Mafia Dev Dismisses GTA Comparisons as an 'Internet Thing'

The Mafia series has long been compared to Grand Theft Auto, a rivalry that dates back to the original Mafia game's release in 2002, just a year after GTA 3. Nearly 25 years later, as the launch of last year's Mafia: The Old Country approached, GTA once again entered the conversation. For a while, it seemed The Old Country might launch around the same time as the highly anticipated GTA 6. The developers had to clarify their game's unique appeal, address the unfair comparisons, and manage fan expectations. In the end, Mafia dodged a bullet when GTA 6 was delayed from fall 2025 to May 2026; it would have been interesting to see Hangar 13 president Nick Baynes' reaction to that news.

But are those comparisons entirely unwarranted? And does GTA ever influence Hangar 13's decisions on Mafia? Absolutely not, Baynes told me in an extensive oral history of the franchise.

"I think genuinely at the studio, we've got our own path," Baynes said. "It genuinely never comes up in conversation as a touchpoint or steering our strategy or anything like that. Obviously, there are a lot of stories about that game out there right now because something's coming out later this year! But yeah, genuinely, I think it's an internet thing. It's not something the studio looks at. So I'm afraid there's not a rich vein of answers to give you for that."

Baynes is eager to dismiss comparisons to GTA, specifically GTA 6 (he won't even name it, as if it were the industry's equivalent of Lord Voldemort), but the comparisons persist. They pop up occasionally on social media and subreddits, but fans of Mafia often jump in to say the games are nothing alike, despite both being crime stories with guns and cars.

Mafia games are linear, story-driven experiences focused on gritty drama, while GTA is a sandbox of chaos as much as a story. Mafia is more like Goodfellas, while GTA is a parody of Americana. The scope also differs greatly. Mafia games have struggled when they've tried to go bigger and offer a more traditional open world. In my opinion, they're best when they're like The Old Country: focused, tight, and a fun ride you can finish in a reasonable time. Publisher 2K smartly priced The Old Country at $50 at launch—it's the perfect $50 game.

GTA 6, on the other hand, is the opposite. It's an $80 game that some believe could be this generation's first $100 title due to content locked behind the pricier Ultimate Edition. Rockstar and Take-Two hope it'll keep players engaged for over a decade. For GTA 6, being bigger and beyond reasonable scope is not just acceptable—it's a selling point.

I spoke with Baynes and Mafia: The Old Country game director Alex Cox about this last year, and Cox perfectly summed up the differences. "They are different games, and actually more so over time," he explained. "If you track both GTA and Mafia since 2000-ish, 2002 when GTA 3 and Mafia came out, they were mechanically very similar. But Mafia has always had more focus on its linear narrative versus the sandbox experiences, which Rockstar does with industry-best quality. Actually, Mafia over time has become increasingly more about the linear story, so I don't think the games are fundamentally that similar other than a shared theme."

It sounds like Hangar 13 will continue making Mafia games, based on what Baynes told me in our broader interview (which contains plenty for Mafia fans to enjoy). Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has suggested The Old Country is a success, so Mafia 5 is likely in the works—but this time, it'll release when GTA 6 has already been out for a year or two. Some will inevitably compare them, but Mafia and its developers will stay on their own path.