2K Games’ consistently sporadic Mafia series will return in 2025. Mafia: The Old Country is set in Sicily in the 1900s and will explore the origins of organized crime. Developer Hangar 13 announced that a new Mafia title was in development back in 2022, but gave few details beyond that. Now, we know it's heading to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in summer 2025.
The game's first trailer, which debuted at The Game Awards on Thursday, is a melodramatic affair complete with a patriarch monologuing over candlelight, horses galloping across the plains and opera music as a backing track. This is drama, people.
Mafia: The Old Country is a linear, narrative-driven game with stealth and gunplay mechanics in purposefully cinematic environments. It stars Enzo, a new, original protagonist. Here's how publisher 2K Games describes his journey: "Enzo has survived a childhood of indentured labor in Sicily’s hellish sulfur mines. Now, through a twist of fate, he has the opportunity to join Don Torrisi's crime family, and will do whatever it takes to carve out a better life for himself. By swearing an oath, Enzo has committed himself to the Torrisi family's code of honor, with all the power and hardship it entails."
The Mafia series started in 2002 as a more serious take on the GTA formula, set in a 1930s nod to Chicago. Mafia II landed in 2010 and took place in a fictionalized version of post-World War II New York City. Another long gap led to 2017, when Mafia III flashed forward to the '60s in not-New Orleans.
In 2018, 2K merged Hangar 13, the developer of the third title, with 2K Czech, the team that made the first two games, and that combined studio is now working on The Old Country. A 2025 release window will give us eight years between Mafia installments, which is right on target for the series.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/mafia-the-old-country-is-a-sicilian-prequel-arriving-summer-2025-034422942.html?src=rss