Take-Two: Mafia III will ‘absolutely’ be as big as BioShock and Borderlands

Take-Two wants its Mafia series to sit alongside Borderlands and BioShock as one of its biggest games franchises.

The game is published by Take-Two’s 2K division and is being created by Hanger 13, a new development unit set-up to work specifically on Mafia III – which is due to launch in 2016.

The reaction to the reveal has been huge, actually,” Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told MCV, referring to the game’s debut at Gamescom last week.

We’ve had enormously positive feedback and an enormous amount of social traffic, more than ever before, in fact. It is looking very strong, I’m very excited about it.”

Speaking during Take-Two’s latest earnings calls, Zelnick also dismissed comparisons between Mafia III and fellow open-world crime series Grand Theft Auto, saying that GTA ‘is not up for comparison to any game’.

But, he told MCV that the firm was ‘absolutely’ placing Mafia alongside Borderlands and BioShock as one of its 2K tentpole brands.

The last one, Mafia II, sold about six million units, so it’s certainly very successful,” he revealed.

We have high hopes for Mafia III.”