Sounds like she got a bad deal. However, if this is enough for a boycott then I feel like you've drawn the line where finding video games that meet your standards will be difficult, at least games made from any decent-sized developer. Again, it sounds like she got a bad offer (I don't actually know if this is true because I don't know what voice actors are expected to get paid) but if people find it worthy of a boycott then I'd also expect those people to have similar issues with developers and publishers where staff has suffered from harrassment, bullying or long crunching periods.

They aren't even part of that agreement... they publish the game they didn't make the deals. Platinum is all to blame here not Nintendo. 

Someone took their own life due to what transpired at Activision Blizzard. And yet, people didn't bat an eye and bought up Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, etc.

My main point in my response (please read and comprehend the entire post) is that there are industries that have it way worse concerning labor solidarity but nobody boycotts those products. So I just found it really strange that for some products we can excuse how they're made. Who they hurt. But for others we can't. 

My main issue is with hypocrisy. I'm not going to boycott a work made by other talented people who need money, just because one person didn't get what they wanted. That's life. Unfortunately it's a feature of capitalism. You are replaceable. Should it change? Yes. Will it change? Probably not, because even if VAs unionize they are still replaceable or they'll just keep the Japanese VAs and sub it. 

It's a shame that the offer she received was low. I acknowledged that people should earn a living wage. Especially experienced talent. But the virtue signaling I'm talking about is coming from those who selectively virtue signal. If you're going to boycott this, then we all would probably be living in grass huts and sending messenger pigeons to communicate. Most of our working class is criminally underpaid. We chose capitalism and by extension, greed, as our way of life and that's how things will stay until this Earth burns.

I see. I thought you were talking about Microsoft purchasing them, as there were plenty of people outraged who boycotted Activision-Blizzard since last year when the labor-disputes first became well covered by the media. 

How do you know the same people who refused to boycott Activision Blizzard are the same ones proposing to boycott Bayonetta? 

In my personal situation for example, the last Activision-Blizzard game I've played was WoW Classic in 2019. If I were playing or purchasing Activision-Blizzard games when the labor disputes became well-known last year, I certainly would've been part of the boycott. 

Personally for me, I take the old position of the IWW, "An injury to one is an injury to all." If companies could get away with it here they'd also exploit and underpay "other talented people who need money." You stop it by making it unacceptable to do to anyone long before it gets to the point that it affects most people. Especially when dealing with a for-profit company that is paying out dividends to investors who are doing nothing. 

"If you're going to boycott this, then we all would probably be living in grass huts and sending messenger pigeons to communicate. Most of our working class is criminally underpaid. We chose capitalism and by extension, greed, as our way of life and that's how things will stay until this Earth burns."

I think it is possible to selectively boycott without drastically decreasing one's own living standards. For example, I've boycotted Amazon since 2020 when they created a mini-epidemic in my hometown due to a high share of the town's workers being warehouse workers and Amazon's poor covid policies. I have barely even missed purchasing from Amazon. Likewise with games. I probably still will buy and play Bayonetta, but now I am going to buy it used rather than new. The company still doesn't get my money directly and I still get to enjoy the game they made. 

And this all comes with no judgement towards others who choose not to boycott Amazon or Bayonetta. It is my personal decision. 

Yeah, agreed. Even as someone from a third world country, $4000 looks like a lot of money but like, not really. Lots of people get paid that for 2 months of work, and she wouldn't work less than that.

Also agreed. What'd she expect, that everyone would've turned down the role until they decided to pay her enough? Especially considering she only chose to say this now, no one even knew the situation.

...Yeah. She starts it off well, explaining the situation, even describing the whole thing about the letter to Kamiya, we all can sympathise with that. But by the end of the video she just seems spiteful. Which to be fair I'd also be, in her situation, but it's not a good look anyway.

The thing that confuses me about this is that they hired Hale afterwards. She presumably is charging a much higher rate, so it doesn't seem like they were just trying to skimp or cheat the voice actors. Wonder what their side of the story is, cause this doesn't really add up for me.

damn i should go in voice acting if 4k for a days work is considered not enough

My guess is that voice actors have very little consistent work. It seems to me as if even the most prolific voice actors get like 5-6 jobs a year. That is about $20,000 - $24,000 a year at $4,000 per job (it seems more like a few days to few weeks depending on the title, not a day.)

And yes they can probably supplement that with non-VA work, but that would have to be the sort of job that let's you take a few weeks off every few months to do your VA work. In Britain or the E.U one could probably use some of their 4-5 weeks vacation, but here in the U.S we typically can't do that. 

The voice actor probably also has some prep-work they do outside the studio, like reading the script and understanding what sort of emotions they need for different lines. 

And of course VA's seem to suffer cumulative injuries to their vocal chords, and their voices change over-time, potentially putting a time-limit on their career.

Asking people to boycott the game is asking for all VA's to get a better treatment. $4000 as a "final offer" written by Kamiya personally is downright insulting (if true). Crazy that some are defending or downplaying this insult. My mother, borther, and sister are professional interpreters who get paid up to 6000 AUD monthly (after tax) at the comfort of their homes and the hours of their choosing.

BUT... she kinda lost me when she said the new VA "has no right" to voice her character.