In the ongoing controversy surrounding the payment dispute between developer PlatinumGames and voice actor Hellena Taylor, the voice actor has essentially confirmed Jason Schrier’s report on Bloomberg regarding how much the studio had offered to pay Taylor to reprise her role as Bayonetta in the upcoming Bayonetta 3.
In a new series of tweets, Taylor has elaborated that the initial offer she got from PlatinumGames amounted to $10,000 total to voice Bayonetta. Upon negotiating with Hideki Kamiya, the studio returned to Taylor with an offer totalling up to $15,000.
Taylor declined the second offer, following which PlatinumGames returned to Taylor with a new offer after 11 months—$4,000 for a single session, which appears to be for a cameo appearance.
Taylor’s tweets line up with Schrier’s reports quite well, and the 11 month period during which PlatinumGames was silent was likely because the studio opted to go with another voice actor for the role.
In her tweets, Taylor also keeps mentioning that Bayonetta is a $450 million franchise. This number is highly suspect, since Bayonetta is quite a niche franchise, and its sales figures hardly indicate that it has been as successful as Taylor is implying.
Bayonetta 3 features Jennifer Hale as the new voice of protagonist Bayonetta, and is coming to Nintendo Switch on October 28.
As I posted on part three of my video thread. I explained that their first offer was too low. That offer was 10,000 dollars total. Remember, this is 450 million dollar franchise, (not counting merchandise.) I then wrote in Japanese to Hideki Kamiya, asking for what I was
— Hellena Taylor (@hellenataylor) October 24, 2022
So, I declined to voice the game. I then heard nothing from them for 11 months. They then offered me a flat fee to voice some lines for 4,000 dollars. Any other lies, such as 4,000 for 5 sessions are total fabrications.
— Hellena Taylor (@hellenataylor) October 24, 2022
I was paid a shockingly low total of £3000 total for the first game. A little more for the second. I wanted to voice her. I have drummed up interest in this game ever since I started on Twitter in 2011.
— Hellena Taylor (@hellenataylor) October 24, 2022
