Switch Weekly - Bayonetta's low-ball row

Hello, Chris here with issue #304 of Switch Weekly — your Nintendo update. Hope you've had a great week.

The big story for you today is of course Bayonetta 3 — but for all the wrong reasons. You may remember a few weeks ago I shared news that Jennifer Hale would be taking up the lead role in the upcoming game — and now we know why. In a series of frank and honest Twitter updates, the previous voice talent — Hellena Taylor — shared how she was offered a paltry $4,000 to reprise the role for the third entry, asking fans to boycott the game as a result. What followed was a somewhat tactless and obtuse denial of sorts from PlatinumGames studio founder Hideki Kamiya — someone who has a rather notorious relationship with Twitter. In the days that followed Kamiya's Twitter account was restricted (likely due to him blocking too many users) and then seemingly shuttered all together.

Regardless of what you think of the controversy here, I think it's fair to say that the situation overall should have been handled much better. For a game announced way back in 2017, that's due in only a few short weeks from now, this whole affair has soured things for its launch — instead this clash is happening out in the open, damaging all those involved, when it should have been resolved (by paying Taylor her dues) behind closed doors.

This all comes after plenty of fluster and reservations over Chris Pratt's voice acting efforts in the upcoming Mario movie. For all of the negativity surrounding these stories, it has shone a light on the wild differences and varying experiences folks in the voice acting profession face.

Anyway, on to next week — and it's a busy one as we've got nearly 40 games coming to the Switch, including the new Mario + Rabbids, and Persona 5 Royal. You can find the full list of all upcoming release below.

As ever, thank you for reading, and be sure to hit reply on this if you have any thoughts or comments on anything included.