It’s been a good 2-3 days since it’s happened but let’s talk about Hideki Kamiya and Bayonetta 3 for a bit.
If you’re not aware, recently Platinum Games founder and former Capcom video game designer, Hideki Kamiya who directed Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, and Viewtiful Joe is trending on Twitter for a few days, and has still been trending as of the writing of this article.
The reason? Hellena Taylor, the original voice actress for Bayonetta up until she was replaced by Jennifer Hale in Bayonetta 3, posted on Twitter that she wasn’t reprising her role in Bayonetta 3 because she was only offered an alleged USD$4,000.
Since this is quite a layered subject, let’s take a look at the timeline of events and what could happen to the future of Bayonetta 3 as fans are calling for a boycott, Hellena Taylor, and Hideki Kamiya.
▍Why isn’t Hellena Taylor playing Bayonetta again?
Way back in September of last year, when a fan tweeted to Taylor that they couldn’t imagine Bayonetta without her voicing the titular character, the voice actress responded with a cryptic “Well you might have to.” on her Twitter. Naturally this lead to speculation for months, if not nearly a year on whether or not she was reprising her role or not.
October 5, Game Informer interviewed Platinum Games, and then it was confirmed that Hellena Taylor woudln’t be able to return due to “Various overlapping circumstances”, suggesting scheduling conflicts or possible health issues, and announced Jennifer Hale to be the new voice for Bayonetta. While some were disappointed, many were still hopeful in the title due to Jennifer Hale’s long pedigree of voice acting, including Black Cat from the Spider-Man animated series, Samus Aran, and my personal favorite Female Shepard from the Mass Effect Series.
Then on October 15, Hellena Taylor’s released three-part statement on her Twitter, unveiling that she was only offered USD$4,000 to reprise her role as Bayonetta. Feeling absolutely insulted due to her pedigree, training and past roles, she stated that she “doesn’t care about the NDA”, and decided to publicly release her statement voicing her displeasure and also urged people that “care about people, and care about the world around you, and who gets hurt by these financial decisions” to boycott the game.
She then continued in the statement, saying that after she auditioned for her role again, Platinum Games sent her an “insulting offer”. Afterwards she wrote a letter to Hideki Kamiya with the help of her friend, to which she got a reply back stating that he “values greatly her contribution to the game and that the fans really want her to voice it over…”, and it was then she got offered USD$4,000 for the role.
▍So on the Topic of Hideki Kamiya…
Naturally since Hellena Taylor said that she contacted Hideki Kamiya, and since he is the face and founder of Platinum Games, many took to Twitter expecting answers from the designer and clarification, hoping that it wasn’t the case.
It was then he posted shortly after, a statement reading “Sad and deplorable about the attitude of untruth. That’s what all I can tell now.” which seemed to deflect the issue and say that Hellena Taylor was lying. While a few people believed him, many took to Twitter with angered responses because it didn’t make sense for a company to be receiving millions in profits, to only offer USD$4,000 to voice a beloved character that’s such a huge part of the company’s image.
Even with Hideki Kamiya’s infamous behavior of blocking any, and everyone on Twitter that talks to him in a way he doesn’t like according to a list of rules, fans, voice actors and others in the industry took to Twitter to tweet about the situation.
A wide variety of responses were sent to the game designer, with angered responses from Bryan Dechart, the voice actor for Connor in Detroit: Become Human who even wrote his message in Japanese to avoid being instantly blocked, to mockery, even saying they’ll pirate his game, and some posting the average salary for voice actors on his Twitter.
Naturally Hideki Kamiya doesn’t like these kinds of posts, so it didn’t take long for him to start banning users at an incredbily fast rate. Some say that the designer even used a bot to automatically block users that tweeted at him in English just so he wouldn’t have to do it himself.
After a while though Hideki Kamiya’s Twitter account mysteriously vanished, only for it to now reappear after a couple of hours, with the designer continuing to post about other subject matter and not commenting on Hellena Taylor’s pay. Of course many users chimed in to this, celebrating what could have been Twitter suspending his account.
Though many did voice their grievances, and many other voice actors chimed in berating Hideki Kamiya, others did mention on Twitter that the amount they made was similar, with Sean Chiplock, voice actor for Diluc from Genshin Impact, and Revali from Breath of the Wild, stating that he made around USD$2000-3000 for his role in the Breath of the Wild spin-off title,
Other industry members including Yongyea and Christopher Randolph, voice actor for Otacon also chimed in though, saying that while this news isn’t shocking for voice actors, it shouldn’t be the standard.
▍So What’s Going to Happen?
At this point it’s honestly hard to tell what will happen to Bayonetta 3. While the incident is tragic and many have cancelled their pre-orders, there is likely a larger subset of players that don’t care or haven’t heard of the incident, and will still continue to buy and play the game.
Since Hellena Taylor did break her NDA there is a possibility she will face legal repurcussions from Platinum Games, but the odds of doing so are unlikely given how much backlash the company may face from the public. If a situation does happen though Hellena Taylor doesn’t seem to be phased by it, seeing as she posted an update after her statements, seemingly preparing herself for what comes next.
As for Hideki Kamiya and Platinum Games, likely due to legal reasons it’s understandable why they cannot comment on the matter and release emails or internal documents regarding the dispute with Hellena Taylor. With the public still boiling over at the situation, it’s likely that Kamiya will still continue to be mocked over the coming weeks, as fans realize that what was once a “cute” quirk of the developer to block people, isn’t endearing anymore.
While there’s still much in the air over the situation, Hellena Taylor has the benefit of the doubt right now due to her stating that she even broke NDA to disclose this information, which means she feels pretty strongly over the subject even with the threat of the NDA. Hideki Kamiya’s response certainly doesn’t help with him being so cryptic and quick to block users that just want answers.
While no concrete evidence or actual emails and correspondence has been posted, I would still hope in the future that voice actors receive a better pay, as it has been largely rumored that many companies don’t hire certain voice actors due to them belonging to a union, and wanting to pay as little as possible for these characters.
What do you think of the situation so far? Do you trust Hellena Taylor? What are you thoughts on Hideki Kamiya’s response so far?