A new job listing on LinkedIn has provided Mafia fans with a tentative update regarding the next entry in the open world crime series. This is the first proper update that Mafia fans have received since last year, when the Hangar 13 General Manager Roman Hladík officially revealed that Mafia 4 was entering into active development following months of rumors and speculation.
Hladík’s confirmation of Mafia 4’s existence and the state of its development came only a few months after the news broke that Haden Blackman was stepping down as Hangar 13’s studio head. Around that same period of May 2022, Hanger 13’s chief operating officer Matthew Urban also stepped down. Following these departures, there was some speculation surrounding Mafia 4’s development, so this recent update is a welcome one.
According to the job description, Hangar 13 is looking to hire a tools programmer to become a part of its creative work environment. At Hanger 13, tools programmers work in tandem with content creators to give them the tools required to craft a polished AAA title. However, the most interesting part of the job description comes towards the end, where it is mentioned that the successful candidate will be expected to work on creating and maintaining virtual tools to aid in the development of “an unannounced multi-platform game currently in pre-production using Unreal Engine 5.”
It is extremely likely that this unannounced multi-platform title is none other than Mafia 4. However, if this game is indeed Mafia 4, it is curious that the title is still in pre-production, more than half of a year later, after Hangar 13 announced that it was working on the game. With that said though, it could be the case that pre-production on the project is nearing completion, with the conceptual stage almost over and full on development about to imminently begin.
Shortly after Nick Baynes took over Haden Blackman’s role as Hangar 13’s studio head and a number of layoffs took place, he claimed that he would work to get development on Mafia 5 approved by the series’ publishers 2K, while development on Mafia 4 was still taking place. The idea behind this was to allow the team to springboard into the next game’s development rather than being left in limbo to just work on patches and DLC. Perhaps the pre-production mentioned in the above job description is in fact referring to Mafia 5.
Another project that it could potentially be is something called Volt. Volt was the codename given to a sci-fi title that was being planned at Hangar 13 after the release of Mafia 3. However, Volt was ultimately canceled in 2021 due to a plethora of development hurdles and financial constraints, so it is unlikely that the untested IP has re-entered any sort of development.
Mafia 4 is in development.