Following the release of the Mafia remasters, many fans of the open-world gangster series have been awaiting the next chapter from developer Hangar 13. Mafia 3 left the door for plenty of thrilling story possibilities, such as the continued efforts of mob legend Vito Scaletta. Now, rumblings behind the scenes of Mafia 4 indicate that the project is beginning to gain speed.
Following a report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier last year, it was claimed that “Hangar 13 is developing two games. One is a new entry in the Mafia series, code-named Nero. The other is a tennis game code-named Hammer.” While we’re not getting our rackets just yet, progress on the purported fourth entry of the Mafia series appears to be ramping up, following the appearance of a fresh job listing. Advertised via LinkedIn, Hangar 13 is looking for an executive producer to join development on a “key franchise” at its studio.
“This role will play a vital part in the successful delivery of a major new title, including post-launch content and future franchise planning,” the listing explains. Additionally, further details read as follows: “Lead the development of Hangar 13’s unannounced game – run internal and external teams across multiple locations to meet production schedules and deliver the project to quality, time and budget expectations.”
Iron-clad information on Mafia 4 remains under the cover of night, like many of the operations the franchise’s characters deal with. Mafia 3, the studio’s debut, was released in 2016 and led the developer to curate the development of Mafia Definitive Edition. The remaster of Mafia 2 was handled by D3T, with publishing efforts from 2K Games. While Mafia 2 garnered a mixed reception upon launch, Mafia Definitive Edition elicited a far more positive response in part to its richly detailed world and creative reimagining of its source material – some may consider it one of the best PS5 open world games.
The first inklings of Mafia 4 were confirmed in August 2022, after 2K Games Czech general manager Roman Hladík spread the word on the 20th anniversary of Mafia. But for now, we’ll be eagerly awaiting the Mafia 4 release date – whenever that may be.
Until we can roam the mob-laden streets again, we recommend jumping into the latest PS Plus Extra and Premium April 2023 games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.