The rumors still spoke true: a new Mafia is indeed in development on PC and next-gen consoles, PS5 and Xbox Series. The formalization comes from Roman Hladík, the general manager of the Hangar 13 studio, who spoke in an internal interview dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the series and posted on the official Mafia games website. The man confirms that the development of the new episode to begin, without specifying the beginning of the production. However, if we go back in our archives, we see that the first rumors date back to 2019 with the legal deposit of a new Mafia logo never seen before. This would mean that the game has been in development for at least 3 years and the announcement could be at the end of the year (at the Video Game Awards) or next year at E3. 
Finally, can you tell us what the Mafia franchise has in store for us?
Hladík: I'm happy to confirm that we have started working on a brand new Mafia project! Although it will be a few more years and we cannot say more at this time, we are excited to continue working on this franchise that we love, and to offer our players brand new stories.
According to the latest rumors, including those from Kotaku released in May of this year, the code name of the project would be Nero, and it would not be a sequel but a prequel that could take place before the event. of the trilogy. This would mean that the story would take place before the 1930s, which would be a big challenge for the developers, forced to start from scratch in terms of assets, with a new universe to introduce. According to Kotaku, the engine used would be the Unreal Engine 5, which would greatly facilitate production, given the problems related to the in-house engine used for Mafia 2. Wait & see for the veracity of this info...
