Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater production producer Noriaki Okamura: ‘I’d like nothing better than to work with Hideo Kojima again’

"If that could happen, that would be the dream."

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater production producer Noriaki Okamura would “like nothing better” than to work with Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima and the original Metal Gear team again, he said in the first official “Metal Gear Production Hotline” video released today.

“It’s not my place to answer on behalf of anyone outside the company, or to guess how they might feel about it,” Okamura said. “But just speaking for myself, personally, I’d like nothing better than to work with Mr. Kojima and the rest of the team again. If that could happen, that would be the dream.”

Okamura noted that Kojima and others have moved on to new things and have new commitments, so Konami cannot be dependent on them, nor set any expectations that they return.

Okamura also said that Kojima and the original Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater development staff will be credited for their original roles in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, just as they were in Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1.

The discussion about Kojima was part of a small set of user-submitted questions featured at the end of the video. Here is the full set of questions and answers:

Is there any chance that the original staff members will return to work on, co-develop, or supervise any of the Metal Gear series?

Noriaki Okamura, Production Producer: “Wow, okay. I can see we’re starting with a tough one, huh. Well, it’s not my place to answer on behalf of anyone outside the company, or to guess how they might feel about it. But just speaking for myself, personally, I’d like nothing better than to work with Mr. Kojima and the rest of the team again. If that could happen, that would be the dream. But people have moved on to new things and new commitments, and that’s just our current reality. We can’t just take it for granted that everyone would work with us again, or let ourselves be completely dependent on them. I just don’t think it’s right for us to be the ones to make that kind of demand of anyone. So we’re working with the expectation that whatever we make, it’s up to us, it’s on our shoulders to do a good job.
“But on a related detail, since we had a lot of questions about this, Mr. Kojima and all the original development staff are of course credited for their original roles. They were already included in the [Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1], and they’ll be listed in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater as well. They’re a part of these games too, so absolutely, they’re in.”
Will all the characters in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater have the same voice acting as the original? Will there be any new performances?
Okamura: “For both Japanese and English, the story of the game and all the voice acting will be the same. We definitely didn’t do any recasting. However, and this is something you see a lot in Metal Gear, but characters will give you advice on how to play, especially the controls. But some of those lines don’t match up with the controls on consoles now, and you can’t really have that, so we’ve actually recorded new versions of just those lines. And, sadly, some of the original cast is no longer with us, or couldn’t be available to record, so in those cases we’ve made sure that we have permission first, then went through and made use of their existing recordings to assemble the new lines.”
Who is involved in the development of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater? Are you using any outside studios?
Okamura: “I think we mentioned this briefly in our last episode, but we do still have many of the same people who worked on the original Metal Gear solid 3: Snake Eater as part of the team. And, we’re also working with a number of people at outside partners. In particular, we’re working closely with the very skilled team at Virtuos, who have previously helped us on other Metal Gear titles as well. They’re assisting us on several fronts, especially because we’re building this game in Unreal Engine 5, instead of the FOX Engine that we’ve been using up until now. Their expertise in that area has been a huge help. We’re really glad to have them working with us.”
When you decided on a remake title, why did you start with Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater?
Okamura: “Well, Metal Gear, as a series, has quite a lot of ground to cover, but when we stepped back and took a look at the saga as a whole, it just made the most sense to us to start with Snake Eater. And I know there’s plenty of people who haven’t played a Metal Gear game before, and some of them probably just went, “you want us to play 3, first?” So I just want to assure everyone, don’t worry, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is the perfect place to get started with Metal Gear.”