Topic: Bayonetta 3

It's just that what Hellena said can't be true. I think she definitely has something to hide. Hideki's statement only served to anger fans even more. I hope they explain everything for their own sake and for the sake of the game.

@Ralizah Yeah she threw professionalism out the window. I get method acting but no one IS a created character because that character's motivations/creation is still the product of other people. Not to mention she isn't even the only Bayonetta VA, as the game is voiced in Japanese (I have the JPN version on WiiU). Some actors elevate themselves beyond all the other people that make that role happen. If all the devs had walked we'd have no game even if she had voiced the role. And the shade she tried to throw at Jen Hale; very, very unprofessional. She should have negotiated for better pay and if she couldn't...walk. I literally did that for a job earlier this year (and then turned them down when they came back later when they couldn't find someone) and that's how work...works, especially if you are a contract worker which acting of any type essentially is. If she'd left things alone, it would have been unfortunate that she hadn't returned, but she still would have had goodwill and professional connections intact. Instead she burned bridges...you never burn bridges.

Also has HT done any other voice work recently?

I don't really care about the attitude of the specific people involved, I just find 4000 dollars to be insultingly low. I'm not expecting (or even necessarily wanting) voice actors to get Hollywood money or anything remotely like that, and this is not even the worst lowball in voice acting I've heard about the past month, but my god.

Also, just as a fan, I notice this stuff and its immersion breaking to me. Like sometimes you can find a really effective replacement, but a lot of the time its like Batman in Arkham Origins where like that's not Kevin Conroy, we all know it isn't, what are you doing? Or like how awkward most Star Fox games got because they constantly got new people to voice the characters, so you had to re-adjust to it. And Bayonetta's character is very important to the game and series, so that was already a major concern to me.

Also I've played BOTW so I've been suspect at Nintendo's interest in voice acting as a whole as anything other than an obligation to make their games seem more modern for years now. I dunno Nintendo's relevance in this story but between this and the Mario movie, not necessarily a good sign of Nintendo looking like voice acting respecters.

I will say the VA drama has reminded me I need to check the space on my microSD card because I will be double dipping on Bayonetta 3 for the JPN version (and I may quad dip for 1 and 2). Atsuko Tanaka remains the lead in that version...plus she's the friggin Major (GitS) so yeah gotta get that too.

From her videos, it sounds like she lives in the UK. 4000$ is quite a bit higher than the average monthly salary, so it is important for her to also disclose how many hours of work the amount was meant for. Before I get behind this I want to know if I am supporting a movement of paying VAs fair wages, or a movement to get a single VA rich fast. I imagine a lot of outraged people live in the US and find 4000$ a very low amount, but still, we need to know how that translates to an hourly rate. The amount just by itself means nothing.

@Ryu_Niiyama Her IMDB page is telling. She hasn't voiced anyone besides Bayonetta for almost the entire last decade of her career. The deeper you look into this, the more her behavior seems like a cry for help.

As it stands, though, I'm just really disappointed with how she chose to handle this. She's tarnishing her name for the sake of generating cheap drama in what will likely end up being an unsuccessful revenge ploy.

Had no idea Motoko Kusanagi's seiyuu voiced Bayo in Japanese, though. VERY cool.

I dk much, but I am getting it day one.

I feel really sorry for her but I couldn't boycott the game now even if I wanted to as I ordered it weeks ago and it's just been shipped. I know when I heard she wasn't going to be voicing Bayonetta I was disappointed but I was looking forward to see what the new VA would sound like and now that I'm aware of what's been going on behind the scenes I must admit while I'm still looking forward to the game whenever I hear of a worker being unfairly treated it makes me very sad because I know only too well what it's like to be underappreciated at work. At this point I can only wish her the very best and I don't see the point to bickering amongst ourselves. If someone wants to boycott the game or still buy it people should be respectful either way.

I thought there was a unionised strike by voice actors a few years back in the gaming industry because of the poor pay they were receiving? I find it bizarre they never seemingly achieved the fairer pay they were after. I do absolutely feel for her, no questions about it. There needs to be a total change in how they are all treated but I cannot agree to boycott the game. If we did that, we may as well boycott most games because this is seemingly an industry wide thing.

I haven't played any of the Bayonetta games before, but I've been interested in the series. I wanted to get 3 eventually, and probably still will, but I feel like boycotting over something like this is... a bit extreme?

I got no issue with her sharing how much she was offered for the gig and her reasons for turning it down, but urging people to boycott the game? That's.... regrettable, that's going to damage her future work prospects.

@gcunit Yeah I’m not sure how I feel about it, I’m definitely, not gonna do that tho.

I'm not even convinced she was "wronged" in the first place.

Bayonetta is what, a 10-15 hour game? Most of which is gameplay. How much of that is actual voiced dialog from her specific character? Maybe 80 minutes? Tops?

That's $50 per minute of voiced dialog. Even if it took 2 weeks in the recording booth- 80 work hours for 80 minutes dialog (1 hr per minute seems a more than reasonable assumption), that's still the equivalent of a $100,000+ annual salary.

Sounds to me like she thought she was indispensable, tried to leverage her position out of greed and they decided to go with someone else instead

Everywhere, all over social media I see ppl proudly proclaiming how they're boycotting this "injustice" as everyone is taking the claim of $4k for 80 min dialog being unheard of as fact. Nobody's questioning it. It's like they want the controversy so they can feel like they're a part of something, and of course everyone who resents Nintendo is hopping in, parading their undying loyalty to VAs as a guise to damage the game's sales and image.

Funny thing is though, the game has jumped 20 spots on the Amazon Best Sellers list since yesterday. It's jumped 4 spots in the last 4 hrs alone.

I think this is the best possible thing that could have happened. All press is good press, as they say. I imagine they lose 2% sales, but this coverage exposes the game to 50% more people, of whom a certain percentage decide to buy- far more than the 2% lost (and why wouldn't they- normal ppl aren't gonna boycott a game because someone turned down an offer they didn't like). And I think we're seeing that in the sales charts.

@VoidofLight
boycotting over something like this is... a bit extreme

I didn't even see a response like this from Activision sexually assaulting workers.

Ppl are acting like this is the transgression of all transgressions. "Company makes VA offer. VA refuses offer. Company hires someone else" and people are like, "omg! This is DISGUSTING! Tell the world! This is massive news! Everyone band together and use hashtags!

Like, even giving her the benefit of the doubt, and saying ok, the offer was low. Fair enough. So the offer was low. She had the right to refuse, and she refused. What's the problem exactly? Ppl are BOYCOTTING over that? Seriously?

I think Joe Schmoe at Platinum forgot to say excuse me at the water cooler. Now Karen is offended. Boycott the game! Solidarity! #WeStandWithKaren

Platinum isn’t even committing a crime, there just being extremely cheap, and they gave her a bad deal. Don’t think it’s something worth boycotting one of the most anticipated games that everyone has been waiting for over.

Yeah, she lost me at the boycott plea. It's not like she did the work and they didn't pay her or they only paid her part of what she was promised. This is a pretty minor "controversy" amidst stuff coming from Activision-Blizzard, which is far, far more serious. And yet, people are still playing OW2 and buying MTX. People are still lining up to play the Modern Warfare 2 beta and buy that game. People will still play Diablo 4. etc

I agree this will probably help the game sell more, even TMZ reported on this. As Eric Bischoff said, "controversy creates cash".

@JaxonH Exactly. I agree the industry for VAing is horrible at the moment, but the way that things were handled weren't even horrible. She was given the chance to accept the offer or decline, and so she declined. Now if platinum promised to give her a huge amount, and then she did the job with her only getting a small amount afterwards, I'd understand, since that's outright lying and underpaying a worker, which is even inexcusable by law.

@VoidofLight Definitely, no crimes were committed yet she is acting like it’s the worst thing to happen to someone ever.

@JaxonH Reminds me of how there was that big social media movement to boycott Pokemon Sword/Shield, and the game ended being... what, the second best-selling generation in the series? Something like that.

It's going to be pretty ironic if she ends up helping the game's launch, considering this stunt is likely going to damage her career, probably burned any existing bridges she had to Platinum and Nintendo, and might result in some sort of legal trouble.

@Ralizah
I hope it does.

I'm starting to resent her because of how many lemmings jumped in line to parade their moral virtue. At first I felt somewhat sympathetic but the faux outrage she's caused is enough that I've just kind of lost that feeling altogether. She stirred up a crapstorm over nothing.

In the end though, I don't think it's going to damage the game. It seems it's actually helping, but at the very least I think it just won't have any effect one way or the other.

But... how much you wanna bet reviews are scored lower now. Whether intentionally or subconsciously, reviewers are going to wield their power to punish the game. Previews had it locked for 90+. Now I wouldn't be so sure. And EVERY. SINGLE. REVIEW. is going to open with a paragraph addressing this, proclaiming their complete and utter abhorrence at the "unforgivable actions" of Platinum.