Yeah it seems to be a case of “welcome back to VA after 8 years Hellena, this sucks but it’s normal”
I really hope we get more information, because right now we only got one side of the story and everyone just ran with it. It's one thing to try to exploit a worker, but that doesn't seem to be the case here as:
- The numbers seem to comply with the union regulations and with what other VAs consider normal.
- A higher profile (and possibly more expensive?) VA was finally hired for the job.
There is one very important piece of information missing and it's if Helena was offered to voice all Bayos or it was just a small cameo.
4K on its own says nothing if we don't have a number of hours to frame it on. The information we have seems to say that it's the standard rate.
Apart of that,
replacing her for a different VA is something Platinum is completely on their right to do and it's something they probably did thinking about having the best outcome possible for the product. Helena says she passed the casting with "flying colors", but that's just her impression. Maybe the guys conducting the casting were being polite. Maybe after 8 years without playing the character she was rusty, or maybe they just though Hale did better. Maybe they were looking for a younger voice for the new main Bayo, or Hale demonstrated she could play different alternate Bayos better. Or maybe it was more convenient to have Hale in the US with the rest of the voice actors as that would simplify things, reduce costs, or improve the result by having all VAs be on location at the same time when recording scenes with all of them. The point is there are a lot of reasons on why Helena could've been replaced and they're all valid. It sucks for her, but this is not a valid reason to call for a boycott of the game IMHO. Platinum has to think of the players at every step of the way and make the right decisions in order to achieve the best possible product in the end.
Right now, with the information we have, it looks to me like Helena thought that Bayonetta 3 was a much bigger deal than it really is. She seems to be in a tight financial spot and maybe was expecting for this to be a big push, but was very disappointed with losing the main role and by how little she was offered. The games are the definition of niche and the series wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for Nintendo needing something in a desperate situation for the WiiU.
So with all this info, it doesn't sit right with me to call for a boycott. The third video didn't show Helena in the right light: Throwing shade at a colleague is not acceptable:
Hale has done nothing wrong. Also,
Helena doesn't have the right to say who can present themselves as the voice of Bayonetta and who can't. After 3, Hale will have as much right as Helena. And finally:
This is not CoD or Pokémon; A bad financial result for Bayo3 will surely mean the death of the IP. I'm sure the boycott is not going to have any real effect on sales, but if it did it would mean no more Bayonetta for anyone. At this point Helena's stance seems to be that if she can't have it, no one else should either. The third video really makes her look as someone who's ego has been harmed and just wants revenge: The way she delivers the line to also boycott the Jeanne spinoff is full of spite.
To me it looks like she thinks Bayonetta is a much bigger deal than it really is and that it could survive having Bayo3 sell poorly.