Hangar 13 president Nick Baynes says GTA does not steer Mafia development. Here is how The Old Country's tighter crime drama pitch differs from sandbox expectations.
Image: IGDB
Store links: Mafia: The Old Country on Steam, Mafia: The Old Country - Man of Honor on Steam, Mafia: The Old Country - Padrino Pack on Steam
Hangar 13 says GTA is not the steering wheel
Hangar 13 president Nick Baynes has pushed back on the long-running habit of measuring Mafia against Grand Theft Auto, telling IGN that GTA does not come up inside the studio as a creative reference point for the series. Asked whether Rockstar's crime sandbox factors into Mafia decision-making, Baynes said Hangar 13 has its own path and that the comparison is “an Internet thing,” according to IGN's interview. GamingBolt also reported the comments, noting Baynes said the subject “never ever” comes up as a touchpoint or strategy guide during development.
That is the concrete development, and it lands in a familiar pressure point for Mafia: The Old Country. The series has lived in GTA's shadow since the first Mafia followed Grand Theft Auto 3 by roughly a year in the early 2000s, as IGN and GamingBolt both note. The surface overlap is easy to see from a distance. Both franchises deal in crime, guns, cars, and urban danger. The tension is that Mafia's actual design pitch, especially in The Old Country, is built around pace, authorship, and criminal tragedy rather than player-made chaos.
Baynes did not frame the comparison as a rivalry Hangar 13 needs to win. He framed it as a conversation happening around the studio, not inside it. IGN described him as keen to dismiss the comparison, even avoiding direct discussion of Rockstar's upcoming GTA 6. That avoidance is its own signal: Hangar 13 does not appear interested in selling Mafia as a counterpunch to GTA. It wants The Old Country judged as a focused mob story.
The Old Country is pitched as a Sicilian crime drama, not a toybox
The clearest evidence is 2K's own public positioning for Mafia: The Old Country. The official Mafia site describes the game as a “gritty mob story” set in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily, with the player uncovering the origins of organized crime. The listing emphasizes cinematic storytelling, family loyalty, rival crime factions, and the contrast between Sicily's rugged countryside and the violence running beneath it.
That framing matters because it tells players where the game wants their attention. The Old Country follows Enzo Favara, whose story moves through the Torrisi crime family and the early formation of organized crime in Sicily, according to 2K's materials and public listings. Wikipedia's game summary, reflecting the public record for the 2025 release, describes it as an action-adventure game developed by Hangar 13 and published by 2K, set decades before the first Mafia and focused on Enzo becoming entangled in the rise and fall of the fictional Torrisi family.
This is a different promise from an open world sandbox. A sandbox invites improvisation: steal the car, test the police response, ignore the mission marker, turn the city into a machine for anecdotes. Mafia: The Old Country, by contrast, is described in public listings as a third-person, linear, narrative-driven game set in cinematic environments. Wikipedia notes that while players can diverge from the main path during certain story chapters to explore or reach optional objectives, the game is primarily linear.
That distinction is central to the Mafia The Old Country open world conversation. The Old Country may contain explorable spaces, vehicles, weapons, and optional movement within chapters, but the reported and listed pitch is not a promise of boundless systemic play. It is closer to a crime film structure: scenes arranged for pressure, betrayal, violence, and consequence.
The GTA comparison got louder because timing made it unavoidable
The comparison did not reappear in a vacuum. IGN tied the renewed discussion to the run-up to Mafia: The Old Country, when the outlet says the game at one point looked as if it might release near GTA 6. IGN wrote that Hangar 13's developers had to explain the point of difference and manage expectations around why the comparison was unfair. The Old Country ultimately released in August 2025, according to GamingBolt, with Wikipedia listing August 8, 2025 for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.
That timing put a mid-scope, story-first crime game in the orbit of the industry's loudest open world franchise. Even if Hangar 13 was not using GTA as a design benchmark, the market conversation could still drag Mafia into that frame. This is where Baynes' “Internet thing” comment is useful, but incomplete on its own. The internet did not invent the fact that both games involve criminals and cars. It did, however, flatten the practical difference between a tightly directed mob drama and a game expected to function as a giant long-term sandbox.
IGN's own analysis made that split explicit, describing Mafia games as linear, story-driven affairs built around gritty drama, while GTA is known for mayhem, parody, and a much broader scope. GamingBolt made a similar distinction in its report, noting Mafia has historically revolved more around serious mob stories while Grand Theft Auto is more associated with sandbox gameplay and parody.
For readers searching Mafia The Old Country GTA comparisons, that is the useful frame. The overlap is genre costume. The design contract is different.
A tighter scope changes the rhythm of play
The Old Country's design pitch also changes how its action should be understood. In a GTA-style sandbox, combat, driving, police heat, side activity, and exploration often generate their own rhythm between missions. In a linear Mafia structure, those elements are more likely to serve scene pacing. A shootout is not only a combat encounter; it is part of a chapter's rising tension. A drive through Sicily is not primarily a commute to a checklist; it can be a mood piece, a breath before betrayal, or the setup for the next controlled escalation.
That does not automatically make one approach better. It does mean players should not expect the same kind of freedom. Wikipedia's public summary says critics praised The Old Country's narrative, characters, Sicilian setting, visuals, and return to a linear structure, while criticizing elements including a static open world, dated gameplay mechanics, repetitive combat, and clichéd storytelling. Those reported reactions point to the tradeoff. A focused structure can sharpen story delivery, but it also leaves less room for players who judge crime games by how much unscripted trouble they can create.
This is where the Mafia developer GTA comments become less defensive and more clarifying. If Hangar 13 is not steering by GTA, then The Old Country's combat rhythm and set-piece design should be evaluated against the game it claims to be: a cinematic third-person crime story. The questions become whether its chapters land with force, whether Enzo's rise has dramatic weight, whether gunfights and stealth support the mood, and whether the Sicilian setting feels like a lived-in stage for the story rather than an underused open world.
Those are not the same questions players bring to GTA. They are buyer's-guide questions for a different kind of crime game.
Man of Honor keeps Enzo on the same narrative track
The post-launch path reinforces the point. Hangar 13 and 2K's official page for Mafia: The Old Country now spotlights Man of Honor, a story expansion set in Sicily in winter 1905. According to 2K, the DLC takes place after Enzo Favara has proven himself a reliable soldier of the Torrisi crime family. Don Torrisi entrusts Enzo and Cesare with assisting Ennio Salieri, recently released from prison and intent on reclaiming what is his.
2K says Man of Honor continues Enzo's story across two new chapters and adds fresh environments, weapons, vehicles, and Charms. The official listing also describes new Free Ride content in which players team up with Salieri for exclusive jobs and extreme challenges, with collectibles and hidden locations to discover. The page states that the base game is required and that some content requires unlocking through gameplay.
GamingBolt reported that Hangar 13 was fresh off the release of Man of Honor and summarized the expansion's story as pulling Enzo deeper into the Valle Dorata underworld. In its review, GamingBolt gave the DLC a 7 out of 10, praising its cutscenes, voice acting, and Free Ride content, while criticizing predictable story beats and instant-fail stealth segments.
Taken together, the official DLC pitch and that review context suggest continuity rather than reinvention. Man of Honor adds content, but the spine remains authored crime drama: Enzo, family obligation, dangerous assignments, and loyalty tested under pressure. The Free Ride additions broaden the package, yet the marquee promise remains story chapters in a specific criminal world.
What players should expect before buying
If you are coming to Mafia: The Old Country because you want another GTA, the available sources point in the opposite direction. Hangar 13's president says GTA does not steer the studio's Mafia strategy. IGN and GamingBolt both describe the franchises as fundamentally different in scope and tone. Public listings describe The Old Country as linear and narrative-driven, with some room to explore during certain chapters rather than a full sandbox built around open-ended mayhem.
If you want a cinematic mob story, the case is stronger. 2K's official language sells early 1900s Sicily, organized crime origins, treachery, family loyalty, and third-person action-adventure storytelling. The game is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, according to GamingBolt and public listings. IGN also noted that publisher 2K sold The Old Country for $50 at launch, positioning it differently from the larger premium-release expectations surrounding GTA.
The edition path is also clear from 2K's site. The Standard Edition includes the full base game. The Mafia: The Old Country Definitive Edition includes the base game, Man of Honor expansion, several bonus packs, and digital bonus materials including an art book and soundtrack content for the base game and expansion. For Man of Honor specifically, 2K states that the base game is required.
The practical guidance is simple: do not buy Mafia: The Old Country expecting a Rockstar-scale playground. Buy it, or wait for a sale, based on whether a directed crime drama with controlled pacing is what you want. Baynes' comments do not erase the comparison from search results or message boards, but they do clarify Hangar 13's intent. Mafia is not trying to out-sandbox GTA. The Old Country is trying to put you inside a mob story and keep the camera tight when the knives come out.