The original Super Monkey Ball announcer, Brian Matt - who seemingly teased Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania and his own return to the role last June - is not featured in the new game's credits.
According to a Sega spokesperson though, he was never actually involved with the new project and hasn't been associated with the Monkey Ball series for "some time" now. Here's exactly what was said in a statement provided to our friends over at VGC:
“Brian Matt Uhl did not work on Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania and has not been involved with the Super Monkey Ball series for some time.”
The 'announcement voice' credits only list Angela Chubak and Mirai Patrick Sayama:
An update by Brian Matt on Instagram last week claimed there were still some "legal issues":
“Legal issues still. Having announcers not credited or paid royalties is still a major issue with SegaSammy. Let’s see what develops... I’m an advocate for both legal and moral rights for foreigners in Japan, I can’t compromise my beliefs or turn a blind eye to my fellow narrators.”
This follows on from a video the voice actor shared on his YouTube last November, titled the "Dark side of Sega" - accusing Sega Sammy of discriminating against foreign voice actors and calling out one member of the company's legal team:
“Sega Sammy legal states that they have the right to credit for narrators or not..."[he] has been very arrogant and very wrong on this subject both morally and legally”.
The Japan-based voice actor also mentioned then how foreign talent had never been given royalties for past work and how it was time to "make a change":
“When you change the title of a game – for example, Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2, Super Monkey Ball Sakura – or when it goes to, for example, from Sega to Xbox, [or] when it goes to an app for iOS […] that is also considered something legally and morally that Sega Sammy must address... No foreign narrators have ever been given royalties for this, and we’re going to make a change. This has to stop.”
Brian Matt was not known by fans of the Super Monkey Ball series until he was discovered in 2019 as the "uncredited" voice announcer of the original games.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 18
This is unfortunate. Narrators and game announcers are such pivotal parts of our gaming experiences that it would be a shame if they didn't get the credit they deserved.
Not crediting people has been a huge problem recently, especially with Hollywood and Space Jam 2. Goes to show how much effort people put into not taking half a second to type a name
What is going on with Sega? They seem to overlook so many important things. Always have really.
Didn't he claim to have all of this behind the scenes info on Banana Mania? I found it concerning that he was willing to break all of those NDAs but maybe he was lying the whole time.
Was never sure if he was lying or was just a slightly weird dude....maybe both are true. Who knows?
@Kimyonaakuma Brian confirmed he was working on a seperate game
@PBandSmelly Because they think they can get away with it for some reason, Stupid.
@Kimyonaakuma he doesn't seem the most trustworthy dude around, if the words of redditors are any indication https://www.reddit.com/r/SuperMonkeyBall/comments/pw5ixm/the_weird_shady_brian_matt_situation_long_post/
I wouldn't care if this guy was the best voice actor in the world, I wouldn't want to be associated with a guy like this either when reading up on what kind of guy he really is. I definitely can't blame SEGA.
~ oof ~
Seems like a complicated issue from both sides, yikes.
This guy is a narcissistic sociopath and should not be given the pleasure of being mentioned publicly. Refer to the reddit thread linked a few comments above.
Good riddance.
Sega should never work with him again. In the video "How I leaked Sega's new Super Monkey Ball game" from Nick Robinson, Brian Matt is just breaking his NDA constantly, revealing infos that shouldn't be revealed. Fake or real, this guy can't be trusted.
Hasn't most/all of the cast been replaced anyway? I don't think it's about him.
That’s what happens when you leak info and cause issues ….you get dropped.
I dont see how this is important what so ever.
@Abeedo He likely forfeited that right by breaking his NDA. Secrecy and trust are valued very highly in Japan and punished pretty severely.
@Fudgeyman To be fair I don't think he was credited for the first games he appeared in either, and I doubt that was a breach of NDA.
@Fudgeyman As seen with Male Byleth.
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