Over the last couple of days, it has been reported that Hangar 13 has lost its studio head, Haden Blackman. The news came via an internal email to staff at the studio, where it was revealed that Blackman is looking to explore "a new endeavour" elsewhere, as Kotaku reports.
But, in this same report, it was also added that Hangar 13 is apparently working on a new Mafia game, one that is actually a prequel to the mainline series. It's said that this game is codenamed Nero, and that despite creating an engine for Mafia III and the recent remasters, Hangar 13 will be using Unreal Engine 5 to develop the game.
There's not a whole lot of other information about the game, especially since there has yet to be an official announcement from 2K or Hangar 13. But what the report does state is that alongside losing Blackman, the studio's chief operating officer Matthew Urban has decided to leave the developer as well.
This comes as the developer has been attempting to begin work on a variety of new IPs since the release of Mafia III, projects that have failed to impress parent company Take-Two and ultimately have been dismissed. This lack of creative freedom has seemingly not gone down too well with developers, as it's noted that several other employees are also looking to exit the British studio.