The original Super Monkey Ball announcer has been replaced in Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, following accusations of Sega mistreating voice talent and the announcer in question allegedly breaking an NDA.
Brian Matt Uhl was not brought back as the announcer for Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, even though he stated on June 20 that he would be present (thanks, VGC).
Despite this statement, a Sega representative reached out to VGC and stated that “Brian Matt Uhl did not work on Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania and has not been involved with the Super Monkey Ball series for some time”.
In 2020, Matt posted a video titled ‘The dark side of Sega’, where he alleged that Sega has a history of mistreating foreign voice actors by not crediting them or paying royalties. Last week, Matt addressed a fan asking if he would be in the game by stating “legal issues still. Having announcers not credited or paid royalties is still a major issue with SegaSammy. Let’s see what develops”.
There are also concerns that Matt may have breached an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) with Sega by sharing lines from a “paid recording” session with Sega and discussing the existence of SMB games before any official announcement.
In our review of Banana Mania, which releases tomorrow, we called it a “bundle of joy” that includes “all the best levels from the series’ entries, a fleshed-out ranking system for the most ambitious players and a dozen party games to extend its lifespan”.
In other news, Twitch has launched a new set of verification tools that aim to combat hate raids on the platform. Using these tools, streamers will now be able to choose who gets chatting privileges on their stream and can make email or phone verification mandatory to talk.
The post ‘Super Monkey Ball’ announcer dropped after accusing Sega of discrimination appeared first on NME.
