THE PATHETIC DRAMA RETURNS

The pathetic drama returns

Online games news Tedious Retro Gamer, 19-10-2022
Online Games Bay

No, it’s not title to sequel for adventures of not greatest superhero called Pathetic Drama... which is not bad idea actually. Nope, it’s the Bayonetta 3 pathetic drama that just wouldn’t die.

Just few days back Hellena Taylor, voice actress, who was giving her voice to the character of Bayonetta in previous games of the series, made a huge announcement that she was mistreated by Platinum Games, developer of those games. According to her, she was offered 4,000 USD for the whole part in upcoming title and she turned that offer down. As it turned out 4,000 USD would be below union minimum pay, which is around 1,000 USD per 4-hours-long session.

According to Bloomberg Taylor was in fact offered 5 sessions, each paid 3,000 to 4,000 USD, which combined would give between 15 and 20 thousand dollars, and that would be quite decent payment. Of course there were concerns that voice actors are not paid enough, especially when they take part in (such as this one) projects that will bring millions of dollars, but that is a completely different story.

Also, according to Bloomberg, but not confirmed by other sources, Taylor turned down the offer of 5 sessions and was supposed to demand 6-figure sum and bonuses based on product performance. Taylor denies she made such demands, but so far provided no evidence to any of her claims. Nor has Platinum Games to be fair. It suppose to be maybe not common, but it happens that freelance artists are given such bonuses, which wouldn’t exactly be unheard of. And one more detail from Bloomberg article - after Taylor declined the offer Platinum Games decided to cast some other actress in her place, but offered Taylor cameo, which would take only one session and she would be paid 4,000 USD.

So was the whole thing just misunderstanding? Was it just drama about nothing? Was it serious dispute about reality of voice acting? I really don’t give a fondle anymore... Pathetic behaviour on both sides - drama queen, who demands people to boycott a game because she wasn’t offered money she wanted, and on the other hand 51-year-old executive of multi-million company, who takes it to Twitter to dispute a simple matter of legal-binding contract and ends up deleting his account. Grow the frick up!

08-11-2022