It's been three years since the release of Mafia 3, and the series has seemingly been dormant ever since. Despite being 2K Games' fastest selling title at the time, beating out even the likes of Borderlands, the publisher has remained silent about the franchise's future ever since, making it appear incredibly unlikely that a sequel would ever appear. However, some recently discovered trademarks could suggest that not only is a Mafia 4 in the works, but a remaster of Mafia 2 as well.
Last month, three trademarks have been registered by 2K's parent company, Take-Two Interactive. Two of them are simply for Mafia, and come with different logos. The first of them uses the exact same type of font that was used for the first two games, while the second one is completely different. It's possible that these are simply place-holders for when the trademarks are updated, but some suspect that at least one of them is indicative of a Mafia 4.
As for the third trademark, it directly mentions Mafia 2 and even features the game's logo. While it could be argued that Take-Two are just renewing the trademark and don't actually have any new plans for the title, the fact that this has happened within the same time-frame as those two other trademarks suggests the opposite. It's also likely that, should this be the case, Mafia 3 developer Hangar 13 will be involved with these releases, due to a trademark for a new logo being registered as well. While the studio was unfortunately hit with massive lay-offs following Mafia 3's release, it has still been working on a yet-to-be announced new IP for the last couple of years.
If true, this news would certainly be welcome for fans of the series. Despite the aforementioned success of Mafia 3, it didn't fare well critically, regarded by many as a poor Grand Theft Auto clone with clunky gameplay. We even listed it as one of the most disappointing games of 2016, having failed to quite match up the hype surrounding its announcement.
As for 2K Games, it is currently enjoying a whole new level of success thanks to Borderlands 3, which had the most successful launch in the publisher's whole history. Maybe it's because it knew Borderlands 3 would be such a success for the publisher that 2K are willing to take a slight risk on a less popular series like Mafia, but trademarks are not a guaranteed confirmation. If these rumored titles are real, we can probably expect an official announcement by the end of the year.
Mafia 3 is currently available for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
Source: SegmentNext