Mafia 4 is in development and "a few years away"

The next entry in open-world crime series Mafia is officially in development, though it's still "a few years away" from release.

"I'm happy to confirm we've started work on an all-new Mafia project," Roman Hladík, general manager of developer Hangar 13, says in a 20th anniversary retrospective on the series. "While it's a few years away and we can't share anything more right now, we're really excited to keep working on this beloved franchise and to entertain our players with new stories."

That's all the official information we have right now, but early reports of a new Mafia game started circulating earlier this year. Those reports suggest the new game would be developed in Unreal Engine 5 as a prequel to the existing trilogy. Even if that reporting was accurate, details are certainly apt to change during development.

All three entries in the Mafia series have focused on semi-historical American settings, set in fictionalized versions of cities like Chicago, New York, and New Orleans from the 1930s through the 1960s. If you want to see how the series got started, the original Mafia is set to be available for free on Steam starting September 1. That's the true original - Mafia: Definitive Edition is currently on sale, however.

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.