Former Blizzard head Mike Ybarra has an interesting idea regarding video game prices.
Months after ending his tenure in Blizzard, Mike shared this on Twitter:
“I’ve thought about this idea for a while, as a player, since I’ve been diving into single player games lately.
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.
I know most will dislike this idea. 🙂 BTW, I realize 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.”
This certainly sounds like a good idea on paper, but of course, such an idea isn’t going to work out for every game out there, much less the video game industry.
There is already a preexisting discourse on tipping in the restaurant industry. We won’t go through every argument or counterargument out there, but to give you an idea of how in deep this discourse has been, here’s a piece condemning tipping, here’s a piece about ‘tipping fatigue’ among US consumers, and here’s a piece about how no-tipping policies can harm workers.
But maybe the video game industry could be different, because of how monetization and psychology in the industry works. A lot of games now are not paid for up front, being labeled free-to-play. However, they make millions in steady revenue in microtransactions, that add up as their loyal players reward them.
So we get where Ybarra is coming from. If your game is good, some fans will feel it’s worth adding that extra $ 10 or $ 20. There will definitely be gamers who will pay an extra amount to fan favorite developers like PlatinumGames, Larian Studios, and Blitworks. There might also be gamers willing to do the same for bigger companies like Nintendo, Rockstar Games, Blizzard, Santa Monica Studio, etc.
In a way, gamers who have backed crowdfunds for video games have made these kinds of decisions, even before they received the game, based on how much they trust the developers. That’s worked out if you backed the Shovel Knight games, but not if you backed Mighty No. 9.
Ultimately, the immediate issue that comes up is this will only work for games that are popular. Regardless if the studio delivered a good title or not, or how hard they worked, forming a dependence on tipping creates as much risk for them as hoping they get a good Metacritic score.
It might be one worth trying out, in any case, so long as employee base salaries and benefits are not tied to how much they make on tips. Given how exploitative some existing monetization models in video games already are, maybe this could prove to be a sustainable, and even fair, alternative.
