Hangar 13 was formed around September 2013, when 2K Games announced that Rod Fergusson would be running a new San Francisco studio.[1] However, Fergusson left the position by January 2014, which he claimed was due to "creative differences" with management.[2]
In February 2018, 2K announced that Hangar 13 had been hit with sizable layoffs, without disclosing exact numbers.[9] At the time, Hangar 13 was brainstorming ideas for its next game—one idea included a "fight to music" system through which the player's movement would create songs, similar to Harmonix's cancelled game Chroma.[10] In May 2018, Hangar 13 opened an additional studio in Brighton, UK, headed by Nick Baynes.[11][12] In July 2018, the studio announced that it was working on a new intellectual property.[13]
In May 2020, 2K and Hangar 13 announced the Mafia: Trilogy. This contained a remake of the first Mafia, a remaster of Mafia II (developed by d3t) and a platinum version of Mafia III comprised with its additional story packs. These editions were available as a bundle or individually. Both the original Mafia II and Mafia III owners on Steam and console had their editions upgraded at no cost.[15]
In November 2021, it was confirmed that Volt, an unannounced game by Hangar 13, was cancelled by Take-Two Interactive after running up a loss of $53 million in production costs.[16][17] In May 2022, Blackman announced his impending departure from the company. He is to be succeeded by Hangar 13 Brighton studio head Nick Baynes.[18] Later that month, after Baynes had taken over, Hangar 13 laid off people across its four studios, of which the Novato headquarters dismissed 50 of its 87 employees.[19] It was reported that Hangar 13 was in the early stages of development for a prequel to the Mafia: Trilogy as well as a new entry to the Top Spin series; Hangar 13 is also awaiting a greenlight from its parent company to begin development on a fifth entry to the Mafia series alongside its prequel, as Baynes describes, to keep its developers employed at the studio for a smooth transition from one game to another.[20]
Blackman left Hangar 13 in May 2022, with Baynes taking over his role.[21] In August 2022, development on a new Mafia game was confirmed to have started.[22] According to the game's Steam page, Mafia: The Old Country will be released in 2025.[23]
