Mafia 3 studio's cancelled project was a multiplayer game with superheroes

In its new earnings statement, 2K Games parent company Take-Two points to a $53 million loss resulting from a cancelled unannounced project. The document is extremely light on details, but a new report suggests the project was in the hands of Hangar 13, the California studio responsible for Mafia 3 and the recent Mafia: Definitive Edition.

According to unnamed sources speaking to Bloomberg, the project was codenamed Volt and was an online game featuring superheroes. The game had been in development since 2017 and underwent "multiple iterations" but struggled for a number of reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic. The same report says that Hangar 13 employees will meet on Thursday to discuss the studio's "next steps."

Hangar 13 was founded in 2014, released Mafia 3 in 2016, and absorbed 2K Czech in 2017. The studio was hit with substantial layoffs in 2018 which were, in 2K Games' words, "to ensure that the studio's resources are properly aligned with its long-term development plans." Since then the studio hasn't announced any brand new games, though it did release Mafia: Definitive Edition—a ground-up remake of the original.

Hangar 13's VP of development Andy Wilson said in 2018 that it was working on a new IP. “While narrative is sort of a central pillar of our studio, I think you can expect us to not necessarily be in the same genre [as Mafia 3]. Maybe it will be single player, maybe it won’t…” he told Fandom.

While the cancellation of this long-in-gestation project will no doubt come as a blow, Hangar 13 is a big studio: it has offices in California, the UK, and the Czech Republic and is currently advertising for a huge number of dev positions. In other words, it's unlikely Volt was the only project the studio had in development.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.