With the official announcement of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain at the Game Developers Conference and last year’s introduction to Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, Hideo Kojima announced that David Hayter would no longer voice the iconic Snake. This came as shocking news to MGS fanboys/girls, but Mr. Kojima sees these as a new kind of Metal Gear Solid game. More after the jump.
In the video game world, there are many iconic characters that we become attached to. Mario, Link, Lara Croft, and Sonic – just to name a few – have all had a special place in our hearts. But not all of our favorite characters have had the same voice or even had one. David Hayter has been the voice of the long running Metal Gear Solid franchise for 15 years and he has now been replaced.
According to Hideo Kojima from GDC:
“It will be a new person, I can’t say who yet. What we’re trying to accomplish is to recreate the Metal Gear series. It’s a new type of Metal Gear game, and we want to have this reflected in the voice actor Mas well.”
Whether you are a fan of the MGS series or not, you know when someone leaves a franchise you hold dear, it stings. It may take awhile for gamers to get use to the new Snake, but Kojima has his reasons. He is a very calculating developer and he wouldn’t have made this move without thinking it through very carefully.
And what did Mr. Hayter have to say about this unfortunate turn of events? He accepts the news, but sadly he had to learn about his lack of a job through a courtesy lunch with someone on the production team. Over TwitLonger, Hayter explained his situation to his fans – unironically on April Fools’ Day – to express his love for the character and his good wishes for the future of the series:
“If it were my choice, I would do this role forever. To hear anyone else’s voice coming from Snake’s battered throat, makes me a little ill, to be honest. But the truth is — it’s not my choice. Any and all casting decisions are the sole purview of Hideo Kojima, and Konami itself. And that’s fair.”
This will be a sad departure for those who have grown fond of Mr. Hayter’s voice acting talents. He will always be Snake in my mind. Could you imagine the voice of Nathan Drake or Master Chief’s voice being replaced?
Source: GameTrailers and Polygon
Fun fact: David Hayter gave up half his paycheck merely to get the original voice cast for Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes. He was that dedicated to bringing the fans the authentic metal gear experience. He is too nice to ask us, but how could we possibly turn our back on him in his time of need? I will fight for David Hayter any day.
Wow that’s crazy. Good to know.
Oh I see Kojima, lets reinvent the series . . . but instead of reinventing, actually lets just fire one guy. NO HAYTER, NO BUY.
Oh no! What a disaster. Well looks like MGS4 is the last Metal Gear I’ll be buying. No Hayter, No Buy.
It’s unfortunate, but I’ll hold my judgement on the new voice actor until we hear more.