Take-Two believes that Mafia 3 will be as big as BioShock and Borderlands in terms of franchise sizes.
The publisher is looking to take Mafia 3 into the big leagues as one of the biggest franchises in its collection.
Mafia 3 is in development at Hanger 13, a brand new 2K Games division set-up specifically to work on the game.
The Mafia 2 successor was announced at GamesCom and the first gameplay footage was shown off behind closed doors at the Cologne-based show.
“The reaction to the reveal has been huge, actually,” said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick to MCV.
“We’ve had enormously positive feedback and an enormous amount of social traffic, more than ever before, in fact. It is looking very strong. I’m very excited about it.”
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Speaking during Take-Two’s earnings call earlier this month, Zelnick dismissed any comparisons between fellow open-world title GTA and Mafia 3.
He emphasised that GTA “is not up for comparison to any game”, which we’re inclined to believe.
However, that didn’t stop Zelnick from saying Take-Two is “absolutely” placing Mafia alongside Borderlands and BioShock as one of the main 2K franchises.
“The last one, Mafia 2, sold about six million units, so it’s certainly successful,” added Zelnick. “We have high hopes for Mafia 3.”
The Mafia 3 release date is currently pencilled in for 2016. It tells the story of Lincoln Clay, a mixed-race man living in 1968 New Orleans facing daily violent racism and a huge revenge plot.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.