Metal Gear's Japanese Snake Actor Wants a New Game But Won't Return Without Kojima

Akio Otsuka, the Japanese voice and motion capture actor behind Solid Snake, says he wants Konami to make a new Metal Gear game — but stands by his earlier public statement that he won't participate in one without Hideo Kojima. The 66-year-old veteran spoke at length in a multi-part interview with Japanese tabloid Weekly Bunshun, translated in part by IGN.

Otsuka is candid about the bind he's in: "My job as a voice actor is to do what I'm told. But when it comes to the Metal Gear series, it was created by Kojima, and I take pride in having helped bring it to life. So I said, 'I don't want to do a Metal Gear that doesn't involve Kojima.' Now I've said that, I can't take it back." When asked whether he'd told Kojima directly that he'd like him to make another Metal Gear, Otsuka simply said: "I'll leave that to your imagination." He also revealed that Snake's iconic "Kept you waiting, huh?" line was an adlib during the original Japanese recording session, and was later used in advertising. He shared a personal memory of working alongside his father, veteran voice actor Chikao Otsuka, who voiced Big Boss in MGS4's finale while Akio provided the motion capture — his father reportedly looked up in surprise and asked, "Am I actually going to be voicing you?"

Otsuka's loyalty to Kojima runs deep, and he was visibly emotional at the Death Stranding launch. "He went through so many difficulties after leaving Konami yet managed to finish making this major game," Otsuka said. "After all, if Death Stranding had failed he could have easily ended up with debts that he wouldn't have been able to pay off even if he continued working for the rest of his life." He's also previously defended the Konami staff who stayed behind after the split, saying on his Nameless Mouse podcast in June 2023 that fans shouldn't treat them as villains — that those people "inherited the director's legacy" and want to protect Metal Gear. Notably, Otsuka has not recorded new lines for Snake since Kojima's departure, not even for Snake's appearances in Super Smash Bros.

The Konami–Kojima split in 2015 remains one of gaming's most public and acrimonious studio breakups, and since then the Metal Gear franchise has produced only the widely panned spin-off Metal Gear Survive and the Delta: Snake Eater remake, which reuses existing voice lines rather than recording new ones. Otsuka's comments land at a moment when fan appetite for a proper new Metal Gear is high, but the path to one that satisfies both him and the fanbase looks complicated. For now, he sums up his position simply: "To the fans, Snake will always be Akio Otsuka — and when I think about those fans, in a way I feel a little trapped in the middle."