Kisame83

This works as a justification of the eshop in general and digital distribution. But it doesn't really justify the game key card, and locking yourself into having to have a piece of plastic in your system to play an individual eshop download as opposed to just having the license on your console/virtual game card as with normal digital purchase. The only real defense of the game key card is for people who really just want to collect a case on their shelf, or for the resale option. Although, unless you're selling yourself online or have a shop, that option isnt terribly appealing. Brick and mortar stores give an insulting value on "trade ins."

@LastFootnote good point. I've never heard the expression said as "to urr is human." To be fair to our friend, a quick search tells me it's a regional dialect thing. The "fur/her" sound is more traditional, while in North America the "air" pronunciation seems to be attributed to the "Mary/Merry/Marry" jumble we underwent (which itself varies regionally, if you spend time in the south versus the northeast or west coast for example).

@XiaoShao quite the opposite, sadly. The game hardly runs on Switch 2. I have yet to actually get the game to properly load past the intro splash screen. Currently charging my Switch Lite to see how it is on the older hardware, but the fact it's presented on the eshop as Switch 2 compatible is a joke.

@The21zonz that's actually not a thing. Yes, it increases the chances of people USING it in an illegal manner. But there's no law that says a platform has to die before software emulation can exist. For the most part, to my knowledge, software (system OS files, how individuals acquire their "backups", etc) is the devil in the details where the problems arise. If it was just a platform being active, don't you think Google would have slammed down on BlueStacks and other Android emulators ages ago?

I'm honestly surprised. Nintendo will go after free fan patches, but companies profiting off of shameless asset rips seem to provoke a lazier response.

I've been waiting! I was hoping the new android and Steam ports of Vay and Lunar SSS meant they'd target consoles finally. But I didn't dare hope they'd go for EB! I thought that entry was lost to time (and Sega CD or PS1 emulators lol)

@dardel out of curiosity, what games drew your side-eye? For me, Cyberpunk was my "yea...I dunno about that, chief" one lol. The game was infamously pulled from PS4 sale. I know it's been patched up since then, but, I don't know that an effectively "last gen" port would be exciting. Then again, it does run (not beautifully, but functionally) on my Steam Deck...

@mariomaster96 I'm curious how the handheld PC market will impact the Switch's commercial performance. I think those still fall under niche enthusiast devices, but they are increasing in popularity. I use my Switch less and less in favor of a Legion Go, but the "mainstream" portable family unit for a lot of households is still "the Nintendo." I think their price point will be a huge factor. But another blow will be the diminishing brick and mortar presence. Nintendo would dominate the space in a world where they were packing shelves, but when they're just sitting on online storefronts alongside Steam Deck for similar prices...

@ottoecamn You're reaching. The modern audience is just the current generation of players, and cultural attitudes shift over time. If anything, censorship was more common in the 80s and 90s—pixelated sprites with suggestive outfits were often toned down by localizers. Meanwhile, today, we have fully nude characters in games like Baldur's Gate 3. Your argument cherry-picks examples and assumes correlations.

DOA 6 failed because of poor business decisions—modes removed, a messy story, and nearly $100 season passes—not because of reduced sexualization. The core series toned down its sexuality (especially in regards to the chest physics) back in the OG Xbox era, yet that was when it peaked in full game sales. Your argument of "it just gets worse" ignores the historical context.

As for Dustborn, it was set up for controversy, so it's not comparable. Also, not censorship. The game flopped because it was mediocre, not because of diversity. Look at Baldur's Gate 3—praised as one of the best recent games, despite featuring diversity.

Concord failed for being bland and unoriginal. Meanwhile, Apex Legends, which embraces diversity, has 18 million monthly players this year. Jason Schreier nailed it: live-service games with no unique hook fail in an oversaturated market, but some people will always blame diversity.

FFVII Rebirth is one of the year's top-reviewed games, with strong sales. Any drop in numbers can be attributed to it being PS5-exclusive and new players needing to play Remake. Yet, I'd bet you claim it failed because Tifa's childhood outfit was slightly altered.

You’re confusing correlation with causation to justify your frustration over...a pair of shorts. If you think this will significantly affect sales, that speaks volumes.

@ottoecamn I swear, some of you wouldn't have survived gaming in the 90s. They used to pay Ted Woolsey (and others) to tone down or remove references to religion or smoking or alcohol, lighten up topics of death, and the art department slapped extra clothing on the sprites of any scantily clad (or sometimes nude) female. Somehow, buying those games didn't lead to the death of art itself. Heck, if you ask a lot of people how they feel about less censored re-releases, a lot of people fanboy for the older US SNES releases as "the original." And now anytime Squenix slaps a thin line of fabric somewhere, people lose their minds. Not everything is some conspiracy - I prefer to judge cases on their individual merits. Squenix isn't Capcom. The Dead Rising situation sounds ridiculous. I have no intention of buying that remake anyway. And it was also ridiculous when, decades ago, Atlus released the original Persona and cut half the game out while turning one character into a street-wise black kid lol. Some censorship is crazier than others. Sometimes cultural differences and different pressures from ratings boards require adaptations to make changes. Sometimes it happens in the country of origin as just attitudes in culture shift. Let's be honest - the word censorship at this point is one of those that is losing meaning because it gets applied too broadly. Generally speaking, someone slightly changing art on THEIR OWN intellectual property isn't "censorship," it's artistic license. So, sorry, do you, but I'm not going to lose my mind and boycott one of my favorite games over a pair of trunks.

As for encouraging them - I promise you, the business folks producing these games, especially in Japan, does NOT care about this. They just want to know if the game sells, as a metric of if they will greenlight more games. Developers may engage with the community and listen to feedback when approaching the next game. But that depends on the series being seen as viable. I'm not going to participate in a movement to cancel Dragon Quest, again, over a pair of shorts lol. There's also the uncomfortable conversation some people don't seem to want to address that maybe...maybe the modern audience is less accepting of bikini armor? In the 80s and 90s this hobby was definitely more of a boys club, but it's gone WAY more mainstream over the last couple of decades.

@Porky what "multitude?" I was only speaking to the warrior model - if you're saying a name translation difference falls under culture wars, I'm going to ignore you lol. And I really don't care about type A and B. It's silly, but it's two seconds on a character selecter. Just pick the one that looks like you and move on with your life, jeez. Other changes to the game - fine, debatable, but not the topic I was addressing. Remakes often add or tweak things, this has been going on since forever. And people are free to decide which version they find definitive, most faithful, etc. To the Simpsons reference, for example, yes that sounds dumb. But, also, we as a society somehow managed to love the Lunar games in the 90s. And Working Designs was lousy with that sorta thing, but I don't know anyone who has urged people to NOT experience Lunar: Silver Star Story over it.

Ugh, not surprised to see culture wars debates. Gaming in the 2020s right? Look, do the shorts look ridiculous on that art for the warrior? Yes. But do you sound ridiculous if your stance is "one of the best games of all time getting an awesome remake...but wait, shorts? I'm out." Also yes. It's not even like games get physical manuals anymore. This is probably the only time you're even going to see these photos lol

@DwaynesGames that's the boat I'm in. I have the first game, plenty of cosmetic unlocks in it, the soundtrack is fine for what it does, and I still use it (as recently as this morning). I can't quite bring myself to drop another $50 on a slight update for the second game, or one of these theme releases. If FB II knocked $20-30 off on a sale, I'd probably grab it.

@calbeau agreed. I liked that twist when the game was fresh. And then Igarashi came out and obliterated it from the timeline, alongside Circle of the Moon. Which is another beloved entry of mine with mixed community opinions. It was my first GBA title, and finding it + a GBA the day I got them was an adventure up and down my whole county 😂 so I probably have some nostalgia bias.

Iirc, IGA's reasoning at the time was that he wanted to clean up having too many premature resurrections of Dracula in the timeline. I don't think the games stories as is hurt the larger narrative, but he was the shepherd of the franchise at the time so it was his call.

While I do also have them on Xbox, I am a little sad for D&D Chronicles of Mystara and Mass Effect 3. Always liked playing them on Wii U, and the communities were small but nice.

@JohnnyMind yea, that confuses me too. Just as a comparison, I fell off rival franchise Dragon Quest Monsters in the Joker era. Didn't care for the first one, haven't touched it since. I didn't pop into the new announcement of a new entry and start booing in the comments. I can get if people who played the game have criticism, but all the "I'm not supporting them so I didn't buy it" people are just looking for a place to vent about something they haven't played.

Unless they price this thing really low, there's no reason for it at all. It won't do much that any android gaming device (or your phone with a controller shell) can't already do with the PSPlay app. And those devices have the ability to install games natively, run emu, remote play Xbox and Steam games, and run other streaming apps (GE Force Now, Game Pass, Luna, etc).

This is an incredibly limited concept. It's a portable device that you can't really take with you on the go, unless it's to another house with strong wifi.

At the risk of breaking up this robust conversation, I looked this game up. It looks like a cookie-cutter mobile auto-runner "MMO."

... To be honest, I'm just surprised it's not a base builder or match 3 puzzler lol

But the folks early in the thread who guessed this was just a case of some mocked up trailer that misrepresents the game - they were right. The game itself isn't a rip off (though I still wouldn't recommend actually downloading it), but it is an example of the rampant false advertising that is tolerated in the mobile market.

@gonzilla pretty much this. I've had a very glitchy performance running this game on Steam Deck. On my PC, I hardly can play when I want to because they seem to drop a huge patch just about every time I want to play the game lol. My brother picked the game up on sale for his windows PC and can barely play it due to constant freezes. I don't know how it fairs on console, though I would assume better due to more targeted optimization. But it doesn't surprise me that they gave up on Switch. X-Com 2 feels like it is held together by glue and duct tape on Switch lol.

@Smug43 TIL that a 6th generation game looks like a 6th gen game. Thanks, Smug! I look forward to your thoughts on Devil May Cry, Mario Sunshine, and Resident Evil 4!

@Fangleman32 "Alone against all these droids. Heh, they don't stand a chance."

@you4rhea that's exactly what I did. Amazon delayed their projection until next week, after indicating a Friday delivery all week. So I canceled with them and grabbed the voucher.

I circled the franchise's orbit a bit since I was little. I watched a sitter play the original NES game, and I read the Nintendo Power guide cover to cover. I also read the Final Fantasy 2 (IV) guide repeatedly. That was in a SNES guide collecting a few games.

My first directly played JRPG was Chrono Trigger. After that, I played FF VI on a recommendation from a friend who knew how enamored I was with CT. I actually wasn't feeling it, because I kept comparing it to CT. Then around the WoR I restarted the game with the mindset of enjoying it as its own thing, and it has firmly been my second favorite JRPG and favorite FF since then.

Unless we count CT also
(Small dig at the PS1 marketing/bundles of the SNES ports in the west)

@Omarzy I'm 100% sure if Nintendo somehow tried this in a way that got him in front of a firing squad, there would be a gross amount of comments chuckling about "Nintendo finally bumps off Bowser lol"

@Cashews "it would be immoral to not go for maximum sentencing."
"this garbage tier person doesn't contribute."

Geez, man, how's the view from your pedestal? At the risk of offending your eminence, I would like to address your comment about Super Mario Galaxy - is not the crime here that of the end user? Emulation is not illegal, and you can legally back up your own purchased copy of SMG. A modded console would let you run said backup. If you can cite legal precedent against this, by all means. To My knowledge, the courts have not struck this down. And as I mentioned, Apple challenged the concept of after market modifications to an operating system to run software they don't distribute, and lost that case. If I, as the user, take a modded console and then navigate to a website illegally hosting game files to pad my library, the ones committing theft are myself and the game hosting site, not the person who permitted me to run unsigned code on the console.

Edit: Doing more digging, and it does seem he had a file hosting site on the side. So fair enough on some level of that, but also strange thst 90% of coverage leaves that off and just touts him as a "hacker," and also his charges were in regards to circumventing device security. I guess the difference here as opposed to the apple case is that it's a hardware mod chip and not just software? Still seems a 6 in one hand, half-dozen in the other to me. But that's our legal system for ya. Also, circling back to the Mario Galaxy comment - even if we go with every game someone pirates is direct revenue Nintendo can claim... They aren't claiming the MSRP of said games. They claimed $150,000 per game download. I know we talk a lot about video game pricing around here but... Come on lol

@Jeronan I saw this story on another site, and hadn't seen the initial coverage. From what I read, he himself made something to the tune of $300,000 over a course of 7 years.

Facts also get lost in a lot of coverage. "Hacker" Gary didn't work on software from what I read, so NL shared misinformation. He was the team's PR guy. They also haven't been able to get everyone involved due do different country extradition laws, and literally have said they wanted to "send a message." The judge's statement also reads the same, comparing it to a bank fraud case that went largely unpunished and making it clear that he equates the two cases and felt it was his duty to "send a message" against the very concept of white collar crime.

He made his choice, but so did Nintendo - they went heavy-handed, it's going to make some uneasy. He pleaded and was hit with a $4.5 million bill, and to work alongside investigators regarding the case on the others. Then they hit him with jail time, and some people on here are like "should've served more." Then, feeling the message wasn't strong enough, Nintendo hit him with a civil suit charging him $10 million more, with thousands of dollars per system jailbroken and per game they could find that a user pirated. They have the belief that every game pirated is a lost sale, which is actually false. That doesn't make piracy OK, but it does serve as a speculative "proving a negative" claim to hypothetical damages that they successfully argued as in some cases the driving factor in them releasing entirely new consoles! It's a bit extreme lol. Like essentially they claim a guy who made, running a little dirty math on my calculator, essentially $22 an hour (correlating to a standard full time US work week) running PR for a system mod tools company was the demon who single handedly sank the Wii U. Nintendo killed that system all on its own, and there is absolutely an element of projection here. It's also a touch odd to me because Apple tried this over jailbreak developers and the Supreme Court upheld that modding hardware isn't in and of itself a crime. Emulators themselves are also legal, and the criminal element comes down to how some people use them. It's just weird - at the same time as Nintendo is successfully crushing this man, Apple is being (last I checked, successfully) sued by the people who've been jailbreaking their devices since 2008 for being a monopoly on their own app store lol

Tldr - it's not that he was punished. He committed a crime and plead to it, and worked with investigators after. It's that they grabbed the middle manager they were able to get ahold of, news keeps reporting on him as if he was a lead hacker, and they cudgeled him with an over-inflated "damages" bill, with the stated intent to go over the top to shock and awe any future hacking.

@Marioman2023 a lot of folks seem to unironically have been expecting this SMB origin story to have been a 90 minute adaptation of Legend of the Seven Stars, or Thousand Year Door. It's crazy lol

@Switch_Pro Hey now lol. I wouldn't call TFA "objectively awful." Arguably "too safe?" Yes. "Derivative?" For sure. TLJ... No disagreement on that lol. But Ep VII brought on debate, but wasn't a complete dumpster fire. It's more the mismanagement of the entire concept of the trilogy that soured the bunch. The utter lack of a plan, the failed attempt at three directors that turned into the first director spending half of part 3 trying to retcon the part 2, which set fire to just about every narrative seed from part 1.

@Deemo37 Agreed. I also think it's worth noting that this was the origin movie. Looking at the Sonic films, the second felt a lot closer to what fans of the games were looking for, while the original was trying to bridge game fans and general audiences with the character. I'm actually worried if they do decide on a Zelda adaptation. The old cartoon used to be partnered with the Super Mario Bros Super Show. I'm not saying that should be the template, but you just know if they go for a lighthearted adventure feel that people will be upset if it doesn't push a deeper dark fantasy story.

@Eagly have you SEEN it yet, or are you basing this on the "it doesn't have a story" complaints being thrown around online? I'm sorry if this sounds aggressive, but that just comes off a little echo chamber-ish. Because the movie has a straightforward plot, not NO plot. Is it Shakespeare, no. But are you honestly suggesting that the better option would be to take something like Legend of the Seven Stars and butcher it down to 90 minutes of runtime? Even that game gets by on a ton of charm - tahe plot is still basically "bad guy attacks Mushroom Kingdom." Just, plot twist, Bowser got booted too and they have to team up. Even if they were to use this, that would be a plot hook for a sequel, because the whole reason we even cared is because we spent years clashing with Bowser before that. Aside from that, it'd just be a swap to less well known support characters - I'd love to see Mallow, but of COURSE they're going to use Toad for a general audience introduction sidekick.

@Deemo37 I fell asleep on Rise of Gru. I thoroughly enjoyed this and may take my kid back again on Monday. I think people are exaggerating with the whole "Ugh it's just a Minions movie" take I keep seeing everywhere. My theater was packed in a way I rarely see these days, and almost everyone on my timeline who also saw it over the last couple of days has been pleased with it. I'm not sure what epic narrative some people were expecting, but this was a fairly straightforward Mario plot. The last Mario movie tried to go "epic" with a "Blade Runner by way of Roger Rabbit" kind of narrative, and it's universally reviled as absolute trash lol. And most people enjoy the Sonic movies, which pad out the narrative with a generic "Sonic got isekai'd to our world and adopted by friendly cop" two-film story arc that I don't think ANYBODY actually cares about lol.

@Itakiteacher it's worth noting that Amazon is more in the "both ways" camp. Have Kindle Unlimited? Yep you can "borrow" tons of books and comics, but can also buy to own. Prime Music? Can still buy individual tracks and albums. Prime video? They still sell the movies and usually the shows separately. The video side can be a little back and forth, depending on the owner of the content. But most of the library is available for purchase. Prime gaming? They give you some free games but you can most definitely still buy these games if you'd prefer.

A more comparable Amazon model to NSO's game library would be their Luna service. It's a game streaming service with a curated catalogue. They don't have exclusives, so you can get the games elsewhere on modern hardware, but that's entirely outside of the Luna service platform.

A moment of silence, brothers and sisters, for the Virtual Console.

...
...

OK, carry on.

@NorwegianMate I think those are coming down the line

@Gravitron they were assuming the service cost of $30 above the base NSO package x the 10 more yrs they project using the Switch. I'd seriously question if this service will exist in its current form or at all in 2033, personally.

An awful lot of comments seem shocked that a SNES game looks like a SNES game. I'd love it if this was a full blown remake too. But we've known since the announcement it was an enhanced port of the PSP version (itself an enhanced port of the original). I wonder if I slide over to Push Square if I'll find people concerned to discover the recent port release of Valkyrie Profile Lenneth is still a PS1/PSP game at its core.

I'm not too bothered as yet. Will have to see how Liam does, of course. And we still have season 3 not even out yet with Henry, so no sense getting worked up at this juncture. But growing up, this wasn't completely uncommon. I remember an old Robin Hood show in the 80s that just changed leads for the second season lol. Tbf I think they made it a slightly different character using the same name, but still. And OUAT had a Robin Hood swap. OUAT also was the reason Fandral from the Thor movies changed actors (which no one noticed). And Due South had a sidekick named Ray, and second season just changed to another guy named Ray. My parents were also big on Soaps where actors change all the time in the same role. "The role of Jason will be played by" oh...ok...lol. That would happen live, like just new guy walks in and you're like "uhhhhh sure?" And if you're a fan of HBO shows, they don't seem to care. True Blood, Game of Thrones, etc. Heck House of the Dragon called a time skip and just replaced some core cast mid season lol. And all 80s/90s kids remember when Aunt Viv changed! This is even worse with voice actors, as has been a hot topic of late.

Edit: @UmbreonsPapa I didn't see your post before typing, but completely agree! It's pretty common in some genres, so that might feed into people's comfort level with the idea.

Taylor's supporters: Why would she lie? She has so much to lose by doing this!
Taylor in her original videos: I literally have nothing to lose, idc.

@Wexter haha yeaaa my phone tries that too. And yes he has! I saw him in a quora thread a couple years ago talking experiences, union pay etc. Which is what first raised some flags for me here. Then I saw people talking in forums about the 4 days quote, which eventually I saw someone link to in a YouTube comment. That's when I started thinking this is maybe not as directly about contracts as she's saying and maybe a personal grievance with the company management. Which is fair, who hasn't felt slighted by an old job. But dragging others into it and couching it in bible scripture and fighting for the economic security of all workers (seriously, what do UK nurses have to do with this??) is just way off base of her.

@Wexter is that someone in the thread or breakdown someone did online?

@Sethman409 yea, the attack on Hale for not originating the role is messed up. And unrealistic. Someone call Cody Christian and tell him to take Cloud off his resume and stop signing merch because he isn't Steve Burton. Let's all attack Ben Schwartz for not being Roger Smith...wait, but Ryan Drummond was in the Sonic Adventure games...oh no, but Jaleel White was in the animated 90s shows. And I guess Chris Sabat should stop patting himself on the back for DBS Super Hero, because Scott McNeil is the only one allowed to call himself English Piccolo by this logic.

It doesn't make sense. And if you look at the Twitter feeds of other voice actors, her claims aren't holding up. Dave Hayter initially came out strong for her, but deleted. Probably because his vocal work took a lot of time, being freaking Metal Gear, and he said it should be $1000/day. After people posted her saying 4 days of quick work, he backed off. Will Salyers (Dock Ock) and Steve Blum have been talking about how you don't own a role and all actors have been replaced in a gig before. You move on, get other work, etc. The ones in the industry for a long time either line up a lot of roles or branch into production or voice directing if they aren't also keeping busy in traditional animation or live action work. No one is doing one big release every few years and calling it a day. People are in other forums saying this is a 30+ hour game and they would need her for months and she should be making $50k + royalties...based on nothing but their feelings and an utter lack of understanding how this industry works.

But honestly, if the argument is VAs aren't paid enough, I actually agree. My question is to the people on the boycott train, and to Hellena's attempt to gaslight with that "if you don't boycott it's fine, but if you care about other people you will"...where does it end? What games are you playing or planning to buy in the upcoming months? They're probably making industry standard hourly/daily rates...less if non union work for an indie.

@Friendly according to her, the prior games required essentially two full shifts. She did 4 half days (4hrs a pop). She said it was, quote, "very quick." How much time do you think she was being asked to invest? She wasn't voicing a season of a show here.

@Switch_Pro 100% this. You can raise awareness if you feel the industry isn't properly respecting VAs. We saw just that with the former lead of Mob Psycho 100. But sitting on it until they release clips of the person who took the job you willingly left, and then attacking them + trying to make the title fail screams petty to me. It sounds like she feels personal grievance and is lashing out, but people are taking it as fighting for rights and trying to take up arms.

@RiasGremory he's a little extra though. I mean, if being a jerk on Twitter was a crime, most of Twitter would be in jail. So I say that partly in jest. But he doesn't...have to read the port beggars or go on block sprees everytime someone disagrees with him. Most public figures seem to just post what they intend to post and then let the community play in the comments lol.

@eaglebob345 I agree with you. If she wants to start a conversation about how voice actors have to fight for fair pay, benefits, etc, I'm fully on board. But being offered what sounds like standard rates (if her prior 4 recording sessions held true for this one) and saying she's personally slighted makes me think something went down specifically between her and Kamiya behind the scenes. He sure comes off as a jerk on his Twitter lol. But Nintendo wasn't obligated to pay her like Charles Martinet to get her a car. People keep acting like she should be commanding top salary but her VA credits are sparse and this can't possibly be her primary income.

I am put off by her attacking the livliehood of what would have been her coworkers. Imagine someone chose to quit at your job and then organized a boycott that could cost you your own employment? Tacky behavior. Compare to the Mob Psycho situation where he was definitely screwed over for wanting a union contract...but made a point to urge fans not to attack returning VAs for doing their jobs and paying their bills. He very much wanted to spread awareness of the situation without weaponizing the fanbase to attack his colleagues.

@jsty3105 David Hayter said $1000 a day is current standard, other factors aside. He's pretty experienced and helped but video game voice acting on the map. I don't know how many sessions B3 required, but she's said in the past she's put in 4 days work. The thing is, I think a lot of folks are assuming she's a revered name in the industry because...well, because they are Bayonetta fans so of course they love her (not saying I'm different here, just trying to be objective). Her other credits are mostly minor roles, "additional voices," etc, and her recent credits are basically just Bayo ports and Smash. So she's not doing a ton of voice work. I don't know what her day job is. It looks like she's more prolific in stage acting. But it's not necessarily accurate to assume she's commanding top salary on her name alone in video game contract negotions just because Bayo 2 sold fairly well (remember the first was considered unviable in performance, hence Sega refused the sequel).

@Trmn8r even prolific VAs SUPPORTING her are saying a thousand a day is current standard. With her saying the prior games took 4 days, and with us not knowing how much this game entails as far as work load...it is odd. This doesn't sound like the overall insult ppl are taking it as, unless we just say VAs don't make enough in general (but really, who does lol). Kamiya is a weird one too tho, so I do wonder what that first offer was. Is he even in charge of that? I mean, he is VP of the company, but VPs aren't usually directly handling acting contracts.

@Runo IMO that's only a fair comparison if they drop a Mario movie tie in game and have Pratt voice. Pratts pay in the movie should be judged alongside the rates of other actors in animated films. What did he make in LEGO movie? What did Steve Carrell get to play Gru? What was Jack Blacks King Fu Panda take? What do Disney/Pixar leads earn? Those would be equivalent metrics here. The comparison to game VAs, that's a situation more like when Rino Romano was booted off the Spider-Man games in favor of movie tie-in games starring Tobey Maguire (who did a pretty sub par job of voicing his own character lol).

@Tober that's struck me too. The first game sold so poorly on launch as a cross platform title that they couldn't get a publisher for the second. Then Nintendo saw promise and agreed to partner with them, gaining the Bayonetta publishing rights. But we all know this is the story of a cult classic that went under the radar and had to be rescued by Nintendo, but now aggrieved fans are acting like it's one of the biggest profit-makers in the industry. And that the star who had no notable voice acting roles outside of Bayonetta should have been making more than industry standard for the part. She herself said the this role was quick for her in the past, with "half days" (4 hours) and 4 sessions required. She called it "very quick" to drop the lines.

My problem here is she wasn't fired. She walked away. But she's acting aggrieved and trying to burn the whole ship down around her. If you know typical rates for video game voice work, this isn't an unreasonable salary unless for some reason it was going to require a ton of sessions (they typically don't unless it's a very story-heavy game). I doubt she was making 6k+ for the prior games. David Hayter (Solid Snake) says $1000 per day is normal, and Will Salyers (Dock Ock in Spider-Man PS4/5) said $900 is union standard, unless you have a ton of experience or are a celeb from film/TV and can negotiate higher. Taylor doesn't have much VA credit to her name outside of Bayonetta, so she lacks that flexing power in the industry to demand more...but "more" in this case is like another hundred an hour or a couple thousand as a one time bonus. It's fair to say VAs deserve better industry-wide, but I don't think being offered a currently competitive rate is grounds to break NDA and go on a hissy fit trying to hurt everyone else involved in production.

I'm playing the second game now on PC. I'm not terribly far, so I can't make any meaningful comments on it. It's a bit grindy, but that goes with the territory. The series is inspired by classic Final Fantasy titles (it WAS initially conceived as a FF spinoff before changing the name in development), and I literally grew up on the job class level grind lol. Only thing I'm not getting about a lot of the comments is people who feel 2 was a step down so they say don't make any more. A lot of revered franchises (including BDs parent series FF) have their divisive entries or duds. Imagine if they just ended the one time the community was split on a title. Square followed up the very divisive FF 8 with the generally beloved 9, for example.

@-wc- you're making some assumptions. I'm not attacking people for liking Charles, and have nothing against him. I'm questioning some individual takes in this very thread, as well as general media clickbait reactions. Also, not that "logic" should be seen as a dirty word, but let's apply some. Luigi, in most of the very projects referenced where Mario was played as a New Yorker, was ALSO as such. Luigi was adapted to sound like video game Mario after Mario took on that voice. Danny Wells, Tony Rosato, John Leguizamo were the contemporaries to the voice actors I mentioned for Mario.

People really aren't getting that they are using the old characterization of construction worker turned plumber from the borroughs of NYC here. That's why he doesn't have the super thick "my grandson taught me English after I immigrated here ten years ago" approach the games have been using. They have Sebastian Maniscalco playing Mario's boss from WRECKING CREW. If you aren't old enough to get that reference, that's probably why them not going with Charles is confusing to you. And if you need a primer on what an Italian-American sounds like vs Italian native speaking accented English (as Charles goes for), look Sebastian up. Haven't heard enough of Pratt to know how well he's hitting that, but that seems to be the direction here.

Where was all this for support of Roger Craig Smith?? Sonic actually has, you know, dialogue in games and various animated series', but I don't remember any big reactions over Ben being hired to basically play his Leonardo over Sonic. Preference aside, I'm talking about this reaction of "disrespecting the existing voice actor." This support was kicked up by Tara Strong (if you go into the thread, she goes a bit harder on the topic than what's shown here), with outlets touting her as the voice of Harley Quinn. But, she's not the OG VA for Harley. She's not the voice in the animated series. None of the live action tv or film projects have asked her (she does do some live action acting). I mean no disrespect to Tara, but this notion of one VA holding a monopoly on a roll in ALL adaptational media is unrealistic and absolutely not even her own professional experience.

@Andy_Witmyer I completely agree. Mario 64 was certainly a change in tone, though it was quickly adjusted to because that game revolutionized the genre. And here we are. But I think there's a bit of a generational divide. Mario was created as an unlicensed take on Popeye when they couldn't get the rights (leading to Donkey Kong, though they did soon after secure the rights to make a similar Popeye game). His portrayals at the time leaned heavily into this blue collar guy from New York who had bad luck with monsters in pipes that eventually lead him to the Mushroom Kingdom, and adaptations ran with that too. Over time they've seemed to make Mario a Mushroom Kingdom native, and comparing him to the citizens of New Donk raises questions if he's even human. That plus almost three decades with Martinet leads me thinking we have two camps of fans as far as the mental concept of who Mario is or should be.