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The developer behind Yooka-Laylee, a Kickstarter-funded spiritual successor to the beloved Banjo-Kazooie series plans to remove the Youtuber Jontron (Jon Jafari) from the game's cast of voice actors via a Day 1 update after his recent series controversial tweets regarding ethnic minorities in America. Jontron was always a big, vocal fan of the series and was invited to collaborate on the project back in February 2015. Many might say that he was pivotal in reviving the interest in Banjo-Kazooie through his content, both on Game Grumps and his own Youtube channel. Playtonic explained their position in an interview with Gameindustry.biz:

"We recently became aware of comments made by voice artist JonTron after development on Yooka-Laylee had been completed (...) JonTron is a talented video presenter who we were initially, two years ago, happy to include as a voice contributor in our game. However, in light of his recent personal viewpoints we have made the decision to remove JonTron's inclusion in the game via a forthcoming content update. We would like to make absolutely clear that we do not endorse or support JonTron's personal viewpoints and that, as an external fan contributor, he does not represent Playtonic in any capacity. Playtonic is a studio that celebrates diversity in all forms and strives to make games that everyone can enjoy. As such, we deeply regret any implied association that could make players feel anything but 100% comfortable in our game worlds, or distract from the incredible goodwill and love shown by our fans and Kickstarter backers."

This recent development in the Jontron controversy raises an important question regarding Free Speech. I can fully understand Playtonic's position - they're distancing themselves from Jontron in order to prevent any damage to their brand. On the other hand, one could argue that Jontron is free to voice his views on his own platform and shouldn't be penalised for them elsewhere.

Naturally this is a very controversial issue, so I'm eager to hear your thoughts on the matter. What's your opinion? Tell us in comments below!

Update: Jontron acknowledged the decision via his Twitter and although he finds it unfortunate, he understands it and wishes the developers a successful launch.

"Unfortunate to see Playtonic remove me from Yooka Laylee, but I understand their decision. I wish them the best with their launch!"

~https://www.twitter.com/JonTronShow/status/845038284967493638

Source (Gameindustry.biz)

 

[Foxi4]

Humanity really should start learning how to block out extremist opinions. Metered discussion being the only acknowledged discussion rather than the crazy shitstorm dramafests we see online and now even on news sites, that would be a world I would enjoy living in. This current world, of everyone shouting without listening, is becoming extremely depressing to be a part of.

The earlier quote with Jon's comments indicates that it was a metered discussion, mostly emphasizing the strange hypocrisies, and not advocating any sort of extreme violence, just cautionary awareness of the strange social climate. But when we show balanced opinions, it's met with extremism, and we become drowned out. It's like, people have forgotten that the world isn't black and white, A and Z, etc.

People like putting others into baskets. If you don't agree with me, you're literally Hitler. It has progressed from "I won't listen to you because I don't like what you're saying" to "I don't like what you're saying, so I'll actively attempt to destroy your reputation and diminish your capacity to support yourself", and that's frightening to me. This particular case is relatively tame, but I see more and more cases like this surfacing and I don't like the trend one bit. It appears that unless you conform, people will cheer when you're being silenced, which is odd as it could happen to anyone. Society is really loading a gun that can be aimed at anyone, at any time, for any petty reason.

 

[Whole lotta love]

So they liked his voice acting, but not after it turns out he has some unpleasant opinions. That's like firing your IT guy after you find out he likes Lucky Charms.

No it's like firing your IT guy because he says racist things on the internet that make your company look bad.

 

[Bimmel]

Playtonic is within their rights to withdraw the content made by someone they disagree with. I disagree with them affiliating Yooka Laylee with their political agenda, but I am not saying they can't do it. It is just distasteful for them to do so.

The people who Kickstarted Yooka Laylee weren't crowdfunding the game so the company would use to push political commentary. It's a fucking cartoon video game.

So why remove JonTron from Yooka Laylee? Playtonic is a no-name game developer with no gravity to their ideas. They had to resort to Kickstarter because only common peoples who don't know any better will support them. Their only position of power in the world is Yooka Laylee, this popular game which piggyback-rides on the nostalgia of Banjo Kazooie. They are nothing.

This incident is nothing but a publicity stunt to garner attention for the game.

"Yes, we'll work on you for this game but your personal political stances better be in line ours." So much for being a company who claims to supports diverse ideas. Fuck those hypocrites.

Now you've done it. You will never be voice acting the kickstarted sequel! Would have loved to hear you barking.

Serious again: You are right, they got what the wanted. It's so easy to gain attention this way. Sadly.
Personally I couldn't care less for the You Tuber or the company. The video game does not touch any "important" topics as far as I know, so this does not influence my choice of buying the game 1 bit.

 

[hobbledehoy899]

Playtonic is a studio that celebrates diversity in all forms and strives to make games that everyone can enjoy.

So they're politically correct cuckolds who think that only "good" people can make good art and only "bad" people can make bad art. Fuck 'em.

 

[Foxi4]

In the interest of journalistic integrity I've redacted a section of the original post so as to not sway public opinion - that part was my own take on the issue, so I feel that it belongs in a separate post. Here it is:

On the other hand, as a strong supporter of Freedom of Speech and Expression, I can't exactly stand idly by when someone is being punished for their opinion, no matter how controversial it is. I can't speak for all of us gamers, but to me this basically means that I won't buy the game, and if I do for the sake of my better half, who happens to be a big Banjo fan, it'll be a pre-owned copy, so that the developers don't get a single penny from my purchase. I can't support this kind of conduct, even though I fully undestand the company's motivation. Playtonic is free to remove content from their own product, and I'm free to vote with my wallet and remove said product from my basket.

So they're politically correct cuckolds who think that only "good" people can make good art and only "bad" people can make bad art. Fuck 'em.

People have a massive problem with separating the artist from their art. Roman Polansky comes to mind. He's an excellent director who also happens to be a paedophile. That doesn't make his movies bad, though - the art and the artist are separate entities.

 

[Pluupy]

woah now, JonTron controversy?


What did he do?

Here you go, friend.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLo..._is_rjontron_freaking_out_about_a_debate_all/

 

[Ridge]

HAHAHAH good. stay out.

 

[Hells Malice]

A company looking out for its best interests?
Shocking.

Pretty much any company would have done this, and it's kind of hilarious to attribute him to reviving the interest of Banjo Kazooie. He sure didn't, pretty much every fan of the series has longed for a proper sequel for years. Yooka Laylee coming onto the scene revived the interest in Banjo Kazooie. Even if JonTron and Game Grumps are popular, they still aren't very far reaching and i'm sure a majority of fans interested in Yooka Laylee were without their help.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

What a stupid fucking reason to remove a voice actor.

Oh well.

 

[Pluupy]

A company looking out for its best interests?
Shocking.

Pretty much any company would have done this, and it's kind of hilarious to attribute him to reviving the interest of Banjo Kazooie. He sure didn't, pretty much every fan of the series has longed for a proper sequel for years. Yooka Laylee coming onto the scene revived the interest in Banjo Kazooie. Even if JonTron and Game Grumps are popular, they still aren't very far reaching and i'm sure a majority of fans interested in Yooka Laylee were without their help.

How is this looking out for their best interest? By doing this, they've essentially involved themselves via the Streisand effect.

Playtonic has given it's player base a reason to not buy their product by denying Jontron of his freedom of speech in his personal life. There was no real reason to pull him out. He fulfilled his contractual agreement. No reason why Jontron has to enternally live up to Playtonic's standards for the rest of his life.

How many people even knew Jontron was in Yooka Laylee before this shitstorm, anyway?

If this was never brought up, people would still play the game as normal and not even realize it was Jon voicing a character until the credits.

 

[the_randomizer]

What a stupid fucking reason to remove a voice actor.

Oh well.

Yup, SJW white knights are gonna SJW/PC their way out of controversy all day long it seems =/

Political correctness can burn in hell. Fucking pantywaist reaction IMHO.

 

[Foxi4]

A company looking out for its best interests?
Shocking.

Pretty much any company would have done this, and it's kind of hilarious to attribute him to reviving the interest of Banjo Kazooie. He sure didn't, pretty much every fan of the series has longed for a proper sequel for years. Yooka Laylee coming onto the scene revived the interest in Banjo Kazooie. Even if JonTron and Game Grumps are popular, they still aren't very far reaching and i'm sure a majority of fans interested in Yooka Laylee were without their help.

Both The Jontron Show and Game Grumps channels have over 3 million subscribers and they're actively introducing the next generation of gamers to retro games, I don't think it's an understatement to credit Jontron with partially reviving the interest in the series.

As for Jontron, he remains positive and expressed as much on his Twitter:

"Unfortunate to see Playtonic remove me from Yooka Laylee, but I understand their decision. I wish them the best with their launch!"

~https://mobile.twitter.com/JonTronShow/status/845038284967493638

 

[F4LK]

It sure is a stupid reason but people seriously need to chill. Not even Jon's salty about this. Refunding and/or telling them to cancel the game because of a few grunts is just stupid.
Just mod his ech sounds into the final game on PC and call it the Jontron Fix/Patch, done.

 

[Hells Malice]

How is this looking out for their best interest? By doing this, they've essentially involved themselves via the Streisand effect. How many people knew Jontron was in Yooka Laylee before this shit, seriously?

If this was never brought up, people would still play the game as normal and not even realize it was Jon voicing a character until the credits.

They're distancing themselves from a large icon of controversy.

Now they're dealing with a small amount of JonTron fans and indifferent people over the course of a few days before everyone forgets.
As opposed to potentially being targetted by fake news sites "Playtonic promotes hate, best friends with JonTron!"

Again, any big corporation would and has done moves like this. It's a very simple PR move they likely didn't even want to do, but were forced to by JonTrons new infamy.

Both The Jontron Show and Game Grumps channels have over 3 million subscribers and they're actively introducing the next generation of gamers to retro games, I don't think it's an understatement to credit Jontron with partially reviving the interest in the series.

As for Jontron, he remains positive and expressed as much on his Twitter:

Might wanna look at some statistics there m8.
3 million is tiny. I don't watch any of their videos but i'm assuming they hit 1 million views on a good day.
How many people in the world are there again?...

No, they introduce a relatively small sect of gamers to retro games, primarily their subscriber base. Sure he had a small part in garnering some interest, but the wave of support and love for Yooka Laylee would've happened regardless.

I realize you're probably a fan, but you're giving him far too much credit.

 

[the_randomizer]

They're distancing themselves from a large icon of controversy.

Now they're dealing with a small amount of JonTron fans and indifferent people over the course of a few days before everyone forgets.
As opposed to potentially being targetted by fake news sites "Playtonic promotes hate, best friends with JonTron!"

Again, any big corporation would and has done moves like this. It's a very simple PR move they likely didn't even want to do, but were forced to by JonTrons new infamy.

Well at the end of the day, people are gonna mod his voice clips in the game out of spite the controversy.

 

[Hells Malice]

Well at the end of the day, people are gonna mod his voice clips in the game out of spite the controversy.

To be honest most people will probably have already forgotten about this before the game releases.
It's pretty minor news.

 

[Pluupy]

They're distancing themselves from a large icon of controversy.

Now they're dealing with a small amount of JonTron fans and indifferent people over the course of a few days before everyone forgets.
As opposed to potentially being targetted by fake news sites "Playtonic promotes hate, best friends with JonTron!"

Again, any big corporation would and has done moves like this. It's a very simple PR move they likely didn't even want to do, but were forced to by JonTrons new infamy.

DISTANCING? Google Playtonic right now. All you will ever find is news articles about how they threw Jon out.

This has publicity stunt written all over it. Infamy my ass. They used "the popular youtuber" Jontron to get notoriety for their game in the first place and now they're double-stepping on him to get MORE attention. They are fucking scum.

And you know what? I fucking love Jim Carrey movies. Bruce Almighty. Truman Show. Good shit. But you know what? I'm not gonna bash him because his ex convinced him to be anti-vax for a while. That has nothing to do with the movies. I am going to continue watching his movies because they good.

Likewise, I won't stop playing Story of Seasons because the CG artist also makes hentai.

You feel me?

 

[Whole lotta love]

They're distancing themselves from a large icon of controversy.

Now they're dealing with a small amount of JonTron fans and indifferent people over the course of a few days before everyone forgets.
As opposed to potentially being targetted by fake news sites "Playtonic promotes hate, best friends with JonTron!"

Again, any big corporation would and has done moves like this. It's a very simple PR move they likely didn't even want to do, but were forced to by JonTrons new infamy.

I would do this with my company too.

It's not good to have people representing your company who speaks publicly about maintaining the racial purity of the country unless your target demographic is white supremacists (which the game clearly is not).

They'll lose a small amount of orders from the really ardent people, but if the game is good and people want it, it will have virtually no effect on their sales.

 

[Hells Malice]

DISTANCING? Google Playtonic right now. All you will ever find is news articles about how they threw Jon out.

This has publicity stunt written all over it. Infamy my ass. They used "the popular youtuber" Jontron to get notoriety for their game in the first place and now they're double-stepping on him to get MORE attention. They are fucking scum.

And you know what? I fucking love Jim Carrey movies. Bruce Almighty. Truman Show. Good shit. But you know what? I'm not gonna bash him because his ex convinced him to be anti-vax for a while. That has nothing to do with the movies. I am going to continue watching his movies because they good.

Likewise, I won't stop playing Story of Seasons because the CG artist also makes hentai.

You feel me?

We can go on and on in circles forever m8 but at the end of the day, they've done exactly what i've said for exactly why i've said it.

 

[Foxi4]

Might wanna look at some statistics there m8. 3 million is tiny. I don't watch any of their videos but i'm assuming they hit 1 million views on a good day. How many people in the world are there again?... No, they introduce a relatively small sect of gamers to retro games, primarily their subscriber base. Sure he had a small part in garnering some interest, but the wave of support and love for Yooka Laylee would've happened regardless. I realize you're probably a fan, but you're giving him far too much credit.

I'll meet you half-way by saying that he actively promoted a dead IP among a very captive YouTube audience and leave it at that. There's a reason why companies are switching their marketing profile from hammering people with ads to engaging popular YouTubers. Subscribers are an engaged and active audience, people scrolling past an ad are not. The term "influencers" is often times used in this scenario - influencers are YouTubers who reached a high level of notoriety which enables them to actually influence public opinion - just their participation in the project carries certain weight. Those YouTubers are pulling ahead of average game review sites and are seen as more genuine, hence their inclusion is a highly effective marketing strategy.