Mafia: The Old Country release date shrinks to summer 2025

Leaked trailer makes weary news-writer offer he can't refuse

Open world fuhgeddaboudit simulator Mafia: The Old Country will release in summer 2025, according to a Youtube trailer that has leaked on social media ahead of tonight's Game Awards. The trailer also treats us to a few snippets of the game's story scenes, shoot-outs and punch-ups. We get to see wise guys swinging knives, riding horses and glowering silently at sun-baked Sicilian countryside.

It's all set to the sorrowful strains of Madama Butterfly. I was going to comment that Madama Butterfly takes place in Japan and as such, is a bizarre soundtrack for an Italian gangster game, but of course, the opera was composed by Puccini. See, this is the kind of high-quality research I can pack in when I get the details two hours in advance of the Game Awards, rather than writing trailers up like I am trying to catch bullets fired out of an actual Tommy gun.

Tommy guns feature in previous Mafia games, but they hadn't been invented at the time of Mafia: The Old Country's story. It's a prequel to the first three games, "set in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily". Expect "authentic realism and rich storytelling". Personally, I don't think you're allowed to be both authentic and realistic. It goes against nature. I'll allow it, though, because I enjoyed Mafia 3 for all its flaws. That game had the most incredible review bugs, but it had a lot of style. Being set in 1960s New Orleans definitely helped.

The Old Country is the work of Hangar 13, who are both the studio behind Mafia 3 and staffed by people who worked on Mafia 1 and 2. You might like to revisit last year's announcement trailer. There will probably be a fuller version of the leaked trailer at GeoffFest later tonight. I'll post it here when it lands.

Mafia: The Old Country settling on summer 2025 theoretically gives it a little headstart on 2K Games stablemate GTA 6, which parent company Take-Two Interactive are "highly confident" will launch in the autumn. Needless to say, it wouldn't go well for Mafia if the two rocked up side by side.

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