Mafia III is a open world action-adventure video game developed by Hangar 13 and published by 2K Games. It was released in October 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows, and in May 2017 for macOS.[2] It is the third main game in the Mafia series, and the sequel to Mafia II. Set within the fictional city of New Bordeaux, based on New Orleans, the single-player story follows Lincoln Clay, a criminal who aims to build a new crime organization while seeking revenge on the Italian mob.
The development of Mafia III began soon after Mafia II's release, but initially had problems. 2K Czech, the developer of the series' first installments, oversaw restructure, with much of the development team assigned to the company's new studio, Hangar 13. After deciding on recreating New Orleans in 1968, the development team drew influence from the series' previous projects, and designed the game around Clay to replicate the core structure of its predecessors. Much of the development work constituted the open world's creation, and several team members conducted field research around Louisiana to capture footage for the design team. The game's soundtrack features several licensed songs composed by various musicians who were active during the time period.
Upon release, the game received mixed reviews, with praise directed at its story, characters, darker themes, and soundtrack. However, some of the gameplay mechanics and the presence of technical issues drew criticism. The game would go onto have great commercial success, and became one of the best-selling video games in 2K history, with 4.5 million copies shipped in its first week of sales. It was later confirmed to have shipped 5 million copies worldwide.