Hangar 13 is working on a Mafia prequel based on Unreal Engine 5

Hangar 13 is working on a new game in the Mafia series, according to a Kotaku source. Development is said to be at an early stage and not many details are known yet. It would be a prequel. The news follows the departure of two high-ranking employees.

The British studio of Hangar 13 is leading the development of the new Mafia game, writes Kotaku. The game would take place before the three other Mafia games. The first Mafia game is set in the 1930s. Internally, the game would be known as Nero and the engine would use the Mafia prequel Unreal Engine 5. Previous Mafia games used their own engine.

The Mafia games are set in the United States and are third-person open-world games. Hangar 13 released a remake of the first game nearly two years ago. The first Mafia game originally appeared in 2002. Mafia 2 was also re-released in 2020 and graphically polished. The first two Mafia games were made by the same Czech studio, which later became Hangar 13.

Hangar 13 was founded in 2014 with Haden Blackman at the helm. Blackman previously worked at LucasArts Entertainment on several Star Wars games. He now leaves Hangar 13, as does Matthew Urban, the chief operating officer. Nick Baynes, head of the British studio of Hangar 13, is now boss of the 2K branch.

According to Kotaku, the development studio tried to develop new games after the release of Mafia 3, including a spy game and a Destiny 2-like action game. These games were never officially revealed and are no longer in development. Recently, Hangar 13 developers are said to have been involved in creating other Take-Two games, such as Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands.

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