As he was with so many things in life, Tupac Shakur has been a bit of a trendsetter when it comes to death—often at the hands of his long-time collaborator, Snoop Dogg. Now, the man who brought us the Tupac Shakur Coachella Hologram all the way back in 2012 has found a new way to “pay tribute” to his old friend (in ways that also make him a lot of money), as Snoop revealed today that he’s worked with the slain rapper’s estate to include a digital recreation of Shakur in a new video game he’s been working on.
This all came out on the stage of today’s Summer Games Fest event, with the reveal—at the end of the trailer for upcoming Japanese gangster game Stranger Than Heaven—apparently being so shocking that it even forced host Geoff Keighly (a man whose whole thing is presenting the planet’s biggest video game trailers with the dead-eyed cheerfulness of a deeply indoctrinated infomercial pitchman) to briefly have a human reaction. It’s not clear yet exactly how Shakur’s digital avatar in the game will be presented; notably, the trailer reveal doesn’t involve him speaking or rapping, leaving it unclear whether the Sega game will recreate his voice through a new voice actor, old voice clips, or AI.
For what it’s worth, though, Stranger Than Heaven was sounding pretty cool, up until today: The latest title from RGG Studios, the Sega group that makes the Yakuza/Like A Dragon games, the game takes place in different cities and periods in 20th century Japan, and has a strong focus on music, allowing players to record sounds in the in-game environments and work them into tracks amidst more typical gangster action. Featuring a mixed cast of Japanese and American actors (including Snoop, who plays the main character’s mentor), it was looking to be a fascinating period piece and a cool look at the influences of music on Japanese culture and now it’s also going to mostly live in our brains as the game they resurrected Tupac and then shoved him into.
Stranger Than Heaven is slated for release in January of 2027.
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