Voice actor Chris Niosi's dialogue will be removed from Fire Emblem: Three Houses after admitting guilt in allegations of abuse. Fire Emblem: Three Houses was released on July 26th and opened to great reviews. It was developed by Koei Tecmo Games and Intelligent Systems. It is the 16th game in the franchise and the first main Fire Emblem game to be released on the Nintendo Switch. The spin-off Fire Emblem Warriors can also be played on the Switch.
Chris Niosi has been a voice actor since he was child, first appearing in Sailor Moon in 1995. He has gone on to provide the dialogue for characters in many different video games and television shows, including Pokemon, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, Friday the 13th: The Game, and Octopath Traveler. He is also well-known for creating and voicing several characters in the popular web series, TOME: Terrain of Magical Expertise.
As reported by Nintendo Life, an upcoming patch will remove and replace all of Niosi's dialogue in Fire Emblem: Three Houses with that of actor, Zach Aguilar. Niosi voices Byleth in both this game and Fire Emblem Warriors, and his name has been removed from the credits of the latter. Nintendo has also released a statement that reads, "After assessing the situation, we decided to re-record the character's voiceovers in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Heroes with another actor. The new voiceovers will be included in a future patch."
Nintendo made this decision after Niosi admitted that he had "horribly mistreated and abused friends, colleagues and even my significant others." The confession was prompted by one of Niosi's ex-girlfriends reaching out to others, sharing that Niosi abused her in the past. It is unknown if Nintendo was aware of any issues prior to this confession, though Niosi does admit to being abusive to some of the people that he's worked with in the past.
The video game industry, like many others, seems to be rife with abuse and allegations of abuse. Earlier this year, Blizzard employees were accused of racial abuse in the workplace. The internet provides a place for victims to gather, with or without anonymity, and speak out against these kinds of behavior. Niosi decided to come clean, but there are many others who won't out of fear for their reputations or retroactive punishments like having their name removed for their work. Calls for industry reform will only get louder, though, as more of these stories come to light.
Source: Nintendo Life