So this idea that capitalism is some fatalistic force which can't be influenced seems odd. 

If 100 people boycotted the game (a very tiny number), that would cost more to the company than if they just paid her the difference properly to say $6,000, for example.

If the company treats other VA's this way, and they affirm their treatment, that number definitely could rise. 

If capitalist firms respond to anything, it is their sales numbers. 

Now of course, Bayonetta 3 is probably going to outsell Bayonetta 2 and 1 given the Switch effect. And there will be no way for Platinum to know if they lost sales or not in that scenario, but if the pattern persists then it could be a big problem for the company.

That's why Kamiya has responded to her claims with denial rather than saying "yes, we offered her what we thought she was worth." If boycotts didn't work, then general strikes wouldn't be as effective as they are. 

Isn't this kind of a self black mark on her career? What studio is going to want to hire her now if she could try to start a boycott against their game?

Yeah, I'm not gonna boycott Bayonetta 3. I've been looking forward to the game for the past five years. It's a shame that Hellena Taylor is not returning to voice Bayonetta in the game, but it's not a deal breaker for me. Besides, I preordered it when Amazon was still offering the 20% discount for preorders on games.

I'm not sure you're aware of this but having a long hiatus doesn't suddenly mean she can't ever get VA work.  Again, the reason for her believability (as compared to someone like Heard) is the incentives lean towards just being quiet versus speaking out.  Like I and another poster said, her rather quick response to Platinum's supposed "scheduling conflicts" lie also helps to substantiate her claims.

I don't know why you're getting into the weeds about her professionalism or lack thereof.  I'm not worshipping the ground she walks on, nor do I see a moral case to boycott Bayo 3 over this.  I also agree with that impulse to get more info before coming up with a 'final stance' on the matter.  What I was focusing on was the increased & immediate believability of her case versus say... a #metoo allegation of a politician right before an election.  

4k for 16 hours is exactly what I said. Main characters can get more, but how is that a contradiction?

Bold: She clearly made up profit numbers of the franchise. Bayonetta can not have made anywhere close to as much as 450mil dollars. That is nonsense. That means she lied about one thing which puts everything she said in question. You shouldn't just believe things that easily.

250 per hour is right in the middle of what any character is paid. Notice it says "200-300 per hour" referring to any characters. For 16 hours that's $3200 - $4800. 

The source then goes on to say that a main character in a visual novel can expect $500 - $700 per hour, which would be $8000 - $11,200 for 16 hours. 

Assuming that Bayonetta requires more than a regular character, but less than a visual novel main character, you'd expect her voice actor to be paid something like $400 per hour or $6400. 

And those were the rates 4 years ago, before the pandemic and double digit YoY inflation. 

By the way, it is perfectly possible that she was misinformed about the revenue figures and wasn't intentionally lying. Why would she be an authority on Bayonetta's revenue? It doesn't even affect her point. Bayonetta as a franchise definitely has total revenue in the hundreds of millions given that the first game sold more than 2 million, the second almost 1.5 million, and there was the anime. Now compare that to the company explicitly lying and saying she isn't the VA due to "scheduling problems" that they never substantiate, even after being called out on it. 

Bold: Doing the math is very easy. Most of the copies the franchise sold were far below full price. For a revenue of 200mil dollars it would need 3.3mil copies sold all at full price. That didn't happen. Considering the first game got rereleased quite a lot, bundled with Bayonetta 2 on Wii U and Switch and with Vanquish on other platforms it's sales may definitely be over 3mil on it's own, but mostly at like $20. The anime was a flop. The franchise most likely did not make even close to 200mil in revenue. In profit I would be surprised if it's over 50mil dollars considering that the original game was considered a financial flop and money loss snd the second game was mostly sold for 50 bucks or less.

So $450mil is far out of reach.

About the other part, 4k may have been to low, but that still depends on the number of hours she was expected to work. Did I understand that she is also unionized?

Regardless of that even ignoring her attacks at Jennifer Hale, calling to boycott the game for that is ridiculous and pretending like she owns the character is too. There are tons of people who put way more work into this game than she could have ever dreamed of and they should get their work rewarded.

Acting like she did is not justified by that, since nobody reasonable wouly want to hire her now, since she's proven herself as untrustworthy.

Yeah I know, but u would assume VA is not her main job if she hasn't done any major work since the last Bayonetta. Also I'm not sure what ur saying with Heard here, but I just compared it to Heard as in, don't form an opinion before knowing both side's perspective or unless you've seen what happened in person. I'm not talking about the context of Amber Heard. About the "lie" from Platinum, it's not like the "lie" was immoral by any means, it was just an answer to avoid a situation, which ironically caused one lol. That interview was also through texts, how do we know there wasn't any translation error or miscommunication. It just sounds like Hellena is doing this as a revenge bcuz she wasn't worth much to them. That is sad in multiple ways, as in I feel bad for her, I feel sad being reminded about the reality of this world, and I feel sad she took this action, I feel bad for Platinum bcuz they have to deal with this now. It's a perfect balance of those emotions from me.

Since I don't know her really well, I have to assume she is doing actress as a profession according to the internet. If you decided to be a professional of something, you are going in there with full understanding and resolution towards the reality of those jobs. It's not like Platinum didn't pay her, it was an offer that is completely normal in that industry whether we agree with it or not. What Platinum did wasn't some nasty crime. Like she said, it was completely legal, but she thinks she deserved more bcuz she thinks Bayonetta is some huge franchise. That bugs me the wrong way, Bayonetta was never big, always niche probs barely making profits, it had its struggles and she's trying to make it worse. How does that help. Do you think Platinum Games is profiting huge from this like she claims? Or Nintendo? Sega? No, and it's very possible that they're even losing money with this franchise. And that's the reality. I understand if we're talking about like Call of Duty, Pokemon, Genshin Impact, some mobile games with huge profit. We always see the people succeeding, whether it be athletes, content creators, or anything else, but in reality a vast majority are struggling to pay their rent. This is how this world functions, this is the meaning of "survival of the fittest". Soft, very soft and naive mindset. Now, I would say Platinum should've at least gave an option for residues/royalties. If Bayo 3 is that successful entry the series desperately needed, both sides could have ended being happy smh. Waiting for Platinum's response if they even will. 

That is true for the first game but with the second game being published by Nintendo it held its value a lot better over time, like most Nintendo games do. 

Bayonetta 2 (Wii U version) sold about 400,000 copies in its first 10 weeks. At the very least half its copies were at MSRP. The Wii U game didn't drop in price until March 2015 based on price-tracker data. So probably much more than half its copies were sold at MSRP.

The physical version of Bayonetta 2 + Bayonetta 1 is still holding its value very well only going as low as $45 and now up to as high as $60.  

Bayonetta 2 Switch standalone is selling higher than MSRP at Walmart, Amazon, Gamestop, etc. 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bayonetta-2-Nintendo-Switch/845788362

Given how basic the port is, and the fact that the original releases had already long ago broke even, that's almost certainly pure profit at this point after cutting out merchant fees. 

And the digital copy is back up to $50. 

https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/bayonetta-2-switch/

I think it is safe to say the second Bayonetta game has sold at or almost full price for the overwhelming majority of its copies. 

And given its relatively low budget compared to other AAA titles (its popularity is why its considered AAA by many, otherwise it is probably better thought of as an AA title), the profit margins are probably quite high. 

Even if we assume the average copy sold at $45 per copy (which is a lowest its ever been physically on either console) that would be total revenue of 1.93 million copies (1.08m Switch, .85m Wii U) * $45 per copy = $87 million before subtracting out merchant fees. And again, that is using its lowest price. In reality the average selling price was probably about $50 and revenue (before subtracting out merchant fees) somewhere around $97 million. 

$50 million profit sounds about right for Bayonetta 2 alone. 

But yes, $450 million in revenue is a reach. She probably is just saying something she heard. 

Quite honestly I don't care how entitled she may personally feel to the character. The concern I have is about a company underpaying its employees and then lying to the public to cover it up. That is a concern beyond Hellenna Taylor's personal feeling of being slighted. And the two can and should be separated. 

If Platinum Games and Nintendo were employee-owned businesses where all of the other employees directly got dividends or royalties for their work, then maybe my opinion would change, but the actual workers have already been paid. They aren't going to lose out from the game losing sales. They've already gotten their salaries. It's investors who have the most to lose and they practically do nothing other than funnel capital from source to source and partake in arbitrage. 

A few thoughts.

I wonder what all other actors in that game got paid and if they got even less than Taylor. I never imagined that voice actors are paid so little. But then again, I always assumed that they need to be in a studio for several weeks. Guess I was wrong. Of course that always depends on the game. I'd imagine Charles Martinet would be in the studio for half an hour at best and that's all there is needed for the next Mario game. But a big RPG like Xenoblade Chronicles requires a whole lot of work and time to record all the lines.

Please don't downplay voice actors and their relevance. Voice acting is very important for games nowadays and can be a very vital part of the atmosphere. Some games' stories and emotions live by their fantastic voice actors, The Walking Dead being a great example. Also, voice acting is more than just reading. You can't just read the lines and call it a day, some of you guys make it sound much easier than it really is. Often the scenes and situations require real, heavy emotions and impact, otherwise you'd end up with something like this:

We have come very far from there in the meantime, you know. Compare this.

Voice acting is far more than just reading lines. I have high respect for Taylor's work. She did an amazing job in Bayonetta 1 and 2 and her voice is a big part of Bayonettas personality and cheekiness that we know today. I am very curios to experience Jennifer Hales work and I am very sure that she will give it her very best, like she always does. At the same time, I wonder how much they paid Hale instead. I can imagine it is higher, but then why not giving Taylor more in the first place? I don't know, it makes no sense. I think we don't see the whole picture here.

Wasn't there a big shake up in the industry as voice actors demanded more respect (read: salary) for their work? I think it was about ten years ago, it started in the film industry but then voice actors from the gaming industry chimed along. Has that been successful? I can't remember, but think that had been a thing.