Category: Video Games

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick is teasing a bright future for the Mafia franchise after this year’s prequel, Mafia: The Old Country, “performed well ahead of expectations.”

Zelnick spoke about the future of 2K Games’ long-running open-world crime series during an interview with IGN ahead of Take-Two’s Q2 financial report (the one with the latest GTA 6 delay). As developer Hangar 13 prepares to release new content and updates following The Old Country’s launch in August, the Take-Two boss teased that fans may eventually have more Mafia to look forward to.

“Definitely,” Zelnick said when asked if The Old Country performed well enough to instill confidence to continue the franchise. “We’re really excited about Mafia, and I think that’s a great question because it is sort of a reset for the franchise. We don’t have anything to announce — that comes from the label — but it definitely performed well ahead of expectations.”

It sounds like the decision to sell Mafia: The Old Country at a cheaper than expected $49.99 price point paid off, then. Fans praised The Old Country’s $50 price tag when it was confirmed, and publisher 2K and developer Hangar 13 managed expectations by stressing pre-launch that it was absolutely not a Grand Theft Auto-style open-world game, but a linear, narrative-driven game.

Take-Two stopped short of providing exact sales figures but said the early 1900s Sicily-set Mafia “quickly surpassed our internal expectations and affirmed our belief that consumer demand remains strong for premium, narrative-driven experiences that over-index on value.” Although it’s unclear when or how another Mafia game could materialize in the future, more new content and updates for The Old Country are confirmed to be in the works.

Mafia: The Old Country launched in August as a prequel for the crime drama video game franchise that first got its start with the original Mafia in 2002. The series saw semi-regular releases up until the launch of the divisive Mafia 3 in 2016, with only a group of well-received definitive edition remasters arriving to break up the wait for more in 2020. After nearly a decade of waiting for a new entry, it sounds like fans won’t have to wait quite as long for more.

Hangar 13 and 2K propped The Old Country up as a fresh start for Mafia when it released earlier this year, and it appears to be a plan that’s panning out. We called it “Great” in our 8/10 review. At the time of its release, we said, “Mafia: The Old Country is a conventional but effective return to the linear and tightly story-driven format of the original Mafia and Mafia II, and it boasts a wonderful eye and ear for detail.”

For more on The Old Country, you can read up on the Free Ride mode it received as part of a free update a few months back. You can also check out everything you need to know about its PC and console specs, features, and more.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Petit Planet is not the first to mimic Animal Crossing to some eyebrow-raising degrees, nor will it be the last. Developer HoYoverse doesn’t shy away from acknowledging the similarities – a character even balks at the idea of its new planet-owning lead falling into debt for merely having a home – though they don’t deny that upgrades will come at a price. In my short time of about five hours with a preview of the closed beta, Petit Planet offered a charming, “The Little Prince”-themed take on Animal Crossing: New Horizons with an emphasis on clear progression and multiplayer. While these are two things some seemed to crave and were left empty in ACNH, the Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail studio may offer an answer – with potential caveats.

For all I enjoyed about Petit Planet, I started disappointed with its opening on a lackluster character creator. The skin tone range is limited and the hairstyle options are a bummer, though more hair and eye styles and colors for each are available for in-game currency later on. I acknowledge this isn’t the final version of Petit Planet, so I’m hoping that’ll be the case for a game touting customization that limits its global players to four skintones, with only one looking darker than a light brush with the sun.

The overall setup of Petit Planet is that you’re joining three anthropomorphic animal members of a company called Loomi Co in developing a fledgling planet and exploring the surrounding galaxy. You get to choose between two with different environments and different starting planets to begin with. I chose the one described as “hot and dry” with golden prairies. As you complete tasks assigned by Mobai, the fill-in for Isabelle and Tom Nook, you’re given special water for an equally special tree that serves as the heart and, in a way, control center of your planet. With new levels and upgrades, the playable area takes shape with a multi-level field, larger river, and a beach and ocean. I liked that, after a point, I could take a look at the sorts of upgrades ahead, like a mountain area and new kinds of trees.

The first hour held a death grip on my playtime with confined tutorials and limited space for any sort of exploration or creativity, but it loosened up considerably after that, while still introducing new mechanics. The next three or four hours is where upgrades start getting locked behind daily progression. Not the mobile-game clock countdown kind, but real days similar to ACNH. Since Petit Planet access is tied to logging into a HoYoverse server, you can’t force your way forward by changing your device’s clock. That being said, I didn’t run out of interesting things to do while needing to wait.

I spent my time with familiar activities; smacking trees for fruit, catching bugs, picking flowers, smashing rocks for ore, fishing, and, a nice and quite different touch – using shellfish tongs to collect tidepool creatures. Then of course there’s crafting and cooking, all the things you’d expect, but with a dash of charm in the starry, round designs and constant, clear direction. Activities that involve tools require strength, or basically energy replenished by consuming fruit or food. Fruit and sources to make food were ample in my playtime, so this wasn’t much of a hassle.

I also enjoyed meeting the three Neighbors I encountered, or Petit Planet’s NPC residents who you invite to live on your planet and build relationships with. I especially love that, familiar to HoYoverse’s other games, each character has a distinct identity that goes deeper than their aesthetics and catchphrase. Each has background stories, and more information about them and their individual tastes that can be discovered over time. The first two are used as introductions to core mechanics, but I’m excited to see who else I’ll run into in space travels.

During my playtime, I unlocked access to a car of my own that let me explore the stars – with limitations. The car runs on earnable and purchasable (with in-game currency) batteries. One lasted me about two or three trips to random Planettes, or tiny planets in a sea of stars that have limited and sometimes unique resources or potential new Neighbors. I found one on these Planettes, and convinced her to move to my larger Planet.

The other place I was able to travel to was called the Galactic Bazaar, or an online multiplayer hub with two simple mini-games and plenty of spots to sit and chat with other players. More than any other game HoYoverse has made, Petit Planet looks intended to grab the attention of young audiences. The player characters even look like children. Yet when you get to the Galactic Bazaar, you’re immediately encouraged to sit and talk with strangers. The in-game text chat didn’t seem to have limits on mild expletives I tested. You do have to sit in certain spots in the Galactic Bazaar to chat with others, but as it is, I didn’t see any other ways to limit other player interactions in this space I had to visit as part of the main quests.

Safe online spaces for children are another conversation entirely, but I do hope HoYoverse has plans to make sure I’m not invading spaces of younger folks when I just want to play a game like Animal Crossing with my friends. That all being said, the official closed beta test FAQ calmed my worries a tad seeing that this beta test is limited to “users aged 18 and above,” so I’d like to imagine that more serious safety features beyond blocking others are on the way.

The other thing I’m worried about is pricing: what’s going to be the cost to play this free-to-play game? As with any of HoYoverse’s games, it seemed there were ample ways to earn the few currencies I saw in-game, but it’s hard to see exactly how that’ll work in the future. I doubt we’ll see HoYoverse relinquish its gacha method of random rewards mixed with a slight chance to get what you want, but it’s hard to say if characters, cosmetics, or both will be what they target for this. It’s also worth noting I found two different AI chatbots in Petit Planet. One as an on-demand source of in-game help, and another was a barista you can chat with in the Galactic Bazaar. These are easy to dodge if you don’t care to use them.

All that being said, Petit Planet being an online HoYoverse game is a potential massive strength. Progression has been clear and fun so far, and knowing how HoYoverse has supported its other big games, it’s highly probable that we’ll see this get plenty of updates, events, and regular quality-of-life support. Mobai mentioned that we don’t have a “restaurant yet,” and I’m already eyeing cute cosmetics I want to save for and whole furniture sets I want to craft. The data from my playtime will all be wiped, but I still couldn’t help but be excited about what the upgrades I’ve earned will bring to my planet tomorrow.

GTA 6 isn’t the only high-profile video game delayed today — Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra has suffered a delay of its own.

Coming just an hour after Rockstar announced GTA 6 had moved from May to November 2026, Skydance Games announced Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra was delayed “beyond early 2026.” In a statement, Skydance Games said the delay was necessary “to fully realize our vision.” Tellingly, no new release window was offered. This is yet another delay to Rise of Hydra, which in May was pushed out of 2025 to early 2026.

Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra is a narrative-driven adventure featuring Captain America, Azzuri, the Black Panther of the 1940s, Gabriel Jones of the Howling Commandos, and Nanali, a Wakandan spy embedded in Occupied Paris.

It hit the headlines early 2024 after an eye-catching trailer revealed as part of Epic Games’ State of Unreal event at GDC. It’s in development at the Skydance Games team, which is led by Hennig (Uncharted) and co-president Julian Beak.

Hennig’s Skydance team is also working on an untitled Star Wars game, which has yet to be fully revealed.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

GTA 6 is delayed again, this time to November 19, 2026, marking the game’s third delay since it first got a release window. But publisher Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick is “highly confident” that this is the last time.

Speaking to IGN on a call ahead of the announcement, Zelnick reiterated the company’s statement that the delay was simply for Rockstar to have time to polish the game. “We wanted to give Rockstar the appropriate amount of time to polish the title and make sure it can be the very best it can be,” he said.

Previously, Grand Theft Auto VI was announced for a fall 2025 release, which CEO Strauss Zelnick told me he felt confident in even as rumors swirled of a delay. The game was later delayed to May of 2026, with Take-Two and Rockstar similarly citing a need for polish.

So I asked Zelnick again: How confident do you feel in this new date? Do you think there’s any chance we’re looking at GTA 6 in 2027?

“I’m highly confident,” he replied “And at the same time, there have been limited circumstances where more time was required to polish a title and make sure that it was spectacular and that time has been well-spent, when our competitors go to market before something was ready, bad things happen. That said, that said, I’m highly confident on the new date.”

Take-Two reported net bookings of $1.96 billion in the best second quarter in company history thanks to the releases of NBA 2K26, Mafia: The Old Country, and Borderlands 4. GTA V continues to sell millions each quarter, having now reached over 220 million units sold lifetime.

Meanwhile, Take-Two fired dozens of employees last week, alleging they leaked “confidential information in a public forum.” Those employees claim they were actually fired for discussing unions and organization at the company, and protested their firing in front of Rockstar North and Take-Two’s UK offices today.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.