2K Games have announced that longtime Hangar 13 boss Haden Blackman has left the studio. Nick Baynes, who has been with the developer since 2018, will take his position in Brighton in the future. This emerges from an internal message that was leaked to PC Gamer. It says:
It is with mixed feelings that I share some news from Hangar 13 with you. Haden Blackman is stepping down as studio head of Hangar 13, leaving the company to pursue his passion for a new project.
We are grateful for Haden’s leadership in founding Hangar 13, building and bringing together teams in Novato, Brighton and Czech Republic, and releasing several mafia games and collections that have shaped the studio. What Haden helped to build will c ontinue and grow in the years to come. We support all of our employees to pursue their passions and we wish him all the best for his future journey.
Chief Operating Officer Matthew Urban also no longer works at Hangar 13, according to his LinkedIn page. There he writes the following:
What a great adventure at H13, let’s see what’s next.
According to Kotaku, Mafia 4 is already in development
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If you want to know why the Mafia 1 remake was so good, you should watch our test video!
Kotaku is said to have learned through internal reports that Mafia 4 is already in development. The project should have the working title Nero
wear and are still at a very early stage of development. The new Unreal Engine 5 is said to be used.
In addition, Mafia 4 is said to be a prequel, which fans of the series will be particularly pleased about: Since Mafia 3 was only moderately well received, a step back into the original epoch would probably be a real blessing for many fans.
Most recently, Hangar 13 worked on the remasters of the Mafia trilogy and assisted Gearbox developers on the title Tiny Tina’s Wonderland. According to Kotaku, the developers are said to have worked on several new projects in recent years, which were all rejected.
One of these titles is said to have been a spy game that worked a lot with music and names Rhapsody
wore. Another was a Destiny 2-esque co-op loot shooter by the name Volt
. However, this was discontinued by Take-Two, although it is said to have already devoured $ 53 million. The third and last game is said to have been some kind of loot-based ARPG, with the internal project name Mosaic
.
Of course, after so many failures, it wouldn’t be unlikely that Hangar 13 would rush back to their famous IP Mafia.
What would you like most from a prequel to the Mafia series? Tell us in the comments!
