Akio Otsuka, the longtime Japanese voice of Snake in the Metal Gear series, says he would like Hideo Kojima to make one more Metal Gear game for fans around the world. The veteran actor made the comments in a new interview with Bunshun Online while discussing his history with Snake, Kojima and the franchise. Importantly, Otsuka was not calling for a new Konami-developed Metal Gear without Kojima; his comments specifically expressed a desire to work with Kojima again on the series.
Asked about an earlier remark that he thought the team should make another Metal Gear, Otsuka said he still genuinely feels that way. He pointed to the large international fanbase that continues waiting for another entry and said, in essence, that they should make one more game for those players. When subsequently asked whether he had actually spoken to Kojima about doing another Metal Gear, Otsuka avoided answering directly and jokingly left it to the interviewer’s imagination.
The comments are particularly notable because Otsuka remains firmly opposed to performing in a Metal Gear game that does not involve Kojima. He explained that voice actors normally accept the roles they are offered, but Metal Gear is different because Kojima created the series and Otsuka feels that he helped build it alongside him. That personal connection led him to previously state that he did not want to participate in a Metal Gear project without Kojima.
Otsuka’s relationship with the franchise stretches back decades. He has been the Japanese voice associated with Solid Snake and several incarnations of Snake across the series, while his father, Chikao Otsuka, famously voiced Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Otsuka recalled that he himself performed Big Boss’s motion work for the game’s final encounter before his father recorded the character’s dialogue, creating an unusual father-and-son collaboration behind one of the series’ most memorable scenes.
He also discussed his bond with Kojima following the developer’s departure from Konami. Otsuka recalled becoming emotional at the 2019 launch event for Death Stranding because he had watched Kojima leave his former company, establish an independent studio and take on the risk involved in building a major new project from scratch. For Otsuka, that history helps explain why Metal Gear is more personal than another voice-acting assignment.
Despite wanting another entry, Otsuka’s remarks should not be interpreted as confirmation that a new Kojima-led Metal Gear project exists. Konami owns the Metal Gear franchise, while Kojima left the company in 2015 and subsequently established the independent Kojima Productions. There has been no announcement that the two sides are collaborating on a new game, and Otsuka did not claim that such a project is currently in development.
Kojima has also moved forward with other projects since leaving Konami, including Death Stranding and his return to the action-espionage genre through PHYSINT. That project is separate from Metal Gear, despite the obvious interest created by Kojima developing another espionage-focused game after spending decades associated with the genre. Otsuka’s suggestion therefore remains a personal wish rather than evidence that Kojima is preparing to return to his former series.
Konami, meanwhile, has spent recent years bringing Metal Gear back into active circulation through remakes, collections and rereleases. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater returned Otsuka to his familiar role through the Japanese version, while the Master Collection projects have made older entries available on newer hardware. Those releases have revived interest in the franchise without yet establishing a brand-new mainline story.
Otsuka’s comments ultimately reinforce how closely he still associates Metal Gear with Kojima. Rather than softening his stance on working without the series creator, the actor appears to be arguing for the opposite: one final collaboration between the people who helped define Metal Gear. Whether that could ever happen depends on circumstances far beyond the voice actor himself, but Otsuka has now made clear that he would like to see it happen for the franchise’s fans.
