Hangar 13, the developer of Mafia 3, has had yet another video game project cancelled. This one was supposed to be multiplayer and feature superheroes.
Amidst a large run of earning calls this week, Take-Two has disclosed a $53 million loss attributed to a cancelled project from Hangar 13. That’s the studio that formed from the ashes of Irrational Games and went on to develop Mafia III and the subsequent remastered collection.
According to sources that spoke to Bloomberg, the unannounced project had the codename of ‘Volt’. The project apparently ran into plenty of trouble during development with the project being restarted several times since it began in 2017. Sources close to the project also attribute difficulties to the COVID-19 pandemic and technological hiccups.
The concept of the cancelled game was reportedly a new IP for Hangar 13 and prominently featured superheroes. It was also supposed to be a competitive multiplayer title, though we don’t know much more than that. It’s a shame it’ll never see the light of day, especially if it turned out to be using licensed superheroes like the recent Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy games.
When will Hangar 13 catch a break?
Although Take-Two saw a $53 million loss by cancelling the project, Bloomberg reports that executives didn’t see it as a worthwhile investment. That’s mostly due to the amount of time the project was taking to get off the ground. Mafia III, the studio’s last standalone project, released in 2016 to mediocre critical acclaim.
It’s a shame that this developer seems to be going through the wringer at the moment. Much of the team is made up of ex-developers from Irrational Games when it closed its doors in 2014. Hopefully the team can find a project that it’s able to get out of the doors before long. In other grim earnings call news, EA has joined Ubisoft in expressing interest in the NFT and blockchain space.
What do you think Hangar 13’s cancelled game would have looked like? Let us know across our social channels.
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[Featured Image Credit: Take-Two/2K Games/Hangar 13]