Mafia fans have been longing from something new from the franchise since Mafia 3 launched in October of 2016, but it’s all been fairly quiet from Take-Two and Hangar 13 outside of a franchise remaster/remake trilogy that launched in 2020. Recently however things have been starting to ramp up again. Last week, it was reported that a new title, a prequel, was in development, but now these rumours are being built upon by XboxEra’s Nick Baker.
Baker, speaking on the latest episode of the XboxEra podcast, mentioned that Mafia 4 (or whatever it is ultimately titled) will be set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the game focussing on the head of the Salieri family, Don Salieri specifically who the lead protagonist of the original Mafia, Tommy Angelo, works for.
More interestingly though is the nature of the experience, because in the same conversation, Baker also goes on to talk about Mafia 4 apparently abandoning the more open-world traits of Mafia 3 in favour of a more linear approach to gameplay and presumably storytelling.
While there has, as of yet, been no official comments made by Take-Two, 2K Games, or Hangar 13, Baker has a pretty solid record in terms of the insights he shares. His news does however conflict with other reports that Hangar 13 was working on a sci-fi open-world superhero game internally known as Codename Volt. Further rumours suggest that the project was cancelled but with nothing yet confirmed from the studio, it leaves the doors wide open for what the team could be up to. As always we should take everything we hear with a grain of salt until we receive some form of official confirmation, though in this instance, it does sound as though there’s a more concrete direction for the franchise established.
All of these rumours come following the official news that Hangar 13 studio founder Haden Blackman would be departing the company, to be replaced by Nick Baynes, a veteran of 30 years who joined the team in 2018. It seems like the future of the studio is still in good hands. Let’s hope that the next project manages to see the light of day.