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[Squire]

Sad that voice actors still get treated like this sometimes.

Eh. Konami should've handled it better, but he's being overdramatic and he's been coming off as incredibly needy/desperate on Twitter for months now, too.

The thing is, they didn't really "treat" him like anything. They didn't recast him, but at no point did they make it seem like Sutherland was some sort of apology for Hayter or a solution to him. Which, honestly? He's lucky. I thought he'd been pretty garbo in the role for a few years.

I get it though. It was the one role that the dude had that could withstand time and did command some level of respect.

 

[dark10x]

I bet Hayter would feel better if he played MGSV when he realizes that you play as a mute (plus the spoiler stuff).

 

[Ishida]

My bad.

Do you often send greeting cards to people you openly dislike mocking their misfortunes because of your good intentions and sense of fun?

I don't send greeting cards. Not even to my mom.

 

[KOMANI]

Konami ASKED Hayter to sound like he does for PW and MGS4.

If people think he sounds ridiculous in PW... At one point, he has a conversation with a talking cat, and tells Huey that Santa is real. This is the same game that he reveals that he'd like to be called Big Boss.

David's acting in 4 and PW is really good. If you got past the voice, you'd notice that.

Kojima doesn't care about English Voice Acting. If he had, the locLizations wouldn't be 1:1, and be as jarring as it is.

Nothing wrong with Kiefer's performance in TPP (GZ is a different story).

 

[Rymuth]

David Hayter has played every game he starred in.

He took a cut in his paycheck to allow the original MGS cast to return for Twin Snakes.

He's always promoting the games up to the release dates and even well beyond that. Interacting with fans and doing interviews.


Kiefer has done none of that and will probably give you a quizzical look if you ask him about 'that MGS game you voice acted in' in a couple of years.

But Hey! At least Kojima went ahead inspite of Kris Zimmerman's concerns and got to brush with the stars!

 

[Gnome Scat]

Can't blame him for it. It's hard not to feel betrayed in a situation like his.

 

[POWERSPHERE]

Some people lose their job.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

DAYUM!

Someone is mad, and it ain't Hayter.

He really needs to move on. I don't follow his work, but does he get a lot of gigs? He doesn't seem to be on Troy Baker or Nolan North's level for sure. Maybe that is why he is so upset.

 

[plasmawave]

David Hayter has played every game he starred in.

He took a cut in his paycheck to allow the original MGS cast to return for Twin Snakes.

He's always promoting the games up to the release dates and even well beyond that. Interacting with fans and doing interviews.


Kiefer has done none of that and will probably give you a quizzical look if you ask him about 'that MGS game you voice acted in' in a couple of years.

But Hey! At least Kojima went ahead inspite of Kris Zimmerman's concerns and got to brush with the stars!

Sure, it's not like he represented Kojima and his studio and received an award on their behalf or anything.

 

[AwShucks]

Well I'm glad MGS5 is the worst Metal Gear story wise because I don't want to have to experience a non Hayter voiced Snake again (when he is voiced of course). And I'll probably never replay it.

Also, I love Kojima but fuck him for this. It's like he had a fascination with working with somebody and didn't care that Hayter was the English voice of Snake for so long. I mean more power to him for getting what he wants, but to throw away part of the game like that and have no regard for it is a shit move.

 

[Dremark]

Sure, it's not like he represented Kojima and his studio and received an award on their behalf or anything.

Is there anyone else with any association to the game who could have accepted it and been recognized by anyone?

 

[plasmawave]

Is there anyone else with any association to the game who could have accepted it and been recognized by anyone?

Stefanie was there that night.

 

[GillianSeed79]

The story behind where they recorded the first Metal Gear Solid is fucking hilarious. It sounded like freaking amateur hour on behalf of the producers. It's a miracle the end product ended up as awesome as it did. Sucks Hayter wasn't in MGSV but I mean ***huge ass MGSV TPP SPOILERS***

Spoiler

Venom/Punished Snake isn't even Big Boss. He's just some stooge that gets brainwashed into thinking he is and is a decoy for the real Big Boss so he can set shit up in Zanzibar.

That being said, it sucks to be fired from a job you've done for years. I can attest to that, as I guess both Hayter and Kojima can too lol.

 

[AwShucks]

You know, if they actually make another Metal Gear and brought back Hayter, that might actually sell me on it.

 

[paragonpro]

David hayter is snake to me, quality be damned. i thought kiefer was okay, but a huge part of me wanted hayter to show up as

Spoiler

real big boss

. The dude got shafted plane and simple.

 

[Dremark]

Stefanie was there that night.

True. She's not going to have the same level of recognition that Sutherland did but she would have been workable.

Honestly it's kind of a moot point anyway. Hayter has supported the series a lot but he's also been involved with the series through 7 games and a bunch of side stuff

Sutherland is basically done after one game. I can't imagine that Konami would use him again with Kojima forcing thier hand and I can't imagine Kojima returning even as outsourced development.

If he had been with the series a while it would be more of a debate point.

 

[Alandrus Sun]

It's not his character. He needs to get over it, move on and stop talking about it.

I kinda have to agree. Yes, from what we can all tell Kojima treated him like shit especially with regards to MGSV. But, Kojima doesn't owe him anything and Hayter doesn't own the character. It's time to move on breh.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

MGS3 would've been the right time to use someone else for "Snake," given it was Big Boss. We're all used to it now with all the Big Boss = Hayter games, but I found it really strange that he had the exact same voice, even though he was a clone.

Doing it with MGSV was in bad taste. Sutherland put in a good performance but it is one of those things that MGS fans will always feel weird about.

Yeah, pretty much.

It's not a reflection of Sutherland's performance. It's just a matter fans spending years with Hayter's voice = snake. Anyone else is an immersion-breaking change that feels forced and like an imitation. There are certain things you just don't shake up, and I say this as someone who loved the MGS2 Raiden betrayalton from the get go.

I suppose you can justify the different VA with some plotpoints but it doesn't even feel worth it.

 

[Fardeen]

i have no respect for kojima anymore ever since he replaced him

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

Everything besides gameplay in MGSV is absolute garbage.
Including the VA change.

Im actually on Konami's side as far as Metal Gear goes, they had to force it out because it looks like even Kojima didn't know where he was going with that pile of shit.

 

[CosmicGroinPull]

Any minute now, Kojima and Hayter are going to show up in a video and tell us we're punked.


Any minute now.

 

[Rogue Agent]

Even that last tweet with him calling it karma that Kojima got fired?

That last tweet is fake, Hayter isn't that tactless. Plus Kojima wasn't fired in 2013. Ugh.

 

[Zalman]

At least he can be happy about the fact that the only game he didn't voice Snake in was also the worst.

 

[Dremark]

That last tweet is fake, Hayter isn't that tactless. Plus Kojima wasn't fired in 2013. Ugh.

I am pretty sure that this is the only tweet he made on the subject.

 

[Memorabilia]

I know where he's coming from. Playing MGS:V is like one 60 hour long douche chill.

LMAO I'm as big a fan as the next guy of sexy women dressed/staged appropriately within proper context. But... This... Is this actually a real character scene in the game? It looks like a mocked up pic from some super fan's sad digital girlfriend spank bank....

 

[Fbh]

Meh. He got recast... get over it.

Hayter was fine during the Ps1 era when voice acting in games was still new and that allowed him to become a sort of iconic voice in gaming.
But today when standards have become way better he's just not very good. The same goes for most of the original voice cast (Otakon has allways been on different tier of bad).

At least he can be happy about the fact that the only game he didn't voice Snake in was also the worst.

I have my fair share of issues with MGS:V.
But it's still a masterpiece compared to Peace Walker.
Story sucks in both, but MGS:V destroys Peace walker in gameplay and level design

 

[LiquidSolid]

It is by no means little.

Uh, compared to full time voice actors that's nothing.

No, he didn't.

Yes, he did.

At least he can be happy about the fact that the only game he didn't voice Snake in was also the worst.

Hayter voiced Snake in Portable Ops, so nope.

 

[Pinko Marx]

Hayter may be the voice behind the character, but Kojima created him. There's no betrayal to be had here, just creative differences. It would be like if Marvel decided to cast a different Cap in the next movie (let's ignore contracts for the sake of this). Sure, it would cause fan outrage, but Marvel has every right to do with their characters as they feel. Hayter isn't owed the voice of Snake.

Spoiler

besides, he's been shit since PW and MGS4.

 

[213372bu]

The comment sounds less asshole-ish in the interview on the OP.

He says he wouldn't want to sit through an MGS feeling bad that he didn't get role, and he says he never got to knew Kojima as a person/business person so he can't say he knows him in particular.

Him burning his bridges aside, he doesn't sound as offensive as most people seem to drag it out to be.

MGS3 would've been the right time to use someone else for "Snake," given it was Big Boss.

I would agree but that was his peak imo.

Also even though he was playing Big Boss, he was "Snake" at the time.

Didn't really seem off, especially since Japan had the same thing going.

 

[Jonm1010]

TBH. Kojima has made two competant stories that were still in need of an editor and 3 stories that were straight up fucking awful in the MGS universe.

Hayter has been the best Solid Snake the series has produced. Sutherlands phoned in performance was a huge let down given the hype and controversy.

And I like Kojima and in a dream scenario him and Del Torro will reunite and finally bring us a horror game for the modern era but chasing Hollywood idols who were chasing a paycheck was a mistake on his part.

 

[MetatronM]

LMAO I'm as big a fan as the next guy of sexy women dressed/staged appropriately within proper context. But... This... Is this actually a real character scene in the game? It looks like a mocked up pic from some super fan's sad digital girlfriend spank bank....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA28-cm9DeA

 

[SporeCrawler]

I think not having him in gz and pp was a grave mistake everytime snake says something it feels so wrong. I went back to peacewalker and mgs vi to wash out that keifer voice out of my brain because damn that was horrible

 

[Dice]

But

Spoiler

it's a totally different person. Fake Snake. Fraud Snake. Not-a-Snake Snake.

 

[Upinsmoke]

He is bitter but I never understood the need to replace him with Sutherland. Snake didn't actually talk very much in the last Metal Gear Solid.

When I think of Snake I only think of one voice and it isn't and never will be Kiefer Sutherland. Hayter is Synonymous with Snake. However saying that it's kind of a good thing Hayter was never involved with a game that had such a boring character in snake and equally boring cast with people like Ocelot, and cringeworthy characters like Quiet.

Thanks to Hayter not being the voice of Snake I've almost managed to erase MGS5 from my mind, at least in the sense that I don't class it as a metal gear game.

 

[Goron2000]

People saying he should "get over it" are acting like he put out a ranting press release out of nowhere. He was asked in a candid interview about his work on Metal Gear Solid "Would you work with Kojima again?" and he answered it.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA28-cm9DeA

Holy shit. This is even worse than I remember. It honestly might be thee worst scene in a video game ever. Nay---all of media.

 

[Rogue Agent]

TBH. Kojima has made two competant stories that were still in need of an editor and 3 stories that were straight up fucking awful.

This is the thing. There's a lot of stuff in Metal Gear Solid that, if you scrutinized it from an "outside perspective" rather than as a fan of the games, you wouldn't be wrong in judging it as completely poor or embarassing and it's hard to argue otherwise but if you're acclimated to the franchise it's suddenly not a weakness and just part of the game's "charm". There's silly stuff that as a player of the games just grows on you and is iconic to the series, that if you dared to criticize most fans would pretty much accuse you of saying "no fun allowed" until Kojima deems it not necessary anymore.

That's what I find so unfair about the criticism Hayter gets, because it's the same deal... Hayter may have been a dub but he grew on people and was iconic to the character in the western release (which is pretty important seeing as that's the version most are exposed to), it's only now since Kojima discarded the man that you hear so many people suddenly being harsh on his performance for being cartoony in a series that is inherently cartoony, but you could just as easily scrutinize so many other silly elements that Kojima retained even in MGSV that was supposed to be more serious because he lacked any discipline.

If Kojima suddenly had an eye for quality and that was really the issue, there's so much that needed fixing and shouldn't have gotten a pass before the removal of Hayter that wasn't addressed even in MGSV. Problems on Kojima's end. But like what has been mentioned earlier in the thread, I don't think Kojima truly was able to judge the performance anymore than I'm able to judge the performances of a subbed anime, he just wanted a Hollywood star and was dismissive of Hayter. I don't believe judging by everything else he retains that his standards are as high as people in this thread suggest, I think that's just a way of justifying the decision.

I do think it's interesting in light of the fact that when you really think about it, Hayter and Kojima are people with common interests. Kojima loves Hollywood and Hayter works as a Hollywood screenwriter. Hayter spent time living in Japan and is fluent in japanese. He's really passionate about the series and constantly interacts with us fans and even campaigned for the MGS movie to be made that Kojima wanted so much, to the point where not only did he write his own script but he used his connections with Marvel working on the X-Men movies to contact Avi Arad about increasing the possibility of that. Funny how by the time Avi Arad got to know Kojima, it was him that gave him the suggestion for Hayter's replacement. Hell on the 20th anniversary, Hayter even made that personal video for Kojima. Despite all that, for Kojima to so easily dismiss the guy and handle replacing him the way he did I can't blame Hayter for feeling no love for him.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

Was Hayter really replaced though? He was just on vacation right?

 

[Pinko Marx]

Holy shit. This is even worse than I remember. It honestly might be thee worst scene in a video game ever. Nay---all of media.

Ashamed of your words and deeds yet?

 

[Zaventem]

Dude is salty af, needs to get over it.

It's crazy how one man can be so whiny after all this time. Must really hold things close to his chest.

 

[KonradLaw]

Hayter is terrible actor though. Previously when only voice was needed that was ok, he plays with voice pretty decently, altough it seemed to be getting worse and worse as years went by. But once they've started to do mo-cap Hayten just couldn't cut it. Have you seen any movies Hayter stars in? I mean..jeez.

 

[iNvid02]

he dodged a bullet, game was disappointing

 

[GeNoMe]

People seem to forget that voice actors get directed. Hayter can still put up the "original" Snake voice. If people say they didn't like the performance he did in MGS3, MGS4, or Peace Walker? They are saying that they did not like the voice direction. Blame Zimmerman.

 

[Shredderi]

Kiefer was just bad. Hayter's voice was iconic enough to not have to sound like "good acting" in order to work for most fans. Maybe I would have actually enjoyed something about the game if he was in it.

People seem to forget that voice actors get directed. Hayter can still put up the "original" Snake voice. If people say they didn't like the performance he did in MGS3, MGS4, or Peace Walker? They are saying that they did not like the voice direction. Blame Zimmerman.

And yeah this too.

 

[m4st4]

So much salt.

 

[BumblebeeCody]

Was he played like a fiddle!? Looooooooool

 

[NegativeCero]

He is the voice of Snake. It's iconic at this point. At least they can't take that away. Bummer to hear about how the relationship ended though.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Shouldn't replacing Hayter make sense because MGSV SPOILERS

Spoiler

Punished Snake is not Big Boss?

 

[Dawg]

Shouldn't replacing Hayter make sense because MGSV SPOILERS

Spoiler

Punished Snake is not Big Boss?

Spoiler

I know what you're getting at but Akio Atsuka also voices Punished Snake. Even tho Akio >>>>> Hayter.

 

[Kwansu Dudes]

I don't know if this is BS or not, but this is a very interesting post from a different perspective.

MGS from a Korean's perspective