Daniel Vavra Speaks Out About Mafia: The Old Country

Speaking to representatives of Czech video game site Vortex, Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven development director and screenwriter Daniel Vávra shared his thoughts on the recently announced Mafia: The Old Country – a new installment in the Mafia series and a prequel to Mafia: Definitive Edition.

I’ve known about the game in development for a few years now, but I don’t really know much about it. And if I were you, I’d be more concerned about who’s writing it than whether you can drive cars in it. As many of you know, I often get annoyed by sequels to projects that have nothing in common with the original… I come up with an idea for a game, I make it, I write a script for it with a certain message, and then some foreigner comes along – Haden Blackman (writer and development director of Mafia 3 and Mafia: Definitive Edition, author’s note) – and creates something completely different and just slaps the name “Mafia” on it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hold a grudge against him, they’re just completely different games. And now someone else is doing the same thing. The game may be good, but at the same time it’s not at all what I thought it should be. Everyone may like it and I may not, but that’s not really important. What matters is whether it becomes a game worthy of the name “Mafia”. But anyway, I believe that a Mafia game in this setting has every chance to be good. The only question is who dares to write a story for it.

Mafia: The Old Country is being developed by Hangar 13, the studio responsible for Mafia 3 and Mafia: Definitive Edition. The game is scheduled for release in 2025. More information about the game will be available in December of this year.