The Bayonetta 3 Boycott

J. Zheng, Staff Writer|October 21, 2022

Cover of Bayonetta 3 Game.

PlatinumGames

Cover of Bayonetta 3 Game.

The voice actor of Bayonetta, Hellena Taylor, is asking fans of the game to boycott the game Bayonetta 3 coming out in a week.

On 10/15/22:

Hellena Taylor, the former voice actor for Bayonetta, posted 4 Twitter videos explaining why she didn’t voice Bayonetta in Bayonetta 3. She said, “The Bayonetta franchise made approximately $450 million dollars, not including merchandise… I trained for 7 and a half years… The final offer to do the whole game as a buyout, a flat rate, was $4,000 dollars. This is an insult to me, the amount of time that I took to work on my talent and everything I have given to this game and to the fans.”

“I am asking the fans to boycott this game, and instead spend the money you were going to spend on this game for charity…What they did was legal, but immoral,” she adds on, continuing by describing how “Bayonetta always stands up for those with less power and stands up for what is right, and in doing this you stand with her.”

Taylor has no hard feelings toward the new actress. ”They now have a new girl voicing her over, and I love actors, I wish she all the joy in the world, I wish her all the jobs, but she has no right to say she is the voice of Bayonetta. I created that voice, she has no right to sign merchandise as Bayonetta.”

On 10/15/22:

Hideki Kamiya is a Japanese video game designer and director. He is also the creator of Bayonetta and is infamous for having a set of rules on Twitter. After this people started tweeting at him for answers and he started blocking a ton of accounts. Hideki Kamiya got restricted on Twitter and soon deleted his own account. He has reactivated his account.

The last Bayonetta that came out was Bayonetta 2 which was available in October 2014. Many fans were excited to play the new game but with Hellena Taylor asking fans to boycott some fans are in a predicament of wherever to boycott or buy. However, I’m sure everyone can agree $4,000 for a character as iconic as Bayonetta is just ridiculous and isn’t right. But many people like myself aren’t sure if a boycott is the best solution because there are people who worked very hard on this game such as animators, programmers, and the new voice actor Jennifer Hale. 

On 10/17/2022 Jennifer Hale Published A Statement On Twitter

On 10/18:

Bloomberg published an article that contains information that is completely different from what Helena Taylor said. Apparently, Helena Taylor was supposed to do at least 5 sessions and each session pays $3,000-$4,000 for 4 hours in the studio. She was supposed to make at least $15,000. This is a huge contrast from what Helena Taylor said. People are now confused if Helena Taylor lied, doubting if the article is real.

On 10/20. PlatinumGames Came Out With Their Own Statement On Twitter

The majority of people believe Helena Taylor lied however we can’t be sure for now. But on a bright note, Bayonetta 3 comes out on October 28, 2022, and you can preorder now. The trailers for the game are available as well.