Another day and unfortunately another sour chapter in the game industry as today Nintendo confirmed it would be replacing the voice of actor Chris Niosi in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Heroes. He played the character Byleth. This news comes as a number of assault and sexual assault claims have been made against the actor, with a lot of them dating back years. The voices will be changed in a future patch though it is unclear how quickly it will roll out for Three Houses.
Chris Niosi took to Tumblr to verify the claims made against him and issued a number of personal apologies to the people he has victimised across the years including ex-partners, friends, and work colleagues. Snippets of what he wrote on Tumblr can be seen below as the post he has made is incredibly long.
My name is Christopher Niosi; also known as Kirbopher. I am 30 years old and for about half of my lifetime, I have horribly mistreated and abused friends, colleagues and even my significant others. It is time that I addressed each and every one of those people and responded to their feelings with individual apologies for what I’ve done to hurt them.
This is about finally, for possibly the first time in my life, doing the right thing. It may also, for the first time in my life, be the first real step I’m taking to change; to become a better person. Most of the people I have written these apologies to have had callout posts regarding their personal negative experiences with me for the last several years and they have gone publicly unaddressed by me. I also state multiple times in these apologies that I understand full well, my choosing to respond to them now, as opposed to when they were first posted, is far too late and long overdue. There is no denying or excusing that fact. But here, now, I genuinely want to make amends for all of the horrible things I have done.
To my friends, my family, my fans and anyone else who I have disappointed and let down by learning these things about me, I’m sorry. I will not ask for any support; I need to handle this on my own and deal with the consequences. I will not bear any ill will towards anyone who wishes to sever ties with me. To anyone who wishes to give me this chance to finally start a real change in myself, I appreciate it.
I’ve said this before and will say it again. I don’t need to be wished luck. I’m not looking for forgiveness. I only hope I am finally taking the first true step to being a better person and I will do my best to never let anyone else down, or hurt anyone else I care about ever again.
As mentioned the full post goes into a lot of details about the issues surrounding Chris and those he acted against. This news follows similar findings of abuse at Yogscast where Matthew Meredith was dropped and CEO Mark Turpin stepped down due to inappropriate conduct too. While the abuse is disheartening to hear about it hopefully allows more victims to come forward and share their own experiences and hold people to account regardless of any industry they work in.
Source: GameInformer
