Former Bayonetta voice actress Hellena Taylor has asked fans upset about her being recast inBayonetta 3to donate the money they would have spent on the game to charity, specifying multiple charities that have an anti-abortion stance.Bayonetta 3has found itself the center of controversy afteroriginal Bayonetta voice actress Hellena Tayloraccused PlatinumGames of offering her only $4,000 to reprise the title role, a claim she has since walked back, and now the controversy continues.
Hellena Taylor called for a boycott ofBayonetta 3in a video on her personal Twitter account, painting the situation as a workers' rights issue. It was later clarified that Taylor was apparently offered $4,000 per session as opposed to a one-time $4,000 payment, which is an important distinction to make.
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Taylor’s latest tweets have stirred up even more controversy. She started a Twitter thread admitting that her posts “hit a nerve with people” and that “low pay resonates not just in the gaming industry, but in the wider world beyond, all over the planet.” Taylor askedBayonetta 3fans who are boycotting the game to donate the money they would have spent to small local charities, specifying food banks, homeless charities, children’s charities, and animal charities. She then highlighted 14 charities that she says she donated “100%” of her video game conference autograph signing fees to, including some religious charities with anti-abortion views, in case anyone looking to donate their money needs “inspiration.”
TheGamer looked into some of the charities that Taylor listed in her tweet, which includes Billboards for Life, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), and Westminster Cathedral, all of which have expressedanti-abortion stances. Billboards for Life’s website says that its “sole mission is to blanket cities and towns with Catholic Pro-Life Billboards raising public awareness of the sanctity of all Human Life.” Its Twitter banner is a billboard of a baby with the text “I could dream before I was born!”
It remains to be seen if Taylor’s attempts to convince fans to boycottBayonetta 3will have any real impact on the game’s sales.Bayonetta 3reviews have been overwhelmingly positiveso far, positioning it firmly as one of the year’s highest-rated new releases. IfBayonetta 3sales suffer, it will likely have more to do with the stiff competition this time of year, as it shares a release date withModern Warfare 2and big games likeGod of War RagnarokandPokemon Scarlet and Violetlaunch in a matter of weeks.
