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New Trademark filing by 2K Games might suggest a new Mafia game

MauroNL

MauroNL

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Oct 26, 2017
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mafiaunjyb.png


A new trademark filing by Take-Two Interactive on August 2, 2019 in the US might suggest a new Mafia game is imminent.The "Word Mark", "MAFIA" with serial number "88564555", was filed under Goods and Services: "Entertainment services, namely, providing online games, providing a website featuring computer games and video games, and news, information, tips, hints, contests, computer interface themes, enhancements, audio-visual content, music, films, videos, television programs, animated series, and other multimedia materials in the field of computer games and video games; providing information, news and commentary in the field of computer games and video games." One thing that sticks out is that this "word mark" is for a stylized text-based logo that's never been used for any of the previous MAFIA games, naturally, sparking the possibility of MAFIA 4.

The Scrapped Mafia 4 Concept Might Return
Back in 2017, the development team at Hanger 13 split into two groups. One kept working on improving MAFIA 3 and its DLC while the other moved to the companies' next project.
The very first idea they had was MAFIA 4 and it sounds amazing. The game was supposed to be set in the 1970's Las Vegas, with the "glitz and glamor of mob-controlled Sin City."
Sadly, the project never went past the early development phase. Studio head Haden Blackman met with Take-Two and decided to scrap MAFIA 4 in favor of a brand new game.

The way it was pitched in the big all-hands meeting was: Mafia IV was a great thing, it's exciting," one anonymous source tells Kotaku. "But we've always wanted to do our own IP.
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Creating a new project in the midst of layoffs and cut-backs is hard to do. Either you bet on a new game or stick to a tried and tested IP that might work better in terms of revenue. It is a tricky decision and while initially, they scrapped MAFIA 4, this new trademark suggests things might have changed down the road.
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Might be Hangar 13 but iirc they were supposedly handling the new Bioshock game but this was or is unconfirmed. Maybe jschreier can shed some more light on this.
 
_zoipi

_zoipi

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Nov 23, 2017
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WAsn't Mafia III a commercial flop?

I recall very few people liking it and not grasping much in the charts. Do people even care about the Mafia franchise?
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
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Oct 25, 2017
93,051
Takahashi said:
WAsn't Mafia III a commercial flop?

I recall very few people liking it and not grasping much in the charts. Do people even care about the Mafia franchise?
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Yet it was one of the best written and acted games in recent memory. They should have scrapped the game part and made an HBO series
 
Siggy-P

Siggy-P

Avenger
Mar 18, 2018
11,865
Hope they cut back on the faction stuff. Mafia 3 had an amazing story and some stand out set pieces but you spend most of your time unlocking districts and doing shitty side mission stuff to unlock more buildings.

By the time you get to proper main story revenge missions you're already burnt out or the pacing was fucked.
 
jschreier

jschreier

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Oct 25, 2017
1,083
MauroNL said:
Might be Hangar 13 but iirc they were supposedly handling the new Bioshock game but this was or is unconfirmed. Maybe jschreier can shed some more light on this.
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An unannounced new studio code-named Parkside that's located right next to Hangar 13 is handling the new Bioshock. Last I heard, Hangar 13 was working on a new IP. I have no idea if anyone's making a new Mafia but a lot of the people who worked on that original Mafia 4 pitch aren't even there anymore.
 
Bony Manifesto

Bony Manifesto

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,586
There has to be something in the works. Hangar 13 has 4 worldwide studios and we have no idea what any of them are working on, and the only thing they've been credited with since Mafia 3 in 2016 are the free 'Ultra HD' updates to the Borderlands games.
 
Kemono

Kemono

▲ Legend ▲
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,669
Good.

Even Mafia 3 was a great game until the extreme repetition set in.

Give your developers the time and budget to make a great game and people will love it.
 
OP
OP
MauroNL

MauroNL

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Oct 26, 2017
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jschreier said:
An unannounced new studio code-named Parkside that's located right next to Hangar 13 is handling the new Bioshock. Last I heard, Hangar 13 was working on a new IP. I have no idea if anyone's making a new Mafia but a lot of the people who worked on that original Mafia 4 pitch aren't even there anymore.
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Thanks for reaching out. Interesting stuff on Bioshock. Very curious how that will turn out, though I have a feeling its a long ways off sadly.
 
9-Volt

9-Volt

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Oct 27, 2017
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New Mafia game? Nah, just give me the remake of the first one. It's still the one of best sandbox game ever made and it deserves a remake more than anything. It needs some licensed jazz music though.
 
Vandal Deca

Vandal Deca

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Oct 21, 2018
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I actually loved Mafia III despite its gameplay flaws. Got super invested in the characters, more than in previous games in the series. I have been begging for a game like that set in the 1970s and I hope that's what this turns out to be.
 
Kemono

Kemono

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Oct 27, 2017
7,669
MauroNL said:
Thanks for reaching out. Interesting stuff on Bioshock. Very curious how that will turn out, though I have a feeling its a long ways off sadly.
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Isn't the developement of the next BioShock going on for years now? I would believe we'll see this new entry in the next 2 years.
 
Patitoloco

Patitoloco

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Oct 27, 2017
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jschreier said:
An unannounced new studio code-named Parkside that's located right next to Hangar 13 is handling the new Bioshock. Last I heard, Hangar 13 was working on a new IP. I have no idea if anyone's making a new Mafia but a lot of the people who worked on that original Mafia 4 pitch aren't even there anymore.
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I would have bet on Hangar 13 working on this. To be fair, Wikipedia states that Hangar 13 is actually pretty big, so maybe they have one team working on the new IP and another in Mafia 4.

At any case, more Mafia always sounds nice. Very few open world games try so much with the story as 2 and 3.
 
ThreepQuest64

ThreepQuest64

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Oct 29, 2017
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9-Volt said:
It's still the one of best sandbox game
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It was anything but a sandbox game which made it so great in my eyes. Mafia 1 and 2 never wanted to be anything even similar to GTA with all those side activities. Pure focus on the narrative with little to no detraction and a city that was mere but believable backdrop.

I hope they will return to that with Mafia 4 or at least make that shit grind from Mafia 3 optional and focus on storytelling as they did in Mafia 3's DLCs.
 
TUFCfan

TUFCfan

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Oct 27, 2017
563
Wonder if development of the series has returned back to the former 2K Czech/Illusion Softworks team now they're part of Hangar 13?
 
shadowman16

shadowman16

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Oct 25, 2017
31,874
9-Volt said:
New Mafia game? Nah, just give me the remake of the first one. It's still the one of best sandbox game ever made and it deserves a remake more than anything. It needs some licensed jazz music though.
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So damn true. The original Mafia deserves more praise than it gets, it has my favourite crime based story in any game ever, granted GTA gives you more things to do in their sandbox, but the story was nowhere close to as gripping in any of the GTA games as it was in the original Mafia (heck, or Mafia 2, which I still enjoyed loads). Its just such a pity that the original Mafia was ported to PS2/Xbox as either console was just woefully underpowered to handle the game, the ports were abysmal (playing it on PC is the only way to go!)
 
kostacurtas

kostacurtas

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9,060
Takahashi said:
I recall very few people liking it and not grasping much in the charts. Do people even care about the Mafia franchise?
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The core gameplay and the story was really great. Graphics was sometimes a hit, sometimes a miss.

The main issue of the game is that was very repetitive.

To be honest I loved it and I am sure in for a new one.

And for sure people care about the Mafia franchise:

2K Games shipped more than 4.5 million copies of Mafia 3 during the game's first week on sale, making it the fastest-selling game in its history
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CircusOfValues

CircusOfValues

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Nov 5, 2017
301
Mafia III was cool, played the DLCs too and enjoyed it.

Despite this, it did suffer from the whole 'open-world-fatigue' we're all aware of.

If they can improve on the (already nice) atmosphere and add some more Mafia-mechanics in then IV could be amazing.
 
Soviet

Soviet

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Oct 28, 2017
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I'll have the same writing and story, but without the insanely bad mission structure, thanks.
 
Hybrid Rainbow

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Vandal Deca said:
I actually loved Mafia III despite its gameplay flaws. Got super invested in the characters, more than in previous games in the series. I have been begging for a game like that set in the 1970s and I hope that's what this turns out to be.
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Same here. Hell, I wouldn't mind bringing Lincoln Clay back as the protagonist for the next game too. Such an awesome character.
 
shadowman16

shadowman16

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Oct 25, 2017
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I'm probably one in a very small number, but I'd love a Mafia 2 remaster, one that puts all the content that was cut back in. Its pretty crazy just how the game has pretty much no side content in the game, however that was never the plan (there's a large list detailing loads of side content which was originally planned, but all was cut making the game feeling rather empty).
 
Falchion

Falchion

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There's definitely some lessons to take away from 3 and I think they've still got some mileage for this franchise.
 
Huey

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Would love to see a direct sequel to Mafia 1, that 1920s era/music/aesthetic is just endlessly intoxicating for me. As the series moves further away from it, I'm less and less interested (though I appreciate they're doing mafia through the ages)
 

Kyle Barrett

Banned
Mar 5, 2018
125
HueyFreeman said:
Would love to see a direct sequel to Mafia 1, that 1920s era/music/aesthetic is just endlessly intoxicating for me. As the series moves further away from it, I'm less and less interested (though I appreciate they're doing mafia through the ages)
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I'm with you dude. Might take a bit of a hit diversity wise though, I did like that about 3.
 
ThousandEyes

ThousandEyes

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1,388
HueyFreeman said:
Would love to see a direct sequel to Mafia 1, that 1920s era/music/aesthetic is just endlessly intoxicating for me. As the series moves further away from it, I'm less and less interested (though I appreciate they're doing mafia through the ages)
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I kind of agree.... the production and acting were great in Mafia 3, and Lincoln was a fine character, but it really didn't feel like Mafia to me

(And no, it's not because Lincoln was black or any type of racist crap)

but it felt just too fast paced, there wasn't any really slowness or deliberateness to the game it was kind of action to action. It felt more like a GTA game than Mafia 1 or 2
 
Cliff Steele

Cliff Steele

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Oct 28, 2017
4,477
Mafia 3 could've been one of the greatest games this gen. It was superbly written and acted, the atmosphere was fantastic and the music selection best in an Open World game next to GTA. The shooting was also really satisfying.

But unfortunately they killed the flow completely by stuffing the game up with repeating tasks and bloat.

A tighter experience and people would hold it dearly.
 
Jasper

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Bony Manifesto said:
There has to be something in the works. Hangar 13 has 4 worldwide studios and we have no idea what any of them are working on, and the only thing they've been credited with since Mafia 3 in 2016 are the free 'Ultra HD' updates to the Borderlands games.
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They're supposed to be one big studio though, not multiple teams working on seperate projects. That plan might have changed, but it's not how the expansion to Brighton was presented.
 
Truant

Truant

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Oct 28, 2017
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The Mafia 3 combat/gunplay was something else. Weapons felt so lethal and powerful. Too bad the game felt very hollow outside the combat. Very little depth to character progression and gear, and not that many systems to engage with outside the basic framework.
 
AudioEppa

AudioEppa

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Oct 27, 2017
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In.

Make it about a young black guy who's working for Lincoln in the 80s. Have Don Clay became a complete power hungry piece of shit. Let the new guy take his abusive BS until something needs to changed.

Also I hope the return to making the city more like mafia 2. Smaller with crazy detail to make it pop. Going bigger is a wast of time.
 
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