Current Events > David Hayter has forgiven Kojima for not being cast in MGSV after playing it

(+) Yeah! (+)

David Hayter who for many years gave Snake his signature gruff voice has finally "forgiven" series creator Hideo Kojima for not casting him in 2015's Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain after playing the "amazing" game.

At the time he was jettisoned for Hollywood movie star Kiefer Sutherland, Hayter admitted that playing the game at the time would've felt like "60 hours of humiliation," adding: "I've got no particular love for Kojima. I don't feel any need to go back and work with him again."

Now, with more distance, Hayer told PC Gamer, "Well, there was reluctance. I didn't want to play the game because I figured it would hurt my feelings. Then, you know, 10 years went by and I was like, 'Ah, to hell with my feelings. What do I care?' [...] I'm a screenwriter, so I get fired for a living, like I literally, eventually, get fired from every single gig that I've got, and I'm not a child.

"I was like, 'Stop being a baby and play the game.' So I played it. It's amazing."

Hayter has also "forgiven" Sutherland, too. After bumping into him at a bar in Dallas, Hayer and Sutherland "had a bunch of drinks." "He's a great guy, you know? No, no ill will. All is forgiven," Hayter said.

As for why Hayter rates Phantom Pain as highly as he does?

"The fact that you can go into the same scenario each time, and the [enemy's] gonna be doing the same thing, but you can take on different routes or different strategies of attack, makes it feel like time travel So, yes, that was badass. So far as I'm concerned, all is forgiven."

We thought it was a Masterpiece, too, writing in IGN's 10/10 Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain review: "The Phantom Pain is the kind of game I thought would never exist - one where every minute gameplay detail has true purpose. Its lack of story focus is sure to be divisive for the Metal Gear faithful, but the resulting emphasis on my story, my tales of Espionage Action, easily make it my favorite in the series."

Are Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid games too reliant on cinematics? To find out, we worked out just how much of Hideo Kojima's games are cutscenes. From his time at Konami to Kojima Productions, we try to answer once and for all whether or not there are too many cutscenes in a Kojima game.

https://tinyurl.com/2vyskbps (IGN link)

I always thought it was a decision made by Konami, that the big wigs there wanted a bigger named actor playing Snake than David Hayter? Anyway, that's cool that Hayter came around to playing the game, since he wasn't brought back for the fifth game. I don't think I could do it, if put in a similar situation. Maybe forgive them, but especially not play or watch their new products, after getting the axe.

Honestly felt like both Hayter and Sutherland got kinda shafted in different ways with that game. There's A LOT of good dialogue by Keifer that was just left on the cutting room floor, entire scenarios that never made it.

ShaneMcComez posted...

I always thought it was a decision made by Konami, that the big wigs there wanted a bigger named actor playing Snake than David Hayter?

No, Kojima was trying to replace Hayter for ages, the dude's obsessed with getting big name actors into his games, just look at his weird obsession with Norman Reedus.

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

No, Kojima was trying to replace Hayter for ages, the dude's obsessed with getting big name actors into his games, just look at his weird obsession with Norman Reedus.

Oh okay then. I do know Kojima is a bit of a control freak, so that makes sense. You'd think when your lead voice actor had been working so long, voicing the main character through however many Metal Gear Solid games they made until MGSV. He'd be owed some respect in a game series that's mostly narrative, lots of cutscene watching. Instead of trying to replace him, but I guess that's the reality of voice actors and why they're paid so little, compared to actors in live action roles.

I saw some gameplay from MGS4 the other day

If that's him playing old snake, that shit sounds terrible

Hayter spoke out against the mgs4 ending. After that Kojima replaced him. I have no idea if thats the reason or not but at the time that was the assumption

PowerOats posted...

I saw some gameplay from MGS4 the other day

If that's him playing old snake, that shit sounds terrible

He sounds even worse in Peace Walker. Almost a parody of himself.

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

No, Kojima was trying to replace Hayter for ages, the dude's obsessed with getting big name actors into his games, just look at his weird obsession with Norman Reedus.

Yup. Hayter said that he had to re-audition for Snake every time, until Phantom Pain where he never got the call, called them himself, and was told that he wouldn't be needed this time. You can't blame the guy for being bitter about that, considering that his portrayal of Solid Snake received near universal praise over the course of like 15 years or whatever.

I liked Sutherland as Big Boss, though. I always thought that that character and Snake should have had two distinct voices, despite them having the same voice making sense in the fiction.

Vyrulisse posted...

There's A LOT of good dialogue by Keifer that was just left on the cutting room floor, entire scenarios that never made it.

[grunt]

Hideo Kojima is an egotistical piece of shit narcissist. Type of guy who never thinks his shit stinks

chaos_knight posted...

Hideo Kojima is an egotistical piece of shit narcissist. Type of guy who never thinks his shit stinks

He absolutely is not, but I can understand how someone would feel that way based on the way he's reported on.

Good for both of them. Hayter is right, the game is fucking incredible

Trelve posted...

He sounds even worse in Peace Walker. Almost a parody of himself.

Apparently his voice direction was garbage on that one. They wanted him to sound "old" but still keep the "same voice" from what I remember hearing, and the end result was whatever the fuck we got there.

He has admitted to being bad at the "old" voice previously iirc

I wonder if we will get master collection volume 2 after delta drops at some point.

Error1355 posted...

He absolutely is not, but I can understand how someone would feel that way based on the way he's reported on.

in this instance he absolutely was. I don't think he's as big of a diva as, say, Ken Levine, but he definitely has some tendencies, even if he's not as bad

solosnake posted...

I wonder if we will get master collection volume 2 after delta drops at some point.

even though it's unlikely, if there's a second Master Collection, it would be cool if it included Twin Snakes.

hope they bury the hatch and yeah MGSV is a good game which sadly had a lot of things that would've made an amazing game on the cutting board. the hospital scene at the start is still fantastic when i recently replayed
both MGSV AND splinter cell blacklist are my fav peak stealth game to this day

I feel like it's really hard to like Kojima after hearing about how he disrespected the voice of his biggest character. It's already sucky that Kojima felt the need to replace him because he's a Hollywood exec at heart with the belief that big name actors are superior to us mere peasants, but also that he made the guy re-audition every time.

I have a lot of grievances around how Martinet was replaced in the so-called "retirement" but at least Miyamoto gave Martinet his roses and spoke kindly of his contributions when the announcement came.

It might be unfair to judge a man for one action, but that just feels wrong, and it's a shame when the big souless corp gives more respect for the man than the one who should be.

The way they never even contacted Hayter to give a head's up is just so painfully corporate-japanese

PiOverlord posted...

I feel like it's really hard to like Kojima after hearing about how he disrespected the voice of his biggest character. It's already sucky that Kojima felt the need to replace him because he's a Hollywood exec at heart with the belief that big name actors are superior to us mere peasants, but also that he made the guy re-audition every time.

I have a lot of grievances around how Martinet was replaced in the so-called "retirement" but at least Miyamoto gave Martinet his roses and spoke kindly of his contributions when the announcement came.

It might be unfair to judge a man for one action, but that just feels wrong, and it's a shame when the big souless corp gives more respect for the man than the one who should be.

Yeah, he comes off as an ego maniac in more cases than this. A pity David Hayter didn't even get to audition for the Phantom Pain...although forcing someone to keep auditioning for the same lead role feels spiteful as it is.

I love David Hayter

PiOverlord posted...

I have a lot of grievances around how Martinet was replaced in the so-called "retirement" but at least Miyamoto gave Martinet his roses and spoke kindly of his contributions when the announcement came.

This one boggles my mind because the new Mario voice actor is worse. People figured out something was off with the new voice even before it was officially announced it was a different actor. Maybe the new voice actor is better at voicing side characters but he does not even come close to Martinet's Mario.

Hayter no longer a hater.

NO2_Fiend posted...

Hayter no longer a hater.

So now he's just David

YellowSUV posted...

This one boggles my mind because the new Mario voice actor is worse. People figured out something was off with the new voice even before it was officially announced it was a different actor. Maybe the new voice actor is better at voicing side characters but he does not even come close to Martinet's Mario.

Yeah, I'd take the dorkly Mario over Kevin's at this point, lol.

Brothership is his only Mario so far that sounds good. Others range from okay to bad imo. His Luigi is pretty good and I can probably get used to his take on Wario given time.

Idk if its Nintendo's direction but Kevin's Mario is a flat downgrade unfortunately. I feel like he's not capable of doing all four of the guys either and maybe they should get different vans for them.

I'd forgive Kojima after playing it as well. Phantom Pain sucked, I wouldn't want to be involved with that mess. Yes it had great controls, but the story was awful.

Error1355 posted...

He absolutely is not, but I can understand how someone would feel that way based on the way he's reported on.

He literally made it so that every time you start a mission in MGS5 a credit reel with his name on it would play. Even as a fan of his work, That's pretty narcissistic.

iirc, at the time, Konami was removing Kojima's name from the marketing of MGSV, so Kojima putting his name in the credits was a way for him not to have his influence erased.

Hayter may have forgiven Kojima but I haven't. I'm still mad about it til this day.

boxoto posted...

iirc, at the time, Konami was removing Kojima's name from the marketing of MGSV, so Kojima putting his name in the credits was a way for him not to have his influence erased.

that and he mostly loves movies so it be he wanted the story chapters seem like you just went thru a movie/show and ended an episode
Ivany2008 posted...

I'd forgive Kojima after playing it as well. Phantom Pain sucked, I wouldn't want to be involved with that mess. Yes it had great controls, but the story was awful.

nah it was decent but not as high as 3/2 which i still hold as the peak MGS story tier but suffers a lot due to most of the later chapters being cut cuz of konami pulling the plug on it

Hayter's voice went to to shit and I don't think the series missed him at all.

I think it's super weird they got Keifer and then barely got the guy to talk during the entire game though. They might as well went with a silent protagonist .

gikos posted...

that and he mostly loves movies so it be he wanted the story chapters seem like you just went thru a movie/show and ended an episode

nah it was decent but not as high as 3/2 which i still hold as the peak MGS story tier but suffers a lot due to most of the later chapters being cut cuz of konami pulling the plug on it

Your entitled to that opinion, but I couldn't stand any part of it. I couldn't stand the amount of missions that were repeats of earlier missions, nor could I stand that the entire thing was an acid trip of someone not even related to Big Boss. The repeated boss fights were a slap in the face Yeah, they were good the first time. We didn't need it 3x. If anything, Metal Gear Solid 5 in my mind is replaced with Ground Zeroes, as well as Revengeance, and Revengeance has a much stronger main villain in Senator Armstrong.

Ivany2008 posted...

I couldn't stand the amount of missions that were repeats of earlier missions,

i am with you there that annoyed me but i gave it a pass cuz the game was pulled out of the oven just like i give a pass to star wars knights of the old republic 2
as for your spoiler sure agree to disagree to me i liked that and makes me feel more for MG1 and wished we had gotten the remake it could've gotten with fox engine

gikos posted...

i am with you there that annoyed me but i gave it a pass cuz the game was pulled out of the oven just like i give a pass to star wars knights of the old republic 2
as for your spoiler sure agree to disagree to me i liked that and makes me feel more for MG1 and wished we had gotten the remake it could've gotten with fox engine

I'm of the opinion that I wish Ground Zeroes was made into a full game. But I also feel that way about Dead Rising 2: Case Zero. Both had far more interesting locations than games that followed.

I thought Keifer was much better choice for MGSV. I was kind of getting tired of Hayter's voice

Ivany2008 posted...

He literally made it so that every time you start a mission in MGS5 a credit reel with his name on it would play. Even as a fan of his work, That's pretty narcissistic.

He also showed who wrote and worked on each mission as part of these credits. His name wasn't the only one shown. In fact one could even say that this game shows who worked on it beyond him more than any other of his games too.

B18Champ posted...

I thought Keifer was much better choice for MGSV. I was kind of getting tired of Hayter's voice

same.

I thought that Sutherland did a good job whenever Snake was allowed to speak.

boxoto posted...

same.

I thought that Sutherland did a good job whenever Snake was allowed to speak.

same i liked him as BB

boomgetchopped3 posted...

Hayter spoke out against the mgs4 ending. After that Kojima replaced him. I have no idea if thats the reason or not but at the time that was the assumption

It was not the reason, Kojima had been trying to replace him since MGS3 at least.

I've never actually played either game, but does Sutherland also voice Snake in Ground Zeroes?

yup.

So, does this mean he'll be in Death Stranding 3: Tokyo Drift?

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

I've never actually played either game, but does Sutherland also voice Snake in Ground Zeroes?

Yep.

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

I've never actually played either game, but does Sutherland also voice Snake in Ground Zeroes?

how come? sure they are flawed but in terms of gameplay they are the best of the MGS games so give ground zero a shot since it's a short demo to give you an idea how tight the control is

Error1355 posted...

He also showed who wrote and worked on each mission as part of these credits. His name wasn't the only one shown. In fact one could even say that this game shows who worked on it beyond him more than any other of his games too.

I get that, and I'm very appreciative he did that. It just pops up a lot, that's all. Also to the person who hasn't tried Ground Zeroes, try it. It's fantastic. It's what MGS5 should have looked like in terms of location design.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Yeah, his voice makes sense being what it is in that game.