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Mafia: The Old Country will be the fourth installment in Hangar 13/2K’s series which started all the way back in 2002.
The most recent installment in the series was Mafia 3, which came out way back in 2016, and aside from a Definitive Edition of the first game in 2020, we haven’t heard much about the Mafia series for a hot minute. So fans are delighted and excited by the recent Gamescom announcement that the classic games will be getting a new title in the form of Mafia: The Old Country.
Mafia: The Old Country release window
While the Gamescom trailer didn’t include any info on the expected release date and people were preparing for a long wait, publisher 2K posted on X that fans can expect Mafia: The Old Country sometime in 2025.
That’s a huge window so we can’t get something in our calendars yet, but it’s good to know it won’t be a multi-year wait.
The trailer also announced more information will be available in December 2024, which suggests a nice steady supply of information and excitement is planned until launch.
2025 is gonna be BIG 👀 pic.twitter.com/QyUdyA36ep
— 2K (@2K) August 20, 2024
What will the Mafia: The Old Country platforms be?
According to the end card of the trailer, the new Mafia game will be released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.
This meshes with the platforms other games in the series have been released on previously. We are unlikely to see a Nintendo Switch port of the game – if we were, they probably would have released the 2020 Definitive Edition of the first game on the Switch to pave the way.
Mafia: The Old Country trailer
The enigmatic trailer doesn’t give much away, and neither do the screenshots on the game’s Steam page.
One thing we do know is that the game is going to look visually stunning – the trailer includes the note “in-engine cinematic rendered for trailer”, telling us that the game itself will include the high-fidelity graphics seen in the trailer.
Mafia: The Old Country gameplay
Because the trailer is purely cinematic, we don’t have a lot to go on regarding gameplay, and it’s likely a lot more will be revealed in the upcoming December showcase, but we can piece together a few nuggets of information from it.
The blurb under the YouTube trailer and in the announcement post on X says: “Uncover the origins of organized crime in Mafia: The Old Country, a gritty mob story set in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily,” so we can take a few things from this.
The use of the word “brutal” and the presence of several weapons in the trailer (knives and guns) tell us that this will not be a peaceful game – expect there to be some fighting. This has been a staple of the series too of course. The Steam page doubles down on this with a warning the game will contain “intense violence or gore”.
It seems that rather than being set in a fictionalized version of an American city, Mafia: The Old Country will be set in Italy, Sicily to be precise. Hangar 13 seems to be taking this seriously, with a nod to authenticity on the game’s Steam page which says “Authenticity is at the heart of the Mafia franchise, and Mafia: The Old Country will have fully localized voice acting in Sicilian to match the setting and time period.”
This won’t have a ton of gameplay implications but it will set the mood and vibe of the game, which is important for the overall experience.
At Gamescom, the president of Hangar 13, Nick Baynes, took to the stage to offer a scrap of additional information, stating that Mafia: The Old Country is going “back to the roots of what fans love about the Mafia franchise” with a “deep linear narrative.” This suggests that there will be less of a focus on a large open world in the new Mafia game, and much more focus on interconnected missions that come together to form a solid plot where the focus is the story of the game.
Mafia games of the past have always had compelling characters, and while we haven’t been introduced to any that will be in Mafia: The Old Country yet, there’s no reason to think they won’t be engaging and interesting when we are.
What other games are 2K Games working on?
2K Games are setting up for an exciting 2025, with not only Mafia: The Old Country, but also the long-awaited Civilization 7 and Borderlands 4 both due to release next year. Civilization 7 might have a few eyebrow-raising features that fans will need to see to be convinced of, but that’s nothing compared to the dark cloud that has settled over Borderlands since the absolute flop of the movie.
With any luck, everything we learn about Mafia: The Old Country will only serve to get us more hyped for a return to the classic franchise. Tune back in in December when we’ve been promised more info.
Featured image credit: Hangar 13/2K
