The original voice actress for Bayonetta wants fans to boycott Bayonetta 3.

Yeah, I agree with you. I especially love how she is concerned about the entire development team she worked with. I think her response shows professionalism and maturity and is well suited for her role.

Alright, I have no way of knowing who is being honest. But the idea a short on work VA turned down $15,000, is a harder pill for me to swallow than the company low-balling her. Maybe she really is that egotistical and vindictive, but I'm inclined to believe her story more.

I hope this all didn't come down to a misunderstanding or mistranslation.

Ooof. Regardless of the bullshit, it's lame when a VA gets replaced several games into a series.

The most sensible response. That's more-or-less what I was trying to say earlier. Hundreds of people worked hard on the game. They don't all deserve to be punished just because one person may or may not have been screwed over (depending on whose story we believe).

@st_monica said:

Yeah, I've been following him on Twitter for years and it is obvious that he has been intentionally acting like a scumbag on Twitter all along, as you suggest. So there is no need to take his "insects" and other such rhetoric seriously.

And to be fair, I don't think he intends to insult his English-speaking fans in particular, since he calls all Twitter users who behave in a way that irritates him "bugs/insects," regardless of whether they speak English or Japanese. In fact, Google Translate shows that many Japanese users are also called "bugs/insects" by him. Here is his statement of his stance, haha.

https://twitter.com/PG_kamiya/status/1422563617510072324?s=20&t=9sWeQCSegrGt7vEGHtbGrw

That's his whole schtick on Twitter. He's been trolling and acting like an asshole for years, with many of his fans in on the joke... The Twitter cancel culture mobs are trying way too hard to get a serious response out of a troll.

That sounds even worse than his English tweets, lol. Yet over-sensitive English speakers are crying "xenophobia" on Twitter.

To be honest, this could be it. There have been situations before where a meeting between Japanese and English speakers didn't go down well because the interpreter miscommunicated something. I remember a story like that back in the OG Xbox days when MS went to Japan and lost some contract over a miscommunication (forgot which dev it was with).

Now that's leading by example. Take note Hellena. It's one of those where you either take it or leave it. Shame it didn't work out for Hellena but she must move on from this. She might as well set up a petition or protest.

A quality single player game is the last type of game anyone should boycott.

I haven't been following this too closely, but the original VA causing a storm seems to be crass for throwing everyone else under the bus that worked hard on the game.

She probably won't get much choice acting work after this.

Was it Capcom? I recall Shinji Mikami wanting Resident Evil 4 on Xbox before it ended up on GameCube.

You're right! It was Shinji Mikami. He was interested in bringing RE4 to Xbox and had a meeting with Microsoft representatives. But he didn't like what they said, so RE4 ended up on GameCube instead.

There have been other such instances where meetings between English and Japanese speakers turned sour because of miscommunication. I think that also contributed to the fallout between Sega of Japan and Sega of America back in the '90s.

Can you imagine how different that would turn out? Like I imagine if RE4 was on Xbox, it could've had a capable GameCube port (granted, it was out at the time the Cube was considered "dead", but it is the same platform that got Eidos to port a Tomb Raider game to it after LEGO Star Wars did well) and the PS2 version would be much, much worse.

Like with Metal Arms, developed and best on Xbox, with the GameCube version being a faithful enough version with slight hiccups. But the PS2 version... dear lord.

For one, RE4 would've sold better on Xbox than it did on GC. While Xbox and GC both sold the same number of consoles, "mature" shooters had a bigger audience on Xbox than on GC. However, it would sell less in Japan, where Xbox never went mainstream. However, the vast majority of RE4's GC sales came from the West anyway, so the Xbox version would sell more worldwide. Either way, RE4 did end up getting ported to the PS2 and a bunch of other platforms, and ended up selling way more than its original GC version did.

Fair point about ports though. The GC was very close to the Xbox in power, and both quite a bit more powerful than the PS2. The Xbox and GC were also easier to develop for, whereas the PS2 was notroiously difficult to develop for. It would've been easy work to port between GC and Xbox, whereas the PS2 port would require more effort.

I would not be surprised if developets or publishers are considering blacklisting Hellena Taylor because of what she said about Platinum Games and voice actress Jennifer Hale because they will see her as a "difficult" voice actress to work with. Being in a blacklist is the last thing that actors want to be in.

Exactly. You know what they say, it's nothing personal it's just business. From what I see is she declined the offered and production went ahead without her, and now she complains and trashing those who really have nothing to do with this drama other than being stuck in the middle of it.

Sounds much like an ego rampage contained within the cancel culture of today. All I see is a voice actor potentially getting blacklisted in the end.

This is obviously a work. A devious plan hatched between Hellena, Platinum, and Nintendo so as to boost the coverage of Bayonetta 3 and increase its sales in a brilliant display of reverse psychology. All you marks got played.

Clever girl.

@onesiphorus: Can they blacklist an actress they aren't hiring to begin with? Job offers basically dried up when she turned 40. Bayonetta is the only thing she's credited for on imdb for the last 10 years. I don't like a lot of what she said, but it seems like she's venting frustrations that have been building for a while.

@judaspete: She broke her NDA and attacked a VA Union worker. She is automatically blacklisted.

Well, I wouldn't. Hopefully she can find a job that suits her better.

Also, what is up with calling Kamiya racist, @nintendoboy16? Would he dislike when people speak english, that wouldn't be racist as that has nothing to do with race. Pretty sure he's not more racist than the average japanese man, which to be fair, can be pretty racist.

Feel free to post any actually racist remarks to prove me wrong. Otherwise it's just you who don't know what racist is.

@st_monica: @omegamaster:

Apparently the industry standard for voice acting in gaming is $200-$350 an hour.

So she basically turned down getting overpaid, and she still complains.

Lol

Again, calling "insects" thing. I don't care if it's trolling, it's hardly charming when we're having people who don't speak Japanese talking to him, especially when he's a center of criticism on all this... towards a British actress. Worse, in an era where a rapper is getting praise from one side is getting praise for blatant antisemitism.

FFS, I work retail and I had too many customers who don't speak English, but I try and find either an interpreter, or Google Translate at least. If I did what he did, I'd be fired. Though customers can be freely racist about employees not speaking English (which I have dealt with), because "always right".

We called the Dragon Quest composer out for being a fascist, which he was...

Yeah, it is fresh in our minds that the recent Depp v. Heard trial demonstrated that it is dangerous to rely on one side's argument over the other. I hope people examine each opinion with an open mind.

Twitter people haha

Well, this escalated to a full drama.

I lost all respect for Hellena Taylor after she calls Jennifer Hale "traitor" for taking "her role", not to mention her whole Twitter video sounds manipulative and selfish. Also, as far as i know, Hellena Taylor has not been doing VA for a living like Jennifer Hale, maybe she thought that Bayonetta was her golden ticket into not taking many roles, i mean she says that she is like Bayonetta so ... yeah, sucks to be her right now.

Now, did Platinum blindly and badly sideline her ? absolutely, for whatever reason they just didn't want to keep her as the voice of Bayonetta which it may be a very dumb decision due to fan backlash and It could have been scummy indeed that's why they offered her such a low payment, but it is what it is.

As for the whole Kamiya thing ... lmao, Twitter people trying way too hard to cancel someone who can't really be cancelled.

@madsnakehhh: Fanbacklash? After her boycott the game is sky rocking up the charts and selling out.

No, i meant that if they changed the voice and there wasn't any drama around it, there could have been some backlash, pretty obvious that as of now, the game will sell a ton more.

Mkay. But wasn't the "insects" thing just targeted towards people who annoy him? It's pretty broad, is what I mean.

"really fed up with insects which never reads my posts/header pic and just keep posting."
Sounds pretty normal to me. Bit angry perhaps. He would do well to post less if it annoys him so to get replies.

"that's why I'm telling u not to post me in other langauges than japanese"
Ok, that's a bit weird since I don't understand why. Easier for him to read fast? A way to combat the spam? I don't know, but I'm not sure that translates to "I hate english-speaking people".

"if u break rules, that means u r brainless insect and will be blocked immediately"
That was just funny. I said that in my head with a japanese accent and chuckled.

Iunno, you might be right.

Bolded: Yeah, I also work with people, and my personal motto is that the customer is always wrong. It's more accurate. People who don't work here do not know better than us how the company or similar companies work. They are not entitled to free stuff, or whatever demands they often can have. Bending the rules a bit in the customer's favor to have a happy customer than a sad one? Sure, can do that, but only if we decide to do so. Would a customer be racist, I have full permission to ask the person to leave. If I didn't, I'd be fired about 100 times over. Would be nice if all companies were like that.

See the following tweet:

@st_monica said:

And to be fair, I don't think he intends to insult his English-speaking fans in particular, since he calls all Twitter users who behave in a way that irritates him "bugs/insects," regardless of whether they speak English or Japanese. In fact, Google Translate shows that many Japanese users are also called "bugs/insects" by him. Here is his statement of his stance, haha.

https://twitter.com/PG_kamiya/status/1422563617510072324?s=20&t=9sWeQCSegrGt7vEGHtbGrw

The stuff he says to his Japanese fans sound even worse, if anything. That's not how racism or xenophobia works, bruv. And as a Brit myself, I'd argue Kamiya is pro-British if anything. That's why he made Bayonetta a British woman, and originally wanted Dante to be British too. But English-language Twitter is a dumpster fire full of weirdos always looking to get outraged over the dumbest things, so I'm not surprised he eventually decided to block English-speaking users.

Kamiya is a boss, not an employee. Back in his Capcom employee days, of course he wouldn't be able to get away with being a rude arsehole. But now that he's the vice-president of his own company, he can do whatever he wants without answering to anyone.

As for Koichi Sugiyama, people are calling him a fascist/racist/xenophobe for denying the Nanjing Massacre (basically the Asian equivalent of Holocaust denial), not just for being a rude arsehole.

Sorry Helena, I just pre-ordered the game because it had a nice discount and it was a pain to find Bayo 2 at a reasonable price years after launch so I was afraid the same could happen with bayo 3

these niche switch games man... their prices inflate with time like I've never seen :/

edit: I also agree with this guy. I wish I earned $4000 for 16 hours of work

Translation: Nintendoboy doesn't know what racism is.

Gotta be a white dude.

@Jag85: Okay in the words of Pete Davidson: "Mel Gibson worked with Danny Glover on four Lethal Weapon movies. That proves nothing!"

Also, approaching political territory, but "pro-British" opens up another can of worms. It would be too long to list why. But there was a reason celebrations erupted when Elizabeth II died this year (even John Oliver was psyched to the point of recently slamming both the crown and the British Museum).

It's still high time Kamiya was held accountable for his antics. But Taylor is on her own, far as I'm concerned.

When I think of oppressed people. I think of white british people, or people who predominantly speak the English language.

On topic:

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1582439093677723648?t=FoSpJTJYmcDNFQ4SDNwD1Q&s=19

Aight yeah maybe she was off her rocker lol

Is it okay to just be kinda sad about this, or do we need to pick a direction send our outrage?

Kamiya is respondsible for a large chunk of my GOATs. I wish him the freedom to make the games he wants, and a talented team of devs to back him up.

Hellena Taylor's voice is like silk sheets draped over the nipples of Aphrodite. I would listen to her read the technical manual of a vacuum cleaner. Had no idea she was struggling. Depressing to hear, because it certainly isn't lack of talent holding her back. Just a competitive/cutthroat industry.

I'm not boycotting Bayonetta, but I won't be playing it anytime soon either. The cutscenes will just make me sad.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-18/bayonetta-3-voice-actor-s-pay-dispute-overshadows-nintendo-game

In the case of Bayonetta 3, the developer appeared to be determined to rehire Taylor, according to two people familiar with the negotiations as well as documentation reviewed by Bloomberg. Here’s where their accounts differ: Platinum Games sought to hire Taylor for at least five sessions, each paying $3,000 to $4,000 for four hours in the studio, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to discuss private contract negotiations. That would make the total for the game at least $15,000. In response, they said, Taylor asked for a six-figure sum as well as residuals on the game. Platinum declined and, following lengthy negotiations, took auditions for a new actor. Platinum later offered Taylor a cameo in the game for the fee of one session, which she turned down, the people said.

In an email, Taylor described this account as “an absolute lie” and said Platinum was “trying to save their ass and the game.” She said she stood by everything she said in the video. “I would like to put this whole bloody franchise behind me quite frankly get on with my life in the theatre,” she wrote. Representatives for Platinum Games and Nintendo didn’t respond to requests for comment. Hideki Kamiya, the executive director of Bayonetta 3, called Taylor’s allegations “sad and deplorable” in a Twitter post.

@SolidGame_basic: @jg4xchamp: I was just gonna post about this. Did she not think this info would come out?!?! I think that’s why most people believed her. It would be asinine to lie about something like this. Yet here we are, now questioning the allegations because of new information. I’m usually a “let’s wait for all the info to come out,” person. I should have follow my rule and waited.

Yup, all these people siding against Platinum when she isn't being truthful at all. I hope the industry black balls her for badmouthing Jennifer Hale and Platinum games. Asking 6 figures and residuals for 4-5 4 hour sessions.

@judaspete: Yeah that’s kind of how I feel right, just sad for the whole situation all around. Feel that this is just a symptom of the larger problem which is the obscene imbalance of people that enjoy the fruits of the success of any one game. You have a very select few people who continue to rake in multiple millions of dollars while most of the people who actually do work to create these games rarely see much of that money. Just a bunch of fat cats at the top who want to continually get fatter. Funny how they always seem to get these ludicrously fat bonuses.

@goldenelementxl: yea, it seemed a bit outrageous that she would only receive $4000 altogether, but I'll keep my judgement in check. It makes me want to think she was a struggling voice actor who was trying to manipulate the situation into getting more money, maybe because she isn't getting a lot of work.

She hasn't even done voice acting since 2014. If she was really serious about her work, I'm pretty sure she would have been a lot more active.

She just sounds like a person who never learned that things can't always be your way. She's probably more like the person that throws a tantrum when things don't go her way, and it shows. Very elementary school level tantrum where everyone else now sucks including Bayonetta.

@jaydan: I'm starting to like Jennifer Hale more and more after this situation lol.

I have no idea what’s going on in this drama anymore lol. Maybe she was offered 4k per session and thought it was 4k in total?

Anyway, people should just buy the game based on if they think it seems fun or not.

She actually had a professional response to this situation, and she acknowledged the hard work of the entire team that honestly: sweat much more labor into these productions than a voice actor ever will.

i think its probably still more complicated, maybe there is a language barrier issue here. Or she thought the babylon fall devs must be so incompetent, so stupid, they must not keep any documentation.

No in between lol

She sounds like she's full of poo.

Not boycotting as I hadn’t planned on buying it to begin with.

So some reports are now saying that she was offered more then $4000.

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1582439093677723648

If that's true then why would she lie? Unless she has already responded to these reports. Ether way I'm still not sure what's going on here but there is definitely something odd happening with this story.

Twitter drama..lol

*reads Jason Scherier and Andy Robinson's piece*

Well, then...

Come to think of it, Kamiya's protagonists are almost always white people... Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Bayonetta, etc. The only Kamiya game I recall having a "Japanese" protagonist is Okami... and she's not even human! That goes beyond "my best friend is white" but more like "I prefer white people over Japanese"... kind of like Hideo Kojima.

You know what, I was going to mention the Twitter celebration, but decided not to go there. But if we are going there, it's very ironic how Twitter is accusing Kamiya of being xenophobic against Brits, just a month after Twitter was shitting on Brits when Elizabeth died... According to their own logic, they're way more xenophobic than him. But to be fair, Britain does deserve to get called out for past atrocities that many Brits refuse to acknowledge.

Kamiya hasn't broken Twitter TOS, so there's nothing to be held accountable for. Being a rude arsehole who blocks people is not breaking TOS. As far as the Taylor situation is concerned, the jury's still out. But according to his side of the story, the offer was a reasonable $15K, not $4K like she claimed.