There is a new Mafia 4 game currently in active development, nearly six years after the last mainline installment in the franchise was released.
According to a report by Kotaku earlier today, a source close to the matter has confirmed that developer Hangar 13 is leading development on a prequel to the acclaimed Mafia trilogy at its United Kingdom studio in Brighton.
Internally codenamed Project Nero, Mafia 4 is being developed in Unreal Engine 5 and not the updated Illusion Engine, commonly referred to as Mafia Engine, that was used by Hangar 13 for Mafia 3 and the recent Mafia trilogy remasters.
The reported prequel to the trilogy is said to be “very early in development” and hence, it will be a few years before Hangar 13 starts prepping a release.
Mafia 4 was suggested to be in the works back in 2019 when Hangar 13 filed a couple of new trademarks, one of which was for a remaster that was eventually announced as Mafia 2: Definitive Edition.
In 2020, Hangar 13 stated that it could return for another Mafia chapter provided that the Mafia remasters did well in sales. The developer was working on an unannounced game at the time, internally codenamed Project Volt, that it assured was not Mafia 4. Last November, Project Volt was reportedly canceled after being on the drawing board for around three or four years in various forms.
The report about a prequel to the Mafia trilogy comes at the heels of the departures of studio head Haden Blackman and chief operating officer Matthew Urban. Blackman has been replaced by Nick Baynes, the current studio head of the Brighton wing.
