Snoop Dogg joins Stranger Than Heaven on Xbox this winter

RGG Studio announced that Snoop Dogg and his son Cordell Broadus have joined the cast of Stranger Than Heaven, a five-era action-adventure that follows protagonist Makoto Daito across 50 years. The game will arrive this winter on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC and will be available day one on Xbox Game Pass as an Xbox Play Anywhere title.

The casting and new gameplay systems were shown during an Xbox Presents broadcast led by RGG Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama, producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto and game director Mikinobu Abe. Snoop Dogg provides the voice of Orpheus, a smuggler who discovers Makoto after the boy stows away on a ship. Cordell Broadus appears in an unrevealed role.

Stranger Than Heaven tracks Makoto from 1915 to 1965. Makoto is the child of an American father and Japanese mother who is orphaned young. The narrative charts his movement from survival on the margins to a life that includes music, show business and ties to organized crime.

The game is divided into five districts inspired by real Japanese cities and set in different years. Kokura, Fukuoka (1915) introduces Makoto and Orpheus. Kure, Hiroshima (1929) centers on shipbuilding and Makoto’s rise inside the Iwaki crime family. Minami, Osaka (1943) focuses on entertainment and a renewed partnership. Atami, Shizuoka (1951) highlights postwar cultural exchange and leisure. Shinjuku, Tokyo (1965) concludes the story; Yokoyama indicated a major secret will be revealed in that segment.

Each district offers era-specific activities. The developers demonstrated arm wrestling, dice and card games in Fukuoka, target shooting in Osaka, and varied environmental set pieces tied to the time and place.

Music and live performance are core systems. Director Mikinobu Abe described Makoto as having “a keen ability to find the music in everyday life.” Players can record ambient sounds-a broom’s scrape, a passing train, impacts during combat-and save them to a library. Those samples can be combined when Makoto meets composers to assemble original pieces. Players also will manage shows, recruit and arrange performers, and scout talent by gathering information from NPCs.

Singer characters include Takashi, played by J-pop artist Satoshi Fujihara, and Suzy, played by American singer-songwriter Tori Kelly. Fujihara and Kelly collaborated on the game’s theme song.

Combat uses a custom system that separates control of Makoto’s left and right sides. On a standard controller the right side maps to RB+RT and the left to LB+LT. The layout allows holding a block with one limb while attacking with the other, charging and releasing stronger strikes, and performing combined tackles. The game supports a roster of weapons from knives and hammers to katanas and period inventions; weapons can be upgraded and offer special attacks and passive traits. Developers showed context-sensitive cinematic encounters, including a close-quarters fight inside a moving car, and finishing moves tied to specific scenarios.

Snoop Dogg called Orpheus “cutthroat and charismatic.” Cordell Broadus suggested a turning point on the ship when “Orpheus realizes in that moment that maybe what he’s destined to deliver are the lives of these two boys.” Producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto highlighted the combat system’s role in the game’s pacing and design.

RGG Studio, the developer behind the Yakuza series, described Stranger Than Heaven as a multi-decade project that combines beat-em-up action, music composition systems and show-business management across several historical settings.