Mafia III to release in April 2016, retail listings suggest

An April 2016 release for Mafia III may have potentially been leaked following listings from two major retailers.

An image, submitted to IGN, appears to show an April 26, 2016 release date for the third instalment in the series on display at a retail shop in the US.

A listing on another retailer’s website also lists the title as releasing on the same day.

2K have since denied the potential release date, stating the date is simply “common practice for retailers” due to the store’s operating systems.

“Mafia III will release in calendar 2016 during Take-Two Interactive’s fiscal year 2017,” read the statement to IGN.

“No official release date has been announced at this time. It is common practice for retailers to list placeholder dates before an official release date has been announced due to the requirements of their operating systems.”

Set in a reimagined New Orleans in 1968, one of the most tumultuous years in American history, a cloud of corruption hangs in the air and the city has become a haven for organized crime. The Italian mob controls illegal gambling, drugs, and prostitution, while corrupt police and politicians line their pockets with the proceeds.

Players follow the story of Lincoln Clay, a disenfranchised Vietnam veteran, returning from combat and looking for a home and a place to belong. Orphaned as a child, Lincoln at last achieves a semblance of family with the city’s black mob, finding the surrogate father and brother he has longed for.

But when Lincoln’s new family is betrayed and slaughtered by the Italian mob, he becomes fixated on revenge and wages a brutal war against the Italians, whilst also building an empire and a new family of his own that transforms the city.

Mafia III is developed by a newly formed 2K development studio, Hangar 13, after 2K Czech, the developers of Mafia and Mafia II, previously shut doors and moved to 2K headquarters in California.

It will be available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC.

A trailer was previously released in August 2015.