Developer Hangar 13 has said very little officially after 2016’s Mafia III; reports and leaks of past projects have done most of the talking. One of those reports stated the team was working on a new Mafia game, which the studio just confirmed.
The news broke through a post on the Mafia website containing interviews meant to celebrate the franchise’s 20th anniversary. The feature runs down the series, how they got involved, its impact, 2020’s remake of the first game, and more before pivoting to Mafia‘s future, which General Manager Roman Hladík spoke rather plainly about.
“I’m happy to confirm we’ve started work on an all-new Mafia project!” he said. “While it’s a few years away and we can’t share anything more right now, we’re really excited to keep working on this beloved franchise and to entertain our players with new stories.”
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He didn’t go into more detail, but this lines up with a previous report. In May, Kotaku reported that a new entry was “early in development” and would be using Unreal Engine 5, not the engine used for Mafia: Definitive Edition, Mafia II: Definitive Edition, and Mafia III, all of which had technical problems. It’s also expected to be a prequel, but Hladík did not corroborate that part of the story.
Hangar 13 was also reportedly given a choice to make another Mafia game in 2017 or something new. The team chose the latter, but allegedly went through three failed or canceled games in the years since: a musical game codenamed Rhapsody, a third-person action game codenamed Volt, and a loot-based ARPG codenamed Mosaic. Hangar 13 also had layoffs in 2017 and 2018 and lost some of its leadership in May 2022. With all of this turmoil, it appears as though Hangar 13 is trying to find stability through an established franchise.
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