A lot of people have a lot of love for developer Hideo Kojima. Among other things, he enthralled a generation with Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation, and then went on to terrify the masses with his P.T demo.
One man with no time for Kojima however, is original Solid Snake voice actor David Hayter.
Hayter recently spoke to Game Informer, where he revealed why he was’t involved in Metal Gear Solid V – and why he has no intentions of working with Kojima ever again.
As it turns out, Hayter first found out he wasn’t gonna be asked back to voice Snake when he bumped into a producer who told him simply that Konami were going in a different direction.
He then spoke with Metal Gear English casting director Kris Zimmerman, who confirmed that were indeed looking to find a new voice for our stealthy friend.
Apparently Kojima had tried to replace him a few times before – he’d tried to get Kurt Russell to play Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3.
Of course, he was eventually replaced by Kiefer Sutherland (of 24 fame). Naturally, Hayter was pretty upset at being replaced in what is probably his most famous role. He called the experience “horrible and humiliating”.
When asked if he’d played Metal Gear Solid V yet, Hayter responded:
Yeah, that’d be 60 hours of humiliation I can’t wait to get to.
And as one might imagine, that’s put Mr Hayter off working with Konami (and by extension Hideo Kojima) ever again. Hayter was still pretty fair about it, though.
He said:
I think he handled it pretty badly.
I’ve got no particular love for Kojima. I respect him and I think he’s a brilliant game maker.
I don’t know him as a person and as a businessman I was not impressed. So no, I don’t feel any need to go back and work for him again
Hayter concluded that he holds no ill will towards Keifer Sutherland for taking his place (what would be the point?). Still, it’s hard not to feel bad for the guy who clearly had a lot of love for a role he was ultimately ousted from.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.