News broke last week from PlatinumGames that the original voice of Bayonetta, Hellena Taylor would not reprise the role. Jennifer Hale, who has portrayed characters on Nintendo platforms in the past, such as Samus in Metroid, was hired to take the part for the foreseeable future. The reason cited by PlatinumGames was reportedly overlapping circum..., implying that other obligations made it unlikely to schedule. Based on her story, it came down to a pay dispute.

Hellena Taylor would voice her reasoning in a 4 part Twitter video thread that she declined PlatinumGames' "insulting offer" to return to the role. According to the voice actress, PlatinumGames only offered her $4,000 dollars.

"The Bayonetta franchise made an approximated 450 million dollars," Taylor spoke. "That's not including merchandise. As an actor I trained for over seven and a half years. Three years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art Lamba, with voice coach Barbara Berkery, and four and a half years with the legendary Larry Moss in Los Angeles.

And what did they think this was worth? What did they offer to pay me? The final offer to do the whole game as a buyout, flat rate, was $4000 US dollars. This is an insult to me, the amount of time I took to work on my talent, and everything that I have given to this game and to the fans. I'm asking the fans to boycott this game, and instead spend the money that you would spend on this game donating it to charity."

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

— Hellena Taylor (@hellenataylor) October 15, 2022

Part 2. #PlatinumGames #Nintendo #Bayonetta #Bayonetta3 #Bayonutters #Boycott #NintendoEurope #NintendoAmerica #NintendoJapan pic.twitter.com/iiaiVp1lyn

— Hellena Taylor (@hellenataylor) October 15, 2022

Talyor, who is a member of the  would address how the offer came to be, breaking her NDA. Following auditions that, according to her, she did very well, she aimed to contact PlatinumGames founder and CEO Hideki Kamiya directly to be paid what she believes she's worth. 

"I got a friend who has been in business in Japan to write to him in Japanese to him. I know he read it, because I got a reply. I got a reply saying that he values greatly my contribution to the game and the fans really want me to voice it over. And he, 'the memory of first meeting me as Bayonetta is a memory I hold dear'. 

...That is when they offered me $4,000USD.

Part 3#PlatinumGames #Nintendo #Bayonetta #Bayonetta3 #Bayonutters #Boycott #NintendoEurope #NintendoAmerica #NintendoJapan pic.twitter.com/4ii7hBpCxo

— Hellena Taylor (@hellenataylor) October 15, 2022

Jennifer Hale, a voice acting veteran and member of the SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild of America - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), very likely commands a higher price for her services than Hellena Taylor. Recasting happens fairly often in the industry, the case for this one is a puzzling one. As a game series, the Bayonetta franchise does decent numbers, but nothing earth-shattering. Bayonetta 2 sold just a shade over 1 million units on the Nintendo Switch after seeing mostly lukewarm sales on its initial Wii U launch, about 52k sales in Japan.

Part 4#PlatinumGames #Nintendo #Bayonetta #Bayonetta3 #Bayonutters #Boycott #NintendoEurope #NintendoAmerica #NintendoJapan pic.twitter.com/VGhaY1IFRP

— Hellena Taylor (@hellenataylor) October 15, 2022

PlatinumGames, who has developed titles like Astral Chain, Transformers Devestation, and Nier Automata isn't as large as other Japanese development companies like Square Enix or Capcom, so the reasoning for what seems like a lowballed offer is rather ambiguious. Leading up to Bayonetta 3's release, this isn't a good look for Nintendo or PlatinumGames, and speaks quite a bit about how the growth of the industry has meant little to the voice talent that provides their craft to the medium.