It looks like we’re in line for a revival of the latter Mafia games, as a ratings board listing has outed the names of Mafia II: Definitive Edition and Mafia III: Definitive Edition. There is, of course, no official announcement on what these releases are or what form they’ll take, but this is a strong indication that they are, in fact, in some stage of development.
Both Mafia Definitive Editions are listed on Taiwan’s game rating site (via Nibel) for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with a date of December 31, 2020 – though that release day is certain to be a placeholder. There’s no further info on either release, so we don’t know if these are full remasters or more simple updates, though it’s safe to expect the original DLC to be bundled in with each game.
The ratings search shows no Definitive Edition for the original Mafia, arguably the one most in need of remastering – just the two sequels. Neither game is quite a stone-cold classic, though both have their fans, even if Mafia 2 suffered from a lack of open world content and Mafia 3 was terribly padded with a repetitive mission structure.
Ratings boards around the world have leaked plenty of remasters early, including updated versions of Saints Row: The Third, Age of Empires 2, Borderlands, BioShock, and Modern Warfare 2.
Even if we’re still a bit saturated with open-world games about the criminal underworld, I’ve got to ask… Mafia 4 when?