Four thousand dollars? Are you fucking kidding me, PlatinumGames? It would’ve cost you less to just pay her, man. I don’t mean morally. I mean it would’ve been literally the right business decision to pay the central talent of your game a livable fucking wage.
PlatinumGames offered Hellena Taylor, the voice of Bayonetta, four thousand dollars to reprise her role for the series. After they also forced her to audition again. And, let’s be clear: Hellena Taylor is Bayonetta in the English language versions. Her voice adds as much to the character as her visual design and writing. True, Atsuko Tanaka voices her for the original Japanese, and does a great job at it. I assume. I don’t speak Japanese, so I’m really not a good judge. And if I were the judge, I would be wholly unqualified.
Of course, Hellena Taylor, an actor with years of experience and training, wasn’t exactly fond of being offered four thousand dollars to voice the main character in the latest entry of PlatinumGames’ flagship series. Because that’s fucking nuts. It’s an insulting amount. It’s ‘old lady handing Bart Simpson two quarters’ shitty. And like the old lady, PlatinumGames seems to come at with the attitude of, “Bart, you didn’t say thank you!”
Now that Hellena Taylor has burned it all down on Twitter, PlatinumGames has a PR crisis on their hands. A crisis that’s coming immediately before the game’s release. We’re talking days, folks. Meanwhile, famously nice and understanding dude Hideki Kamiya has tweeted out a non-denial denial that seems to be adding more fuel to the fire of “Why couldn’t you just offer her a normal fucking amount?”
This is going to be expensive for PlatinumGames. I don’t think this will sink Bayonetta 3. Let’s be real honest here: A good number of fans of any art are shitbirds who want their cake and don’t give a flying fuck who bakes it. People will still buy Bayonetta 3. It’ll do fine. PlatinumGames is not going down because of this, no matter how many people skip the release. The company will continue its storied history of making incredible games half of the time.
But here’s the rub: Some people will skip buying this game. You know how much four thousand dollars comes out to? A little under 67 copies of Bayonetta 3. That ain’t much. But let’s say that one tenth of one percent of the 200,000+ people who’ve liked her tweet thread decide not to buy the game. Not one percent. One tenth of one percent. That would be only 200+ copies - and that still comes out to twelve thousand dollars! Or, three times as much as Hellena Taylor was offered. You lose one percent, and that’s one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
Yes, shut up, game developers don’t make a 100 profit profit on a $60 sale. I know how math works. But losing those sales does mean losing money. There’s no world in which lost sales, PR scrambling, and consulting legal teams cost less than it would’ve to pay Hellena Taylor a reasonable amount for her time. There’s no world in which intentionally fucking with the fan favorite talent behind a fan favorite character came cheap. And while this isn’t Jennifer Hale’s fault - and it’s unfair to put blame on a working actor taking a job - she absolutely cost more than Taylor did. She just did. Commander Shepard doesn’t come cheap.
Also, not for nothing, voice acting is hard. How do we know that? Because we’ve heard the difference between a CD-ROM game in 1992 voiced by the developers and a modern game voiced by trained actors who understand human emotion. It takes physical effort to voice a game - especially if you’re spending hours screaming out barks and attacks. It tears up your throat, baby. It hurts.
Could there be more behind the scenes? Sure, there probably is. As someone who’s gone through negotiations involving a company and an agent (yes, I’m real fucking fancy), I can tell you it can become a messy, heated process. I guess it’s in the realm of possibility that Kamiya ordered business affairs to bring Hellena Taylor some sort of beautiful contract with massive residuals that she actually turned down for reasons outside of money. But it’s unlikely. Talent doesn’t often turn down work just to be an asshole. Talent likes working. Talent likes being paid to work.
I very much doubt Hellena Taylor’s asking price was that much. And even if it was - four thousand dollars is a shitty, bad-faith final offer. It’s the equivalent of moving your boss moving your desk into the bathroom so you’ll quit rather than get fired. They either wanted Hellena Taylor to do it for nearly free or they wanted her to quit so they could claim it was her decision to move on from the character. Which, yep, they basically did by saying it was a scheduling conflict.
All of this bullshit, all of this bad press, all of this embarrassment over a few thousand dollars. Triple-A game companies have the money. PlatinumGames isn’t some four person team in Montreal that’s half indie developer and half sex cult. It’s a major video game company. The only reason it didn’t pay Hellena Taylor the right amount is because it didn’t give a shit about her or the talent she brought to the character. She’s not Bayonetta, they’re Bayonetta!
Except now it’s going to cost them far fucking more than it would’ve cost to pay Hellena Taylor a livable wage for her talent. Maybe they don’t care. Maybe Kamiya will never see a dime’s difference. Doesn’t matter. It’s stupid.