Mafia 4 has started development, will use Unreal Engine 5

If you ask me, last year was an incredible year for gaming. It kicked off with Elden Ring mania. God of War Ragnarök ended the year on a high, sweeping up during awards season. Indie hit Stray dominated alongside the major AAAs. Xbox seemingly lost their invite to their party but for the most part, it was a year chock full of major successes.

You may have forgotten then that in the summer, we got a small update on the future of the Mafia franchise. Back in May, reports online claimed that Mafia 4 had finally entered development. According to sources, the game is set to be a prequel and then later in August, 2K Games themselves confirmed that “work had started on an all-new Mafia project”. Well, we now know that the game will use Unreal Engine 5.

Take a look at this incredible UE5 The Matrix demo.

As spotted by Reddit user ielboy1, a Hangar 13 job listing appears to show that work is well underway on the upcoming Mafia instalment. The team is seeking a tools engineer. The interesting part though is that the job will require the individual to “create and maintain tools for an unannounced multi-platform game currently in pre-production using Unreal Engine 5.” It may not outright say so but it’s highly likely that this is referring to Mafia 4.

The franchise previously used the Illusion Engine so the switch to UE5 is an exciting prospect. If rumours are to be believed, it’s thought that the possible prequel could focus on the rise of the original Mafia’s Salieri crime family. Sources claim that the game will not be set in America which fits with the theory as the Saleri family, of course, come from Italy.

Sources also claimed that Hangar 13 had entered early development on Mafia 5, hoping that the franchise would ease some financial difficulties the studio has been experiencing. I’d take this with a pinch of salt for now, but at least we know one new Mafia title is on the way.