We don’t bring in voice actors until near the end of the game, after we’ve finalized the script. This is primarily because scheduling the recording studio, the actor, and the team members to all meet up at the same place for recording is often difficult. Most SAG-AFTRA union voice actors get paid according to a standardized rate called scale, which is [$956.75 per four-hour day to voice up to 3 characters].
As for the Bayonetta situation, I don’t know too much or have too much of an opinion. For a game the size and style of Bayonetta, I would expect $4,000 to be pretty standard - it’s standardized SAG scale rates and I would not expect it to be more than four days of work (16 hours recording total) since that’s around what the previous games were. However, it’s a third game in a well-known series with some fairly troubled production history (the last game came out in 2014). That should indicate it would have bigger expectations all around, including the voice cast.
The details of the situation are all speculation. Taylor has her version of events and Platinum will almost certainly keep their silence unless Kamiya goes on another twitter rant. I know that Taylor has asked players to boycott the game, but I doubt that will seriously move the needle much. Given the amount of time that passed between games, I’m not surprised that many people I’ve talked to didn’t notice there was a change in Bayonetta’s voice until the news broke.
[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]
Got a burning question you want answered?
- Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter
- Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr
- Frequent Questions: The FAQ