Mafia Prequel Game Reportedly in Works, Hangar 13 Studio Head Exits

In order to revive cult-favorite crime action-adventure Mafia series, a Definitive Edition bundle of remake, remaster and extended edition of first three series entries were released in 2020 by developer Hangar 13 and publisher 2K Games.

In a recent 2K announcement, Hangar 13 studio head Haden Blackman confirms leaving studio after serving for about seven years. Meanwhile, a Mafia prequel game is reportedly on primary development stages and is codenamed "Nero".

UK-based Hangar 13 studio in Brighton is currently leading Mafia prequel development, which is set before Mafia Trilogy. Instead of working on Illusion Engine used for Definitive Edition, dev team moves to newly released Unreal Engine 5.

Mafia prequel report came out shortly after 2K announces studio head Haden Blackman's exit from company. According to 2K Games, Blackman is stepping down to pursue his passion at a new endeavor and says goodbye to Hangar 13.

Haden Blackman served as creative director on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed before joining Hangar 13 in 2014. Brighton studio head Nick Baynes will be replacing him, who joined in 2018 and looks for new opportunities as studio head.

Earlier last year, Bloomberg report claimed that Hanger 13 was working on a new "open-world sci-fi" game with supernatural elements, like "Cthulhu meets Saints Row" and codenamed Volt but Take-Two cancelled it after several reboots.

Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier previously stated that Codename: Volt was in development since 2017 and cost $53 million. There was a Mafia 4 rumor back then and that could be newly reported Mafia prequel by 2K/Hanger 13 studio.

In recent years, several Star Wars games were announced by studios like Skydance New Media and Ubisoft other than Electronic Arts. Considering his history with LucasArts, Haden Blackman may end up joining one of these upcoming titles.