A while ago, while reporting on a possible sequel to Red Dead Redemption, we stated that Take Two Interactive was working on "an unannounced AAA game that will be released in the current fiscal year". It looks like that AAA game is not a sequel to Red Dead Redemption (yet), but it will be the sequel to Mafia II. This is what is known about Mafia 3's release date and news.
According to Ubergizmo, 2K Games officially confirmed last Tuesday that Mafia 3 is under development, and it plans to provide its fans a lot more information within the coming month. Fans have been awaiting this game since Mafia 2 was released in 2010, and the first installment otherwise known as Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven was released way back in 2002. Mafia II was developed by 2K's Czech studio, which recently closed its office early last year. Mafia 3 will be designed by 2K Studio hangar 13.
There has been years of rumors surrounding the game, as it was even reported that 2K Czech was working on a sequel to Mafia II all the way back in March 2012, two years before that branch of the studio had officially closed. It was also told that there was a year of pre-production work on Mafia 3, and reported later in 2012 that Mafia 3 would be released for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, which it will come to assuming the official release date isn't too far in the future.
For those unfamiliar with the Mafia franchise, Mafia II is an action adventure game that is based in Empire Bay which is a fictional city that is a mix of several real cities including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and Detroit. The player is a gangster trying to climb the ranks of the Mafia crime families, told with a third-person perspective.
So very little is known about Mafia 3, but it will probably take place in the 1940's. The company 2K said this statement that was also pretty vague, according to Gamespot: "Mafia III is the next installment in the popular series known for immersing players into a world of organized crime through rich narrative storytelling and a beautifully crafted game world featuring period-accurate cars, music, and fashion." It looks like they are going out of their way to make the game as historically accurate as possible.
There isn't much revealed about Mafia 3, but 2K Games plans on giving a lot more information at Gamescom, a conference that begins on August 5th in Cologne, Germany. There is also a tweet from 2K United Kingdom saying that the announcement trailer is on August 8th, 2015 at 1PM BST. As far as an official release date, when gamers can get a hold of it for the Xbox One or PS4, that will most likely be revealed there. Perhaps it will come out as soon as this holiday season, but it might not have Xbox 360 or PS3 versions.
