earn a good wage and have highly desired/competitive skills. Why is that not enough for them to earn a living? You can’t tell me a dev is in a company is making $2.13 an hour like waitstaff (the chef usually earns a living wage). Also devs aren’t the only ones that make a game and even if they were how do we decide what part of a tip goes where?

Yeah, cause I totally need intrusive pinging after I finish a game asking for more money.

@Tomato_Goose
I didn't grab Outriders until it was finished and I got it for less than a 10er brand new from Amazon. One of the funnest experiences I've had in a while. I loved it, really had a blast. I was desperate to find out how I could pay People Can Fly devs back. There wasn't an obvious bundle of DLC that I could splurge on, and I was worried that it had been long enough that I simply wasnt sure they were under the same Publisher, where any bonus might make it their way.
I sincerely wanted to reward the devs

Shut up, Mike, you're drunk.

You can take the man out of Blizzard, but you can't take Blizzard out of the man

Nope... I show the developer appreciation by paying full price for my games where I can. American tipping culture must not infect the world; just pay your staff a decent wage to begin with.

I would only tip extremely rarely & only if the devs directly involved with said game got 100% of the tip shared equally.
I would tip solely for the experience of Red Dead Redemption 1, Fallout 3 & Zelda BotW.
I'd only trust Nintendo to not take any money for themselves & give directly to devs.

We have tipping culture in games. It's called the 3 dozen Day One DLCs & near-infinite microtransactions. You're telling me they want more on top of that, on top of the $70 price tag?

I mean, I can understand what he means and the whole reasoning behind it… But the thing is, video games are becoming pricier by the minute and most popular and triple-AAA releases are now at $70, which adds onto the price of the console. But it’s not just gaming that has been getting pricier.

Living necessities and rent are becoming increasingly expensive and harder to pay for, so I feel that tipping upon completion of a game would start to add on to that. I’m not trying to be rude to the guy recommending the idea, but I just feel it would not be feasible budget-wise for some, and people here are making points that paying full price (which is usually more than tipping) is already showing a lot of support, which I can definitely see.

However, I am moreso saying that to bigger billion-dollar companies that just want more money and nothing else. Tipping, if went toward people that put real work and effort into making games, as well as smaller companies and individuals in the industry, like an indie studio, make more sense to me, compared to a company like Activision, which has made lots of money already by littering their games with anti-consumer practices and have business leads that don’t care about creativity or effort anymore.

Articles like this just reinforce my belief that every industry needs to unionize. Tipping needs to go extinct.

This idea has a lot more merit when you consider it in the context of getting a game at a deep discount, or for free. There have definitely been times that I've thought that the devs deserved more than I paid for a game.

On the other hand, there are so many ways that this can (and surely will!) go wrong, if companies actually implement it! (See the comments above for a few examples.)

Nah I'm good. The games are pricey enough as is.

No. Just no. Absolutely no. This idea is ridiculous that probably sounded ok in his mind at the time then hopefully realized how idiotic sounded when spoken.

Granted I'm just tired of being nickled and dimed everywhere I go now. Use credit card, extra fee. Buying groceries, like to round up your total to give to kittens and puppies with covid foundation.

It's just out of hand. I bought the game, I played the game. It's over. Want more money? Make good sequel or another game.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I hear what you're saying. But it also reflects on how low standards for the gaming industry when we think giving a tip for bug free experience, etc.

It should be the way release day to begin with. I'm tired of the release it broken we might fix later mentality.

Yeah I totally get this dudes reasoning and agree to a extent but like being honest I would only ever do some ***** like this if it was like “you beat Alan Wake 2. You really liked the story. Would you like to teleport directly in front of Sam Lake and tip him 10 bucks and tell him what you liked?” Because based off what bro is saying I mean I could tip the COD Devs 20 bucks and it could all go to Bobby Kotick

@CallMeDuraSouka Outriders does have DLC expansion. Not sure how long or how short it is. But do agree that game was awesome surprise to play.

@shoeses Don't forget the spend extra $100-$200 for collectors edition to get 3 whole days of early access.

There would need to be some sort of way to verify that it is going to the actual devs and not just the controlling groups bonus. I would want to know that the lowest paid employees are getting a larger share of the "tip jar."

Otherwise I don't mind the idea of tipping them as long as it is optional, unobtrusive and nothing is locked behind it, not even a cosmetic item.

I think Mike Ybarra's tweet was more of "I love this game so much, I wish there was something I could do to show my appreciation." Not "let's make consumers pay the devs so we don't have to," like a lot of people are claiming.

@Weapon_Wheel @101Force @Ryu_Niiyama @Yorozayu Hopefully I tagged everyone that said tipping culture needs to die. I absolutely agree. It does.

But there is a need for it in things like waiting tables. Tips actually stand for, To Insure Proper Service. It's incentive for the staff to make sure you're experience is good and you get what you need.

Did not tag the people saying "pay people a fair wage". But I definitely get get that as well. But two things keep in mind. One, the staff is getting a tipping wage that is less than minimum, yes. But if they take their job serious and do a good job at all their tables, they absolutely make bank. Probably more an hour than even us make. They're fine.

Two, if you pay the wait staff a "better wage". The dinner you just paid $20 for is going to $55 very quick. Look at the states that are doing that now. California, New York, etc. Lot of people lost their jobs because of this new mindset. I will bet it is going to hurt the restaurant industry heck lot more than even covid and scamdemic did. The give "people everything" mentality is a plague too. Just raises costs. Businesses will ALWAYS pass their costs on to customers.

I liked Hifi Rush so much while playing it on gamepass that I bought the extra DLC just to tip the devs.

The guy is basically saying: After paying for the game and the DLC and maybe a few costume packs, there is no other way for us to get money from the customer like season/battle passes. This is a new way to open up a revenue stream.

@GuyinPA75 : I'm inclined to suggest practices that obscure or hide the true cost of things should be eliminated from all industries, restaurants included. And I'd further suggest if a restaurant, like any business, can't compete paying its employees a fair wage without tipping then it should go out-of-business, and if an employee, like a waiter, can't perform their job well with a fair wage and no tips then they should be fired.

Having said that, you're mistaken about the origin of the terms "tip", "tips", and "tipping". I've also heard it said these terms are derived from the phrase "To Insure Promptness", but that's completely wrong as well. These terms originated from 18th English slang for "to give", which is why these terms are used for the act providing both monetary gratuities and useful information.

@101Force the more insidious problem with tipping is that while a waiter in a high end restaurant can make serious money, I've known waiters and waitress, especially waitresses that are young and attractive that make more money than I'll ever make in a "real" job. But the cook in the back that actually makes the food , the cleaning staff, various other duties in the back, get their minimum or local equivalent of minimum and not a penny more. It affords the usually young, pretty, sociable, often academically upward staff a source of good money at the expense of the rest of the staff. Occasionally a business will pool the tips and share with all. Some object to that. And in some places that's illegal. And yes it hides the real cost of things. Not that it doesn't actually cost what it costs, but that removes those factors from cost of living index.

But service staff wouldn't want to get rid of it in pricy places where they benefit.

I also remember when tips were 8% for average service 10% for good service and 15% for excellent service. Now everyone expects 20% minimum.

On the lower end side, and same with non tip Walmart and the like, companies have whole departments coordinating their intentionally below poverty employees on getting their government welfare to make up the rest of their income.... So tax payers pay payroll for mega corporations lowest paid employees.

"But employment has never been so good!" (Also we don't count the unemployed in that metric but did in the decades we comparing to .....)

I'll give them a tip. Finish a game and I'll buy it and maybe if it's good enough, I'll pay full price for it.

The expensiveness of games, waiting for a sales, hating modern game design, MTX and tipping culture. How much do they want me to not care about the games companies because you give us more reasons to do so. XD

I mean companies aren't our friends, the companies get enough money as it is.

We aren't tipping for a suggestion box, feedback/bug reports let alone anything else what do they think were stupid.

If to a friend or because in a job in the US sure. But tipping culture in other countries without it or just the US only versions. No thanks. Stop spreading excuse suggestions. Don't make it wide spread.

We will praise the games with our words or how much we hate it. Not with more money that only one country pushes of tipping culture and even then they don't deserve it they get salaries, they get what they do from the games. If the tipping is for the execs or publishers even more so no.

I would understand something like this for an indie dev that people would want to provide extra support and keep them in business, but never for a large studio. I have concerns about how the money gets divided up because there are many different aspects to game development and a wide variety of people involved. If I enjoyed a game’s gameplay, music, and art while being disappointed in the story and characters, would I give a tip specifically to the departments that I liked or would the people whose work i didn’t appreciate as much get the same tip? Also, with how many people aren’t employed by the developer and are contractors, would they get tips too? I think having an option wouldn’t be bad, but would have a lot of questions that I would like answered before I give some extra money to the game.

No, just straight up no.

@GuyinPA75 People Can Fly have made some real gems. It's a shame they've never had a game just explode and earn them a healthy nest egg.

I will give them are tip certainly.
Don't eat yellow snow.

@GuyinPA75 I am ok with food prices going up. They will go up regardless. So I would rather it be because people have a living wage. Minimum wage has some deliberately sinister underpinnings in American culture and economics and I doubt regular tipping would end if waitstaff got a living wage. The real casualty would be some restaurants won’t survive but that is a business model problem (like places in Mississippi that are shutting down because they can’t get folks to slave for 2.13 an hour). Which I am fine with. Dining is a luxury that keeps me from cooking, not a need. I don’t want to spend 100 bucks for a meal but even fast food (which has a better starting wage than most waitstaff get) beats up a 20 dollar bill in most places. So there is some middle ground for price increases. People will still buy, maybe a little less but consumer culture is not gonna grind to a halt because waitstaff can pay their bills now. Let the market decide what is bearable.

If they don't have any micro transactions or any paid dlcs and all expansions are free updates, then I believe they should be tipped.

@Ryu_Niiyama Your heart is absolutely in the right place and that's awesome. But you're mindset isn't in the reality of how things work though. Maybe you're young and not had full life experience yet? But please understand, if prices go up (rapid rate just for sake of wages), people will go out less, less customers, equals less job opportunities.

The 2.13 an hour in Mississippi, that state minimum wage or tip wage? If is a tip wage (which is standard and common in the industry) and person is doing just 4 tables an hour with $50 average ticket ($200), average tip at 15% ($30) that's $32.13 an hour (that's very, very, very good for non college educated person! not many people even making that, period). Say they ONLY work 20 hours a week ($642.6) at 52 weeks a year equals $33,415 as honestly just a part time job. That's fairly decent income for large parts Mississippi. And you can bet that person is not claiming all the tips on taxes either.

All that positive is gone, it all goes away, when increase the average cost of a meal due to unnecessary wage increases. People will hardly ever go out and eat then, like you even shared wouldn't go out. Person may only get 2 tables an hour. Then their income is cut in half immediately.

This even further highlights just how ludicrous and out of touch the asking price of $70+ for game is today.

@CallMeDuraSouka Absolutely! Didn't they also make that Cliffy B game Bulletstorm? That was a great game that seemed to never get attention it deserves too. Doubt even a sequel every comes out.

@GuyinPA75 I mentioned to let the market decide. So I addressed that there will be consequences to a price increase. I think I am not understanding where you are seeing my response as being idealistic due lack of experience (not sure what you are deeming the appropriate age to weigh in on this). I know that people will eat out less if the cost is passed on. They will also shop around as they do now. But that already happens in other food industries (let alone other industries) and is a fact of life.

As I said before, tipping culture is not going to go away even living wage is increased but now the onus isn’t on the customer to pay the employee enough to make up for their poor base wage. You are using a flat calculation and that is unrealistic (and generous) as there are a number of factors beyond service that go into tipping culture. But again I would rather that a living wage be paid and the market decide what it can bear.

Edit: Because Mississippi doesn't have its own tip and wage laws, Mississippi employers must follow the federal tip credit rules. This means that Mississippi employers can pay as little as $2.13 an hour, as long as the employee earns enough in tips to add up to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. (If they do that)

While this is a separate issue given the cost of games in the 90’s (let alone the cost of development and marketing now)I am not enthusiastic about 70 bucks a game but I am not bothered by it.

@Ryu_Niiyama I'm only saying that people never look or consider the effect and affect to ideas being pushed only because the idea sounds really nice.

Saying let the market decide I definitely agree with. But if the end result will absolutely make things worse, it needs to be ignored.

In none of my prior example was it unrealistic. If anything was unrealistic in that reality is likely better as that example was very conservative. Now looking above at prior posts I'd like to say even
@NEStalgia probably totally understands what I'm saying. Probably explain it better than I ever could too.

In most case buying the game is the tip in and of itself. But there are a lot of very good indie developers who vastly under value their work to be able to break into market.

These small studio and team should definitely be tipped. Maybe set up a ko-fi or buymeacoffee.

But TBH... I already view microtransactions or DLC/expansions as "tips". Which is why I tend to buy a lot of microtransactions or DLC since I don't think most companies warrant further support.