David Hayter Not Voicing Snake in Metal Gear Solid 5

David Hayter, the longtime voice of Snake throughout the franchise's history, will not be returning for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.

If you happened to watch the GDC footage of Metal Gear Solid 5, you may have noticed Snake sounded a bit different than you remember. That's because the man who has voiced Snake/Boss for every game in the Metal Gear Solid series (save for those few moments in MGS4 where Snake and Big Boss shared the screen), didn't do the voice over. In fact, David Hayter won't be doing any of the voice over for MGS5 at all.

Well look,At least I had a good run.

— David Hayter (@DavidBHayter) March 27, 2013

Mr. Hayter was even a trending topic on Twitter yesterday when the news broke. Curiously enough, a second tweet where Hayter was asked if Kojima talked to him about reprising the role has been deleted. Joystiq did report on Hayter's reply being "Nope," but the link is now dead.

It's a shame Hayter won't be back, as the past 15 years of Metal Gear games have been home to his unique interpretation of the iconic character. Like Kevin Conroy to Batman, Hayter's voice has become so synonymous with Snake it'll be tough for anyone else to follow his performance.

Of course, this could all be one huge misdirect from Kojima for all we know. Until the actual game comes out, anything is possible with Hideo Kojima.