Mike Ybarra, Shut The Fuck Up

Will the former president of Blizzard please fuck off

Screenshot, Pink Guy - STFU

Mike Ybarra, or known colloquially as Yikes Mbarra on gaming forums (in one paragraph this will explain the joke), had some wholesome support to share for Xbox’s Phil Spencer, who on Tuesday made the gut-wrenching decision to close Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks. In a post on Twitter (eat shit Elon, I’m not calling it X), Mbarra took the stand and as god was his witness, proclaimed to the world that while he wasn’t going to defend Spencer’s decision to shutter two award winning studios, he did want to make sure that everyone knew we was just a good wittle guy.

Mbarra starts off the post with a fantastic line

I see a lot of shots at Phil over today's Xbox announcements. I get it. But knowing him as a human, I know this hurts him as much as anyone else.

I won’t even make the obvious “won’t someone think of the millionaires” observation. I’ll let that one slide Yikes. What I want to dissect is this assertion that Spencer is hurting just as much as anyone. It’s so disrespectful. It teeters on the verge of straight up gaslighting. Spencer, who according to a website I don’t fully trust but also don’t really think would be far off anyways, has a net worth estimated to be $25 million dollars. That’s a 2. And a 5. Together. Imagine a million dollars. Now imagine multiplying it by 25.

How much is that?

Just to make you throw up in your mouth a little, here’s how much the average American will spend on housing in their L I F E T I M E, according to a study done by One Main Financial.

And here is Spencer’s estimated net worth.

So no, Yikes. Spencer is not hurting. At all. Spencer has more money than any of these developers will see in their entire lifetime, and whatever progress they were making to see it just got fucking canned. Please shut the fuck up.

Mbarra continues by saying “I think we all get ourselves into situations that are tough and unexpected (certainly I have),” which reminds me of a line from Cell Block Tango:

And then he ran into my knife. He ran into my knife ten times.

After releasing HiFi Rush, Tango Gameworks just ran into Microsoft’s knife. Such an unexpected way for them to go, but what can you do?

As Yikes continues to twist himself in a knot, he shoots a banger off about how this is just part of the job, and so is accountability. And yet the people who steer us into the fucking iceberg every time are conveniently the same people on the lifeboats first. Accountability in this industry is getting a pat on the back, a raise, and a new title for being an absolute villain to work for. Just ask Ken Levine.

The rest of the tweet is just bullshit gibberish, and Sony Santa Monica dev Alanah Pearce chimed in with a spot-on response.

Mike, I have a lot of fondness for Phil and don’t doubt he’s incredibly bummed about this, but CEOs can handle some “shots” amidst people having their lives destroyed. Your sympathetic posts should solely be directed at those who’ve lost their jobs.

Incredible. Pearce tweeted solidarity, empathy, holding truth to power. All in two sentences. Surely Yikes will respond by conceding that Pearce is right, right?

Wrong. Here’s what Yikes had to say:

I’m not saying they shouldn’t. But he’s not the robot celebrating in the glory of this some want to make it out to be. You’re in the industry, you know how this works and what can and can’t be said.

Mike Ybarra, you are a fucking coward. It’s so disingenuous to claim that you’re posting a defense of Spencer’s character because three people on the internet allegedly said that he’s “celebrating in the glory” of layoffs. Notice the word allegedly, because I don’t believe that anyone made these claims. In fact, I think you’re just fucking lying.

What’s bothers me even more than making up an argument just so you could refute it is this weird, thinly veiled boogeyman of consequences if you speak out of turn. It confirms for me that Yikes Mbaraa is more concerned about hurting wittle Spencer’s feelings than admitting that something as basic as layoffs is fucked up.

Seriously. Shut the fuck up, man.