Includes Surgeon Simulator, I am Fish and I am Bread, with TinyBuild also acquiring Russian studio Konfa Games for $5.4m.
Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra recently suggested an interesting concept that has sparked a debate among gamers - the idea of being able to tip developers after completing a game.
If I had a 100% way to be sure that this money would go to a fund or a reserve dedicated only to the guys who develop the games, be them designers, artists, programmers and so on, I could think about it.
But we all know that this 'tip' would only end up in a publisher's CEO pocket to buy a new yacht, so, no, I ain't tipping anyone anytime soon on this industry
Exactly these companies were raising money for good causes and gamers were donation and come to find out they are keeping a good chunk of be pie
Yeah tip your developer, 5% proceeds go to developer, 95% to the publisher or whoever. Isn't tipping for staff not making minimum wage? How about they just pay their developers properly and like you know, give them fair bonuses? Too much to ask from Blizzard these days, Kotick saw to that and is now laughing all the way to the bank.
It's the t**ts at the top looking at ways to cut devs wages and get the players to tip them like waiting staff, and I'll guarantee a percentage is skimmed and kept by Activision Blizzard. This is 100% for shareholder and CEO playouts.
I have to agree with this. On the surface tipping devs sounds like a great idea, but in the end it leads to pay cuts and subsidization of pay. Tips then become an expectation or the devs “can’t make a living.” Lastly, especially in the US, tip culture has gotten out of control, and it serves as an excuse not to properly pay employees. Sounds good but doesn’t end well.
Uh so they’re trying triple dip or more we buy the game that they’re already withholding/cutting content for dlc we was told that season pass would help the developers thrive we felt for it.
Now on top of all that plus their sales bonus they want tips enough is enough whatever happens to you create/built a good game get a bonus for sales milestones you care about your game and community we reward you with more sales not for doing 3/4 of a game then save the other 1/4 for dlc and passes after
Very well said. If it was possible to send the money to either the developer or some organization for the betterment of gaming, sure. But we all know that will not be the case.
No, it would go to those on the top. They will still fire developers, have a bunch of microtransactions, raise prices of games and so on.
So they eventually don't pay their workers and depend on our tips to pay them like the case with waiters!
That kind of practice is only normal in the states, as far as I know anyway, what a backwards system
Ireland is literally the first stop across the pond and we don't have a tipping culture. The only establishments here that would expect a tip are the tourist haunts that Americans visit. Other than that, you might tip in a restaurant as a sign of gratitude for great service and waiting staff would be paid a full wage anyway.
Is this a joke? How about the big wigs giving up some of their pay for their hard working developers.
good god. The devs are not baristas dude. Total 1% ideals. Fing Chadosaurus.
Caring about making money ain't the problem. It's the greed which turns into predatory interests in making money at the loss of humanity and customer trust.
Caring about making money helps you keep everyone employed...but they only care about lining their own pockets not making many for everyone to benefit.
You nailed it as greed...that's the problem.
Them: "We've figured out a way to squeeze you of more money, come on let us stick it in."
Us: "No."
Them: "Please! just the tip."
Us: "That's how it always starts."
"Interesting concept"?! This is beyond idiotic.
First of all, developers have a salary and they earn a pretty decent wage.
Next, tipping culture is awful overall and should be abolished, i think. People don't see it as a token of gratitude for the job done well (as it should be), they see it as their own money that you must give them, no matter how they do the job. Look at some places, tips became mandatory and they are a fixed percent of your order, for some reason (especially in kids playrooms). You'll give them an inch and they'll take a mile and then another one on top. Look at macrotransactions, started on free to play games, was costing around $2-$5, now it's everywhere, even in $70 AAA games and cost more than a game, up to $100.
On top of that, you'll have to waste resources adding this system, integrate with payment providers and fix the bugs, who will do that? What, another company should make it and take a fee from every transaction? No, thanks, there're already enough parasites around.
Even if we ignore that this is dumb idea and should never be a thing ever:
Who can guarantee that the money will go to developers ONLY? That's right, no one.
How many developers are working on a AAA game? 100+? Who would you tip, some particular developer? How would you know who? All 100? The wouldn't even notice a few cents bonus.
Hey, as long as we're throwing (dumb) ideas around - how about the other way around, CEOs and top management will tip the players who play their game? I read everywhere about the record profits and firing development staff, yet CEOs and top management are keeping theirs, so how about sharing some of your wealth? Oh, what, you don't want that? Oh, i guess it should only work in your favor, huh?
It’s called Kickstarter, since 99% of games are broken upon release and are essentially still in development.
Tipping culture is getting out of hand. I just see this as moving in a direction where employers no longer want to be held accountable for their employee’s salaries or investments.
Why aren’t you showing your appreciation and providing me with a tip for purchasing your game? Did I do something wrong by only dropping $130+ on your Ultimate Edition that is plagued with matchmaking issues for the next 2-3 months and only includes a bonus game soundtrack that is totally forgettable?
How about they get paid a proper wage.
American tipping culture is just madness I've seen it's starting to expand beyond just waiters and Batista's into things like real estate agents and self service kiosks like at Macdonalds along with other place's it should never even be considering I don't tip anyone in Australia ever and no one is mad about it.
I think the developers should tip us for essentially buying dome $70 games to basically play test. Doesn’t really sound so good does it? Y’all make more than most people and still want more.
This wouldn't work for games published by a big company, of course. But it could work for smaller indie game projects that have a very low cost, such as a $5 game made by 3 people, and you can choose to tip them an extra $3 - $5 as a sign of appreciation.
However, this would be a disgusting practice if it was allowed for games published by Ubisoft, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Namco, Capcom, S-E, Sega, etc.
This is how food delivery apps put more of the responsibility and cost on the customer. Blizzard finds the sleaziest managers.
First thet introduce tips, then they cut pay as much as possible, so they can profit more.
I could see this being a cool thing for Indies. But often you can do just that already if they have a patreon or something similar. For major developer companies that would be super silly, to start there is a huge chance that the devs that worked on that particular game has already been fired as the project is over. And obviously the money would not reach the developers that are still there, the suits would gobble it all up.
Also we all know that if this get implemented by a American. It would stop being a small bonus for good work and become a integral part of the salary of the devs in no time.
I'll be honest I don't think I'm 100% against this. Like it would be a very rare thing for me. It would only donate/tip Devs that have not only made a incredible game. But also don't make me feel like I'm getting nicked and dimed.
You should be able to tip an individual team, such as if you really liked the audio, the graphics, or the animations teams,
Perhaps the art team or special effects teams too, how about that idea?
I love it when these CEOs and the ilk speak about the video game industry. They say the wildest, headscratching rubbish that only seems reasonable to a soulless husk whose myopic pursuit of profit make it seem reasonable to him and him alone.
In a couple of years:
Horse DLC $80 dollars.. oh you buy it! Wanna tip another $20 for the demon son of Bobby Kottick?!
Go work in a restaurant if you want to work for tips. You get no insurance and paid $5/hr.
How about you make something worth buying? He can blame constant video game sales if anything. Most Games are half price in just months.
Everyone knows games go on sale constantly, devs need to make and market properly and maybe we get excited enough to drop $70. I remember seeing WAY more game commercials back in the day. They don’t spend money marketing anymore and just expect us to build hype on our own when day one gaming is risky. These devs have F’d up so many times and just fix via patches…this is bullshit and why we all just wait for your buggy rushed game to go on sale.
Wow that sounds like a wonderful idea
Then the multi billion dollar company wouldn't have to pay them as much
And if there's one company I trust with this stuff, it's blizzard
Always thinking about the little guy
Oh yeah so then blizzard can justify paying employees less. What a scummy dude
These games are produced for the most part at multiple million to trillion dollar companies. How about they be fiscally responsible with scope and budget so they can pay the developers better. It is not the consumers responsibility to bail out failing business plans.
The USA doesn't understand tippIng....knowing them they'd reduce wages across the board for all devs in order to guilt trip customers to tip.
No no no no no no no way in hell would I ever support ANOTHER tipping avenue. "Oh it's optional" you say? Say that to the "forced 20% gratuity on some checks". What next? Unskippable 1 minute donation begging before we can play so they can write it off in their taxes?
I'm not gonna tip you when I have to pay 30 dollars extra for 2 days of early access. You should have probably also tipped your coworker when she got paid less for the exact same role you were given and didn't say a word about it.
Oh what was that? I should torrent more games on PC? Don't mind if I do. LOL I have the Starcraft collection already what else shall I take hmmmm...
The moment they implement that option, they will reduce the developers' pay and expect tips to makeup the difference.
Tipping is a wonderful thing to do, but an executive is the last person who should suggest it for an industry. This is just shady.
Actually, if I buy a game on sale, I would be open if the funds went to the developer NOT the publisher. For example, buy a $70 game at $39.99. If the game is great and updated properly, I would tip $10.
Okay but if your game is trash, then it's only fair you pay me for having to go through that hardship of spending my money on a terrible game.
If games did not have microtransactions and released complete and games weren't broken on release and patched later then this might have a little bit of merit. Non multiplayer games connected to the internet have lead to intolerable experiences.
If you want the ability to give tips then totally stop selling MT’s and battle passes and I will consider it.
Mike Ybarra is a joke. This man goes from company to company like the town wh*re.
I didn’t like him at Microsoft, didn’t like him at Blizzard. And while I would tip developers who deserve it.
I’ll never tip developers who are more than happy to force diversity and inclusion just because.
If it makes sense for the story and game okay. But often times it’s just there to check DEI boxes.
Or perhaps the big greedy companies that hired said developers and what not pay out of their billion dollar pockets. Instead of pocketing it all or most of it and then complaining how expensive it is to make AAA video games nowadays. You greedy perverted F’s. Stop job cuts too so you maintain a disgusting life style while the real hardworking people struggle to get by while working tirelessly to make your F’ing games. There should be more capital from these companies that have a reserve for the devs and give them a fair bonus when the games launched.
The amount of money these CEO’s rank in compared to the peanuts the devs and various studio employees make could go towards a better funded gaming experience. The big dogs don’t work anywhere near as much or as hard as the poor devs who often end up on the short end of the stick. Get used and abused then let go while they have a house to pay off.
After six months of negotiating, Avalanche Studios staff have successfully unionized with a new two-year collective bargaining agreement.
It's fairly common knowledge that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth enjoyed a relatively smooth development cycle, owing to the fact that Final Fantasy 7 Remake's team was largely kept intact, and the first game had obviously laid the foundations in terms of visuals and gameplay systems. It took Square Enix around three years to craft Rebirth, and it expects the same kind of timeline when it comes to the third (and final) title in the trilogy.
Might be an unpopular opinion here, but I wish the remake was a 2-parter not a 3-parter.
Die-hard fans will disagree and I get it but ... I think they're stretching the project abit too much imho.
considering how much story is in the original, i think it's fine. Everything is very well elaborated and the connection to those characters are much greater thanks to it. Like, i like seeing tifa and aerith as best friends for example. the fact the first 2 games in this trilogy basically only covered the first disc of the original is kinda crazy tho lol
@lucian That first disc was a whopper though. I don't remember the second being as long, and the third is basically just the final dungeon.
I'm glad they did 3 games. The first 2 have been absolutely phenomenal. Looking forward to the Weapons (the real ones) waking up and attacking, the underwater exploration (they set that up pretty good with the lore of Under Junon), and finally Cloud's big reveal. It'll be real interesting to see how they handle the repercussions of Cloud's behavior from Rebirth and what he's going to do in Part 3. Like the party should realistically just abandon him for being such an a-hole, and after what he did to a Tifa. They really played up the whole Sephiroth mind control thing in Rebirth. They really need to nail the emotional payoff to that. Hope it's not just swept under the rug by the party and just move on post Lifestream.
Also 3 games and then a Crisis core remaster
Then god knows what else
It’s overkill
I’d under the trilogy if they lived up to their excuse about it being about expanding the lore. Like they said the first game would heavily expand the lore of Midgar through side missions but the side missions didn’t do that at all, they were all pretty generic. Felt like a bad excuse to justify 3 games.
Least we have a potential date
Although now I’m just thinking
“Damn 3-4 years to see if we’ll ever get a FFVIII remake next”
Apparently there is a IX remake getting made. You need that to come out and be successful before a VIII remake is even possibly green lit.
But if you're thinking the FF7REMAKE team is making a FFVIII remake after part 3...that is not happening. They are definitely making a new FF after.
Well apparently IX is coming first because the VIII team are working on the VII remakes
So if they get finished then hopefully they will work on VIII next
You say it won’t but I’m hoping they will…just something less ambitious
Yikes.... Sales are already lower than expected for the sequel. Third game is gonna be lower....
I really think it should've been just one game or two at most, kept to the simple turn based combat, and no crazy changes to the story. But it's whatever. I liked rebirth but man was it bloated with so much unnecessary and repetitive stuff. Square is really betting their money on the remakes. I do admit the remakes have been the only mainline ff games Ive actually quite liked since probably 10 lol.
I don’t feel like it’s bloated, it’s more or less all the same content that was in the original for mini games but they expanded everyone’s narrative better.
I am glad they expanded even on the characters that came in later games that wasn’t in the original. It’s a weird position we keep putting devs in when one moment we say give us a complete game with tons of content. They deliver said content and then we treat it like it’s overwhelming or to much.
Crazy part is you could just focus on the story and do none of the “bloat”. Gamers really seem to never be happy when you look online forums
Wouldn’t make sense financially. 1 game would involve a mammoth amount of development time and a gamble to say the least. Making one part of the game and seeing if it makes $$$ gives reason to justify making a part 2 and 3 and make more money too.
That's pretty crazy if you think about the 2005 PS3 tech demo that started this all! I'm not sure if they ever intended to remake the game at that time, but the fan outcry for it was so incredible that it eventually became a reality! Now imagine all of the fans who have died waiting for this. :\
I mean not too surprised, they already have most of all the assets already made. I just hope it's UE5 and they crank it to 11 and finish strong. I also hope they go back and upgrade Remake and Rebirth to UE5 too. BUY THE DAMN GAME PEOPLE!!
For all the complaints about GAAS and same thing getting released every year. It’s almost dumb that gamers here don’t support a game like Rebirth.
I’m worried if the sales of Rebirth will impact 3. I can see Square not wanting to put that much money and time after getting poor sales. Which sucks… these 2 games have become some of my most favorite.
Right, so I guess ignore things like this then…
https://www.eurogamer.net/f...
“ Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has reportedly sold "about half" the sales of its predecessor Remake in the same timeframe.”
“ That's according to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, who confirmed earlier today that the highly-anticipated RPG is "underperforming sales-wise.”
Not to mention its launch day sales put it as the third worst selling FF title at release.
Then you have this:
https://www.pushsquare.com/...
“ Kiryu highlighted the PS5's "slow adoption" as a cause of Final Fantasy 16's struggles.”
So, you got him blaming exclusivity as a reason for FF16 underperforming and if you apply that to FF7 Rebirth’s sales being even less than FF16 there’s some cause for concern.
You see things like Helldivers 2 selling way more than FF7 Rebirth and it’s no wonder these devs/publishers turn to GaaS or games that will be less expensive to produce. We’re seeing a dramatic shift here and the way the wind’s blowing isn’t exactly reassuring.
It has though its sold less than remake by quite a bit I hope they do make 3 otherwise I wasted 100 hrs if my life playing both games
Sony recently secured Rebirth and Remake permanent console exclusivity.
https://www.gamedeveloper.c...
Pretty sure the money Sony is giving them covers more than half the development costs. Especially since all versions of FF7Remake ended up on PS+ and Square got a big money increase for that. And they probably get a reduction on the 30% cut of sales.
Part 3 is guaranteed and you will be getting Sony paid PS5 pro updates to Remake and Rebirth shown when they announce the PS5 pro.
Is it enough? Like that’s the big question. I just hope Part 3 they don’t hold back on due to poor sales. I don’t want some AA GaaS game for this series because something like Helldivers 2 is at 8 mill and this is struggling to punch through 2 mill.
As more evidence to not be worried about Part 3 is that it will be Kitase's retirement game so i doubt he will allow it to be held back.
https://www.gamesradar.com/...
And i doubt they will go the gaas service for this series as that is pretty much what the MMO entries are. Maybe there will be a mobile or spin off AA games but not a main entry.
And while helldivers 2 sells 7 million, games like hogwarts, elden ring and zelda sell 20 million so i doubt they see Helldivers 2 as the route to go especially as their own gaas game, foamstars is currently dying.
Release it as movie because if the gameplay is like part 2 I pass and just watch cutscenes
Says the bot lol. I bet you don't even like part 1.
If they don't put mini-games you lots complain the game is short and had nothing to do after finishing the story, and when they do put those mini-games you people would say it's bloat and they are unnecessary additions. What the actual f do you want? Typical FF Fanbase, ugh!
Gameplay was outstanding imo. I don't see how they could have made it any better? There's so many options.
It’s inevitable. You can use lightning returns sales compared to part 2, where lightning returns was considered a far better game.
I believe they need to do something special for the 3rd (ex: make a movie of the first 2 as a bundle) just to come relatively close to the seconds sales, whereever those end up.
Back in the days when we were still waiting for part 1, I called it that each part would be spread around each generation of PS. I'm still waiting since then for them to release the whole thing so I can enjoy the entire game in one go.
That's quite a wait. The PS6 will be out by then or at least close to released.
I feel like many, like myself, want the complete package in one go. FFVII part1-3 in one bundle, that's my goal.
Like the complete FFVII package?
Advent Children, Before Crisis, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, Ever Crisis, First Soldier and Final Fantasy VII OG?
Please don't make Chadley stuff so extensive. I don't mind him as a character but damn doing everything in every stage is a slog(I know its technically optional but it really isn't)
Tired of this episodic greed, by the time they release part 3 you forget where you left off in part 2. I bet they will release a complete edition selling the game for the 4th time, what a disgrace, i refuse to play in the actual state.
I don't exactly trust Square on their timelines and release windows, so not holding my breath on that one. Could easily see it getting pushed into the 2029-2030 range.
Rebirth was a smooth ride and never got pushed. Almost exactly the same team who worked on Remake and Rebirth is still there for the last game in the trilogy, most assets will be reused, combat is close to perfection.
I am certain we'll see this game in 3 years.