Lead voice actor asks fans to “boycott” upcoming game

Hellena Taylor, the voice of Bayonetta, has asked fans to “boycott” the game and donate to charity, stating that she was offered low wages.

Hellena Taylor, the voice actor for Bayonetta, has requested fans to not buy the upcoming Bayonetta 3, after Platinum Games, the studio behind the series, allegedly tried to pay her $4,000 (about $6,500 AUD) to voice the entire game.

Bayonetta is a wildly popular action game series featuring the main character, Bayonetta, as she battles otherworldly beings. The Bayonetta series has two games, with a third coming out soon, and has reportedly generated just over $720 million AUD in sales, excluding merchandise.

Taylor states that she auditioned for the role of Bayonetta for the third game and “passed with flying colours” (most Japanese games require voice actors to re-audition for roles they’ve played before.) The company then allegedly sent a lower offer. When Taylor reached out to Hideki Kamiya, the Vice President of Platinum Games, she stated she was offered only $4,000 to voice the entirety of Bayonetta 3.

Friends, Worldlings, Bayonutters. Hear ye!#PlatinumGames#Nintendo#Bayonetta#Bayonetta3#Bayonutters#Boycott#NintendoEurope#NintendoAmerica#NintendoJapanpic.twitter.com/h9lwiX2bBt

— Hellena Taylor (@hellenataylor) October 15, 2022

Bayonetta games have a lot of spoken dialogue, and generally take players 12 to 15 hours to finish — and voice actors spend many, many more hours than that doing shoots and reshoots of voice lines. Taylor states that the offer was an “insult”, given her time, history, and acting credentials (Taylor explained that she trained for a total of seven and a half years in acting.) As a result, she declined the position, and asked fans worldwide to “boycott” the game, instead donating the cost of the game to charity.

Pay rates for voice-acting in games and media is not a topic that many generally talk about, due to nondisclosure agreements (NDAs.) When coming forward publicly with her experiences with Platinum Games, she mentions how powerful these contracts can be: “I am not afraid of the nondisclosure agreement. I can’t even afford to run a car, what are they going to do? Take my clothes? Good luck to them.”

In response, Kamiya took to Twitter and posted what appeared to be an official response in English: “Sad and deplorable about the attitude of untruth. That’s what all I can tell now. By the way, BEWARE OF MY RULES,” referring to his somewhat unique Twitter rule of blocking non-Japanese replies. However, due to the non-stop torrent of fans replying to Kamiya’s posts asking him why he doesn’t pay his voice actors, he has since deleted his account, before reactivating it entirely.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.