Italian mafia game Mafia: The Old Country, about the Italian origins of the Italian mafia in Italy, will be launched in Czech, Russian, German, French, English and not in Italian

Personally, I believe strongly in both cultural authenticity and not knowing what’s going on. That’s why I play games like Assassin’s Creed, Metro 2033, and Indika in the native language of their environment. Why should I listen to British or American voice actors who affect accents when I can hear the game script in proper German, Spanish, or Russian?

Sadly, I don’t have such an option in the upcoming Mafia: The Old Country, the fourth game in the Mafia series and the second (or third, if you count the Mafia 1 remake) from dev studio Hangar 13. Fans were a little perplexed to see that – in The Old Country’s language list on its Steam page – it’s set to launch with full audio dubbing in English, French, German, Spanish, Czech, and Russian, but not Italian. This is despite the fact that The Old Country is about the origins of organized crime in Sicily, and every previous game in the series – including the one set in a fake New Orleans – has had the option. That’s right, folks:

If you want Italian, you’ll only find it as a UI and subtitle option, not as an audio one. I might laugh at it, but the decision is a little disappointing. I imagine there’s a line graph somewhere in the 2K or Hangar 13 offices that shows how an Italian dub just isn’t worth the resource investment, but I’ve always loved playing games in their “real” languages. I’m not alone. “The disrespect is insane,” writes Twitter user SagamiSword_, “How do you make a game about Mafia, set it in Italy, and not dub it in Italian, despite previous Mafia games being dubbed in that language?”

It’s not hard to find other fans who share the disappointment. “Why no Italian dub?” asks a Twitter user named RealNova00, “In a game set in (Italy)?”

“I’m Italian and this is quite disrespectful, we invented Mafia and we have the best dubbing actors in the world, I don’t want to hear Americans trying to imitate the Italian accent,” wrote another user, who went by the name th3l4stproph3t. “That’s really sad. It might be stupid but I’ve always preferred to consume media in its ‘original’ language,” wrote a disappointed Reddit user, while others in the same thread hoped for an Italian dub after the game comes out.

I hope so too, but either way I’ll be disappointed if I don’t get to experience my first runthrough of the game in authentic Italian. I have a immense soft spot for Mafia 3—a wonky game that I absolutely adored—so I’m looking forward to it regardless. I just wish I could have gotten it with a little straddle.

Anyway, I’ve reached out to 2K to ask why they didn’t include the language of love. I’ll update this piece if I hear back.