Two independent investigations to the Bayonetta 3 voice acting controversy have shed more light on the situation. But what these investigations found out may just surprise you.
Jason Schreier of Bloomberg and Andy Robinson of VideoGamesChronicle were told by separate sources that Bayonetta 3 voice actor Hellena Taylor was offered $ 15,000 to voice Cereza again in the new game. This is the sum total of what was planned to be five sessions of work, with each session lasting four hours and with pay between $ 3,000 to $ 4,000. This was also significantly more compared to what she was paid in Bayonetta 2. In response, Taylor asked for a six-figure sum, and residuals.
PlatinumGames declined this offer, but continued to try to hire her for an extended period of time. When the company decided on hiring Jennifer Hale as the new voice of Bayonetta, they still wanted to give Taylor an opportunity to cameo, this time with only one session and pay at about $ 4,000. In the end, Taylor turned down all of PlatinumGames’ offers and the studio went ahead with work on Bayonetta 3.
Hellena Taylor claims this version of events is ‘an absolute lie’ when reached for comment by both Bloomberg and VideoGamesChronicle. PlatinumGames, as well as Bayonetta 3 publisher Nintendo, and rights holder Sega, have still not made an official comment or response, either to Bloomberg or VideoGamesChronicle, or on their own media platforms.
We had previously reported on Hellena Taylor’s initial claim on Twitter that she was lowballed by PlatinumGames on their offer to voice Bayonetta again for Bayonetta 3. She further claims that she directly wrote a letter to Hideki Kamiya, who is not only the most visible staffer in the company, and director for Bayonetta 3, but also its vice president. She also seemed to confirm that she broke non-disclosure agreements when she made her claims, and she had suffered anxiety and depression from the situation. She ended her videos stating she wanted to move forward from playing Bayonetta, and she told fans to boycott buying Bayonetta 3.
It should also be noted that as a consequence of making those claims, two people visible in making Bayonetta 3 received abuse and harassment online. Hideki Kamiya either deleted or deactivated his Twitter account over the weekend, but reactivated it a few days later. Jennifer Hale, who took over the role of Bayonetta, is also very well known to be an advocate for voice acting rights. She released a statement affirming that support, and clarifying that she cannot directly address the situation because she herself is under a non-disclosure agreement.
As gamers, but also as workers ourselves, we should want that the people who are involved in making video games are treated fairly as workers, and that includes fair pay, certainly at minimum a living wage.
Hellena’s initial claims were not supported by any evidence, or other fellow employees or sources that would back up her version of events. PlatinumGames has still not given an official response, and we only had Hellena’s word to believe.As readers, we need to be discriminating and careful when assessing such claims. In this case, what we assume was a well-meaning intent that a voice actor be treated fairly by their employee, snowballed quickly into a campaign of online harassment.
All of the people named in this story seem to have been subjected to mental anguish, and a lot of that could have been avoided if people were more sober and reasonable when assessing these allegations. We wish Hellena, Jennifer, Hideki, and everyone else affected by this situation well, and hope our readers make consideration of these concerns when similar situations in the industry arise in the future.
If any of you reading this are dealing with mental health issues, please do not hesitate to seek help. You can see Wikimedia’s list of mental health resources, including hotlines and websites, here.
Source: Bloomberg, VideoGamesChronicle
