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Original Snake Voice David Hayter Has No Love For Hideo Kojima (Kotaku)

H

Herp Derpington

Member
Eh it sucks because I identify Hayter with being Snake. Hearing someone else as the voice doesn't feel right regardless of how much (or little in this case) the new VA speaks. I don't fault him for getting emotional over it as he's an actor and they identify with the characters they portray. Maybe Kojima handled it wrong. Maybe Hayter over estimated his worth to the franchise. Regardless it was disappointing but it happened and frankly at this point it doesn't matter anymore as the franchise appears dead in the water.

I think those here that are so quick to dismiss on either side just need to take a step back, realize what the guy meant to the fans that identified him with the character while also understanding that actors get replaced for roles all the time. There's no need for thread crapping hyperbole.
 
T

The Baron Count

Member
BlitzEngineer said:
I'm not a huge Metal gear guy, but is Hayter's work in the series regarded as good? I mean his voice is iconic but I don't really think his performance is stellar in really any of the games.

To be fair I don't think Kiefer Sutherland was anything spectacular, but the outrage from some over Hayter's replacement kind of surprises me. If I was directing that series I would have replaced him sooner. Maybe I'm off base, I've only really played through the games once each.
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Honestly, as much as I love the series I don't think it's ever had particularly strong voice acting in general. At least not in the traditional sense.

I think everything in MGS is so stylized that we hold the performances of the characters to a different standard than we normally would. The over the top voice acting has always just fit and I think Hayter's performance was always the best example of that.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
Ridley327 said:
Oh good, we're finally at the point of the reality distortion field in which we ignore how much talent Konami has driven away over the past decade, with reports of how poorly they've treated their employees in that time, and somehow it's still Kojima's fault that Konami is the bad guy.
Click to expand...

Yep, aside from killing off Team Silent and KojiPro, you also have others that simply left the company. IGA (Castlevania), Tak Fujii (producer), Dave Cox (LoS producer), Akari Uchida (Love Plus producer), Mina Taro (Love Plus artist) etc. have all left recently. The creator of Momotaro Densetsu had this to say about Konami

While Momotaro Dentetsu has enjoyed a long run of friends gathering together, finding joy in rolling the perfect numbers, and crying after losing all your money to the Binbogami (God of Poverty), it appears to have reached its final stop, as Sakuma tweeted: “I haven’t had any contact from Konami whatsoever. This situation has been going on for a very long time. With that, I will officially end Momotaro Dentetsu. It has all been crushed by Konami’s Ishikawa.”

His wife, Mariko Sakuma, who also works on the games tweeted: “They told us that we’d get a response in May, so we gave them the weekend, and ended up waiting until June 2nd. But we still haven’t seen any contact. I wonder what happened with Konami’s Mr. Ishikawa.”
Click to expand...

http://www.siliconera.com/2015/06/0...onami-for-the-end-of-his-long-running-series/
 
KOMANI

KOMANI

KOMANI
You know it's possible that Konami and Kojima are both wrong, right? It could be a case of lesser of two evils being right here. Don't dismiss that Kojima could be in the wrong just because he made some good games. He's notorious for having a huge ego. And Konami is infamous for being a shitty video game company (within the last decade at least).
 
KOMANI

KOMANI

KOMANI
SolidSnakex said:
Yep, aside from killing off Team Silent and KojiPro, you also have others that simply left the company. IGA (Castlevania), Tak Fujii (producer), Dave Cox (LoS producer), Akari Uchida (Love Plus producer), Mina Taro (Love Plus artist) etc. have all left recently. The creator of Momotaro Densetsu had this to say about Konami



http://www.siliconera.com/2015/06/0...onami-for-the-end-of-his-long-running-series/
Click to expand...
And there are those who left KojiPro like Fukushima and Shinta Nojiri. Let's call a spade a spade. It's no picnic working at either, albeit Konami is worse to work for.
 
T

The Adder

Banned
eot said:
I don't know if his performance was the result of Kojima's direction, or if it was just his portrayal of the character, but as iconic as it may be I think it's shit. Dude needs to accept that it's a job like any other and while he was part of the series for a long time that doesn't automatically grant him the role in perpetuity. Being so salty in public over and over just makes him look bad.
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Would it kill you to actually listen to or read the interview? They asked him about it, he answered. And the thing he was upset about is the fact no one told him they had cast someone else until he had called and asked. Which is just professionally discourteous.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
bad said:
And there are those who left KojiPro like Fukushima and Shinta Nojiri. Let's call a spade a spade. It's no picnic working at either, albeit Konami is worse to work for.
Click to expand...

It's not necessarily uncommon for people to leave companies. But all of those people I mentioned left Konami within a year. Interestingly, during that same period all that shit about KojiPro started to break.
 
C

Chola

Banned
snake_eater_raiden said:
"Konami is evil. Konami is bad. Konami did all wrong. Kojima is innocent.

Really this is nothing but media spin.

Kojima was given 7 years to make a new engine and MGS5. He had two things and he did not delivered on the latter.

Instead he wasted his time on Twitter, Got Sutherland for no reason (just to satisfy his Hollywood lust), showed off an almost naked sniper (shameless). On top of that he replaced Hayter who gave away half of his pay check for TTS, promoted Kojima's game everywhere he went for free by praising the series and doing his amazing voice. Tell me, whether Sutherland would have done the same? Not a chance.

In the end we got a game that had phenomenal gameplay with garbage story, tons of content cut and Chapter 2 which does not deserve to call a Chapter.

Konami did nothing wrong. They got fed up and rightly fired him.

If you want to know how egoistic Kojima has become just check out some articles when he announced his Sony partnership. Sony has no say how he works etc. In short, it will be another 5-7 years before we see his next game.

On the other hand, we have brilliant developers like CDPR who developer Witcher 3 in just 3 years.

Kojima is overrated. That is the bottom line.
Click to expand...

What the hell are you even talking about?

Mgs5 is critically acclaimed and a commercial sucess, konami has and will be using the engine for a long time.

Konami is the reason why we got a unfinished product.

Sutherland promoted the game when ever we had a chance like game award shows etc

Witcher 3 is the first game from cdproject that people actually cared for and its legacy is nothing compared to mgs
 
C

cLOUDo

Member
KojiKnight said:
How a grown up would handle that situation.

"Hey David, I appreciate the work you've done with the series over the years, but we're going to go a different route for Snake's voice this game."

How Kojima handled it.



He didn't. He did nothing and left Hayter to call Konami to be told he wouldn't be needed. After 2 decades you honestly don't think Hayter deserved at least a phone call?
Click to expand...

How do you know that didn't happen?
I mean, had Kojima ever spoken about this issue
 
T

TheJollyCorner

Member
I don't know what happened 'between the sheets' with Kojima and Konami, or Kojima & Hayter, but a person would have to be blind to not see how shitty Konami has been as a console game company for the past decade.

Kojima might be responsible for some blame regarding things that happened with the MGS series, but Konami sure as hell isn't innocent of any wrong-doings or shitty practices.
 
T

TheCongressman1

Member
TheJollyCorner said:
I don't know what happened 'between the sheets' with Kojima and Konami, or Kojima & Hayter, but a person would have to be blind to not see how shitty Konami has been as a console game company for the past decade.

Kojima might be responsible for some blame regarding things that happened with the MGS series, but Konami sure as hell isn't innocent of any wrong-doings or shitty practices.
Click to expand...


That's basically how I feel about it. No one is innocent in this situation.

Sounds like Hayter was treated unprofessionally. Who knows the whole story though.
 
N

NinjamicWZ

Banned
Why does anyone think the guy who wasn't able to speak or go anywhere without approval for his last year or so at Konami was able to call up Hayter and give him a heads up on anything or break up with him gently to be a bro about it, even if he wanted to?

If Hayter wants to heal his wound, he'd just play the game and accept it, and not let the sting of rejection have power over him. I've done it. I vouch for it.
 
W

Wereroku

Member
TheJollyCorner said:
I don't know what happened 'between the sheets' with Kojima and Konami, or Kojima & Hayter, but a person would have to be blind to not see how shitty Konami has been as a console game company for the past decade.

Kojima might be responsible for some blame regarding things that happened with the MGS series, but Konami sure as hell isn't innocent of any wrong-doings or shitty practices.
Click to expand...

Konami has been a shitty company however this particular decision was completely made by Kojima.
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
cLOUDo said:
How do you know that didn't happen?
I mean, had Kojima ever spoken about this issue
Click to expand...

Kojima has never really said anything, meanwhile Hayter has said on a couple occasions he didn't even know about MGS5 til it was revealed, and when he tried to get a hold of Konami he was just told he wasn't needed. That is not how you professionally handle the situation.

NinjamicWZ said:
Why does anyone think the guy who wasn't able to speak or go anywhere without approval for his last year or so at Konami was able to call up Hayter and give him a heads up on anything or break up with him gently to be a bro about it, even if he wanted to?

If Hayter wants to heal his wound, he'd just play the game and accept it, and not let the sting of rejection have power over him. I've done it. I vouch for it.
Click to expand...

Ground Zeroes reveal was YEARS before Kojima being grounded...
 
I

impact

Banned
KojiKnight said:
Kojima has never really said anything, meanwhile Hayter has said on a couple occasions he didn't even know about MGS5 til it was revealed, and when he tried to get a hold of Konami he was just told he wasn't needed. That is not how you professionally handle the situation.
Click to expand...

He's only a voice actor. He isn't owed anything more than what he got.

Hayter really overvalued himself in this whole MGS5 mess.
 
Y

Yopis

Member
Would never hire this clown. If you need to let him go for any reason he will trash you. Small minded guy with voicework that got worse as the series went on. Good riddance.
 
L

Lys Skygge

Member
While I enjoy Hayters performance, and to me he is Snake; it seems like Kojima compromised his vision by hiring Hayter in the first place. Hayter might not be what he wanted originally, but it's all he had to work with at the time. By the time the sequels started, Hayter had already become the iconic voice of Snake so Kojima had to just go with it.

This is all speculation on my part. I understand what it's like having something you created not come out exactly how you envisioned it.
 
R

RevolverRoden

Member
Yopis said:
Would never hire this clown. If you need to let him go for any reason he will trash you. Small minded guy with voicework that got worse as the series went on. Good riddance.
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?
He's being asked in an interview and he's just answering. It's not like he's going out of his way to trash Kojima.
impact said:
He's only a voice actor. He isn't owed anything more than what he got.

Hayter really overvalued himself in this whole MGS5 mess.
Click to expand...
He's owed at least a respectful way of being let go tbh
 
T

The Adder

Banned
Yopis said:
Would never hire this clown. If you need to let him go for any reason he will trash you. Small minded guy with voicework that got worse as the series went on. Good riddance.
Click to expand...

You should try either reading or watching the interview before commenting. Your statements would be more informed.
 
I

Ishida

Banned
Lys Skygge said:
While I enjoy Hayters performance, and to me he is Snake; it seems like Kojima compromised his vision by hiring Hayter in the first place. Hayter might not be what he wanted originally, but it's all he had to work with at the time. By the time the sequels started, Hayter had already become the iconic voice of Snake so Kojima had to just go with it.

This is all speculation on my part. I understand what it's like having something you created not come out exactly how you envisioned it.
Click to expand...

Well, if MGSV is Kojima's "true vision for Metal Gear", then thank goodness he wasn't able to achieve it earlier.

Yopis said:
Would never hire this clown. If you need to let him go for any reason he will trash you. Small minded guy with voicework that got worse as the series went on. Good riddance.
Click to expand...

Trying to earn that "dumbest post" award there, breh?
 
R

RevolverRoden

Member
Kris Zimmerman says in the interview that the reason Snake doesn't talk much in MGSV isn't because Kiefer was too busy or expensive. They actually had a lot of sessions with him. It was the direction Kojima wanted for snake. Now people can finally stop saying "It's obvious Kiefer charged too much"
 
J

Jotaka

Member
Dick Justice said:
Some of these comments are hilariously hostile.

Anyway, the thing about Hayter not knowing Kojima is kinda weird considering ....
Click to expand...

Why? because Hayter is not THE (Original Snake Voice) snake... No he is not snake. Akio Ōtsuka is THE snake.

http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Akio_Ōtsuka

He also served as the motion capture actor for the older Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, while his father, Chikao Ōtsuka, provided the character's voice.
Click to expand...
 
R

RevolverRoden

Member
animlboogy said:
He talks seemingly for hours on the tapes. Raw voice time wasn't a problem, clearly.

My guess is that they finalized a lot of the mocap scenes after Sutherland was done in the booth.

Either way, there are some scenes, like the Skullface monologue, that are openly ridiculous when snake doesn't make a sound. If that was intentional, it was simply a bad choice.
Click to expand...
Sutherland did the facial capture though.
 
K

KAOz

Short bus special
animlboogy said:
He talks seemingly for hours on the tapes. Raw voice time wasn't a problem, clearly.

My guess is that they finalized a lot of the mocap scenes after Sutherland was done in the booth.

Either way, there are some scenes, like the Skullface monologue, that are openly ridiculous when snake doesn't make a sound. If that was intentional, it was simply a bad choice.
Click to expand...

I remember someone linking sound-bytes with shittons of unused Kiefer dialouge. Specially in-game stuff, like mini-dialouge while sneaking and meeting enemies.

They recorded a ton, but seems like Kojima just didnt want to use it.

Cant find the link due to mobile right now.
 
K

Kamina777

Banned
I hope David gets on with another big name before he quits the business, the way he was done was so bad it was comical to the poi t I assumed it was a "joke". Sad to see how mgsv turned out, its as if the narrative flow/pacing changed with the change of actor, bloated and uninteresting is all I can call it
..excellent playiny game that I stopped playing as soon as I got access to the jungle, story and lack of interactions lost me ages ago, the denial just pushed me further. Regularly hearing codec messages between Hayter and some other characters during a mission would have spiced things up..yeah the mobile game progress system was ass too.
 
M

MoonFrog

Member
K' Dash said:
Funny thing is, even after 60 hours I expected Hayters voice the few times Snake was going to talk, then he started talking and it felt like watching a dubbed movie with a bad voice actor.

Just my 2 cents.
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Yeah. Whenever Snake did speak I was like "who's talking?" And then I figured out it was Snake. It's the combination of almost no snake lines and a performance which doesn't sound like snake at all. They shouldn't have made both of those decisions.

Also, dumping Hayter was just dumb. Whether or not Kojima thought the MGS va was up to snuff in the west, it is pretty clear that Snake's voice was Hayter's voice in the west and going pointlessly 'auteur' on this issue, especially given the lackluster Sutherland performance and role, was just bad decision making and is a case where Kojima's idea of his artistry got the better of his judgment. Going forward, I hope we see less of that because when Kojima has discipline he can turn out a great product. When he's on an ego trip...he starts making dumb choices.
 
S

Slime

Banned
Hayter provided a goofy dumb cartoon voice for a goofy dumb cartoon story.

He was a perfect fit for the games he did, but it makes just as much sense why he'd be replaced in the entry that takes itself way too seriously and has no soul whatsoever.

On that note, they really should have recast Huey too. Too much personality in a game full of robots spouting soulless exposition.
 
D

Dick Justice

Banned
Jotaka said:
Why? because Hayter is not THE (Original Snake Voice) snake... No he is not snake. Akio Ōtsuka is THE snake.

http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Akio_Ōtsuka
Click to expand...

So what you're saying is that Kojima is an elitist who doesn't concern himself with actors that he considers "low level". Ok.

Anyway, Hayter is easily the most popular voice of Snake. So to the majority of people, he actually is THE Snake.

Sapiens said:
Why?
Click to expand...

Because he addresses Kojima towards the end, and you'd kind of expect them to know each other.
 
B

blankempathy

Member
I can see where Hayter is coming from. While I think its reasonable to have a new voice actor for an ageing big boss at the same time based on what hes said including from before mgsv launched it seems like they kinda just threw him away and weren't respectful in the way they let him go. If you've been associated with a series for 4 (5 if you include peace walker) main series installments its fair to assume that you may have a part in the upcoming one. That didn't seem to be the case and he was probably pretty humiliated to find out that they had gone on to make a new one without even bothering to tell him. Thats messed up. Like they couldn't call him up and maybe offer him a bit part because they recognized that maybe, just maybe, Hayter was a part of why Snake was so recognizable to the western audience? It just seems a bit cold. Who knows though. Maybe its a case of he said she said. Maybe they called Hayter and did offer him and he flipped the fuck out and went all diva on them. However from Hayters initial tweets and what hes saying now it doesn't seem to be the case. Anyways I don't think this is a simple case of Hayter being upset that he was replaced. Merely upset at the way it went down.
 
N

NinjamicWZ

Banned
KojiKnight said:
Ground Zeroes reveal was YEARS before Kojima being grounded...
Click to expand...

How much, how little? Got proof that Konami's work environment we know about now only started in the last few years? This is an old school company from the days when people couldn't be credited for their work to prevent talent poaching.

Even a normal NDA situation, or just regular employment for any kind of company, is going to discourage that kind of potentially troublesome business communication with non-employees.
 
R

RevolverRoden

Member
tbh as much as I like Kojima he needs something to shatter his ego. He needs to stop being so pretentious and excessive and just make a normal good game, without being over ambitious and trying to fit everything in one game, without having to explain everything with "Moby Dick," without the misleading BS, etc etc etc etc
 
Lokimaru

Lokimaru

Member
Thing I loved about Hayter Snake was his how he said the lines. I still hate how Kojima aged Solid Snakes cause he himself was getting old. I also hate the he hooked up Meryl with Captain Depends. That was some left field Shit npi.
 
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