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On Friday, Bayonetta 3 is scheduled to launch on the Nintendo Switch, but controversy has surrounded the title recently. This iteration’s titular character was recast by the game’s creator PlatinumGames with Jennifer Hale replacing Hellena Taylor. Taylor caused a ruckus online when she claimed Platinum had only offered her $4,000 in exchange for the game. the actual sum was closer to $15,000. Taylor was given $4,000 to return for a cameo, but she turned it down. On Twitter today, essentially confirming those figures but continuing to criticize the offers.
“When I posted in Part 3 of the video thread, I explained that the first offer was too low. This offer totaled $10,000. This is a $450 million franchise (not including merchandise). Then I wrote to Hideki Kamiya in Japanese and asked him what he was worth.As a creative, I thought he would understand,” Taylor wrote on Twitter. “He replied how much he appreciated my contribution to the game and how much the fans wanted me to voice the game. He then offered another 5,000. So I declined to voice the game, and for 11 months I didn’t hear from them, after which they offered me a flat rate of $4,000 to speak a few lines. All other lies like 4,000 in 5 sessions are pure hoaxes.”
Taylor also used the hashtag “boycott” in her initial tweet. This indicates that she still does not want her followers to play the game. Taylor’s remarks from today, nevertheless, differ greatly from those she made before! The video she describes omitted that $10,000 sum, claiming that PlatinumGames had made a second offer of $4,000 rather than the actual $15,000, and left out the $10,000 total.
She may be debating the semantics, but it appears that she is just contesting the existence of “extensive negotiations.” She does not specify that she requested six figures to reprise the role as reported by Bloomberg, but she does state that she did not demand $250,000. Taylor concluded her Twitter thread by saying that since joining Twitter in 2011, she has “drummed up interest in this game.”
It is crucial to remember that Taylor’s claims that Bayonetta is a “450 million dollar franchise” are at best speculative. The series has never been popular, and if Nintendo had not stepped in to provide funding for Bayonetta 2 and Bayonetta 3, the initial game would not have had a follow-up. If the series had been popular, Sega would have kept funding more episodes! Although Taylor’s first remarks were widely praised, popular perception appears to have altered in response to PlatinumGames and Bloomberg’s justifications.