The gaming industry seemingly has no chill. With announcements galore coming every 5 seconds this week, you’d be forgiven if you missed something. Yesterday at Summer Game Fest RGG Studio showed off a new trailer for their upcoming game Stranger Than Heaven, dropping a release date and new cast details, including a rather controversial member.

First the news everyone has been waiting for. Much like many of the Like A Dragon games of late, RGG Studio is planting their flag early in the year for Stranger Than Heaven. The game will likely be the first big release of 2027 as the studio and SEGA announced a release date of January 15th 2027.

It makes sense for them to release Stranger Than Heaven around then as it should be enough time for at least some of the GTA VI hype to die down, and as mentioned they typically do quite well in that January or February release window. Stranger Than Heaven seems to have a lot of hype around it, even more so than recent Like A Dragon games, so I see no reason for that not to continue.

Controversial Casting

Now for the more controversial bit about yesterdays trailer. The Stranger Than Heaven cast has some heavy hitters, both from Japan and from the United States, with a who’s who list of names. And as if iconic rapper Snoop Dogg wasn’t enough, RGG has gone ahead and cast another legendary rapper for Stranger Than Heaven, although this one has a lot more anger behind it as well as excitement.

Tupac, arguably the most well known rapper in history who was shot and killed in 1996, is being digitally recreated and incorporated into Stranger Than Heaven. Adding someone who died 30 years ago is certainly an interesting decision, and at the very least has created some extra press around the game, even if it isn’t all positive.

Per a press release from SEGA, they had this to say about his inclusion:

“Tupac’s portrayal of the character Amaru in STRANGER THAN HEAVEN is made possible with the permission and ongoing supervision of his estate, Amaru Entertainment. RGG Studio is treating this integration with the utmost respect for his legacy, crafting every aspect in the close collaboration and without the use of AI, including his character design based on archival footage and photographs. More details regarding his role will be shared at a later date.”

Now on the one hand, the estate signing off on his likeness being used which will help them bring in some extra money to the estate. It will also introduce an entire new generation to Tupac which is good. On the other hand, many question how its even going to work since he obviously won’t be voicing the character and many prefer to leave artists alone once they can no longer speak for themselves.

Personally I’m not the biggest fan of this decision. Tupac was once brought out as a hologram at Coachella in 2012 and that felt odd to me as well. It’s one thing to release music that he created that never saw the light of day, but using him in this way seems strange, as does using him in Stranger Than Heaven.

Ultimately though this won’t damper my excitement for the game as it is looking quite good. I understand some will want to boycott it, but that’s a bit extreme to me. We will see how this all plays out in the coming weeks and months and see if RGG or SEGA discuss it any further.

Stranger Than Heaven releases January 15th 2027 for Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5 and PC.