Snoop Dogg Pitched Tupac for Stranger Than Heaven

"Tupac came about from Snoop Dogg."

That line, from RGG Studio executive director Masayoshi Yokoyama during a Summer Game Fest interview panel, reframes the entire controversy around Stranger Than Heaven's most talked-about casting decision. According to Yokoyama's comments reported by Dexerto, the studio didn't unilaterally decide to resurrect the late rapper as a digital character. Snoop Dogg, who was already cast as the smuggler Orpheus, pitched the idea himself when the team asked who might play well opposite his character.

"We said, 'Hey, we want to have this person that has a relationship to you to play this role with this character that has a relationship to your character, who would be a good character and or who would be a person to fit that role,'" Yokoyama explained. The studio ran with it, discussed the idea internally, then approached Tupac's estate and family for permission. "We got their approval, we negotiated, and everybody was okay with it."

I think this detail changes the conversation. When the Tupac reveal dropped last week, the reaction online split hard between people who thought it was disrespectful and people who thought it was bold. Knowing that the suggestion came from someone who actually knew Tupac, who collaborated with him, who lost a friend to that 1996 shooting, puts a different weight behind the decision. It doesn't automatically make it right, but it's a far cry from a Japanese studio cynically mining a dead celebrity for marketing buzz, which is how a lot of people initially read it.

Why RGG sees no issue

Yokoyama was candid about the cultural gap driving much of the backlash. He pointed out that using the likenesses of deceased actors and public figures is common practice in Japanese entertainment and has been for decades. RGG itself cast the late Nikyo film star Sugawara Bunta in the same game, a figure Yokoyama compared to Marlon Brando in terms of cultural stature. Capcom recently did something similar with the legendary Toshiro Mifune in Onimusha: Way of the Sword.

"In Japan, there isn't really much sensitivity over this issue, because this is something that's kind of part and parcel of the Japanese gaming culture," Yokoyama said. He acknowledged that Western audiences feel differently, and he's clearly aware of the backlash. But he isn't backing down. "Criticism is a freedom that people are free to have. But this is something that we thought was a good idea."

What I find more interesting than the ethics debate is the creative reasoning. Yokoyama stressed that Tupac wasn't cast for star power alone. Stranger Than Heaven's protagonist, Makoto Daito, starts his story as a singer before becoming a showman and entertainment promoter. The studio wanted characters who could serve as advisors with genuine ties to music and performance. Snoop Dogg fits that. Tupac fits that. Whether the execution lands is a separate question entirely, but the logic tracks better than "wouldn't it be cool if Tupac was in our game."

Yokoyama also confirmed that no generative AI was used for either Tupac or Sugawara Bunta's characters. The voice actors cast to portray them are people who had real relationships with both men before they died, and their families were involved at every stage of development, not just signing off on a contract but actively reviewing what the roles would entail.

The whole situation sits in an uncomfortable space. Tupac's estate, which has faced its own scrutiny, gave approval. Snoop Dogg, one of the people closest to Tupac in life, initiated the idea. RGG consulted the family throughout. You can still object to the principle of digitally resurrecting the dead for entertainment, and plenty of people do, but the process here was more thoughtful than the initial wave of outrage suggested. Stranger Than Heaven is scheduled to launch on January 15, 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam.