Sega brings Tupac into Stranger Than Heaven with estate permission and no AI

Sega is bringing Tupac Shakur into a video game, and the way they did it is the news. At Summer Game Fest 2026, Sega and RGG Studio revealed that the late rapper will appear as a character named Amaru in their action-adventure game Stranger Than Heaven, out worldwide on January 15, 2027. His estate signed off, supervised the work, and no AI was used.

That last detail matters because the default story right now is the opposite one.

How Sega recreated Tupac for Stranger Than Heaven

RGG Studio built the character from archival footage and photographs, in collaboration with Tupac’s estate, Amaru Entertainment. The studio says the estate granted permission and stays involved in shaping the role. Snoop Dogg and his son Cordell Broadus walked on stage to present the reveal, and both play characters in the game. Snoop is also contributing to the theme song alongside Ado, Tori Kelly, and Satoshi Fujihara, according to Digital Music News.

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Tupac's role was built with the permission and ongoing supervision of his estate, Amaru Entertainment, and without the use of AI.

Put that next to the wave of unauthorized work going the other way, like the tens of thousands of AI deepfakes labels are fighting to remove, and the contrast is the point. Sega had every tool to fake Tupac. They asked first and skipped the shortcut.

Why consent is the floor, not the finish line

Permission and payment are the hard part, and Sega cleared it. Getting an estate to say yes, then keeping it in the room, is exactly the model I want to see when a dead artist’s likeness goes to work.

Consent answers one question though: who said yes. It does not answer whether the result honors the person, or whether the fans who kept the memory alive will accept it. A documentary like the Hillel Slovak project raised the same tension. The people who loved the artist get a vote too, even when the paperwork is clean.