Hangar 13 is an American

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

Novato, California Novato (Spanish for "Novatus") is a city in Marin County, California, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. At the 2020 census, Novato had a population of 53,225. History What is now Novato was originally the site of several Coast Miwok ...

, in the area of the former

Hamilton Air Force Base Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

. Established with

Haden Blackman William Haden Blackman is an American video game designer and writer. Early life Blackman grew up in Seal Beach, California. As a child, he read comic books during long road trips, which created his love for fantastical creatures. Career Black ...

in December 2014 as a division of 2K (a publishing label of

Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City and founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns two major publishing labels, Rockstar Games and 2K, which operate internal g ...

), the company's debut game was ''

Mafia III ''Mafia III'' is a 2016 action-adventure video game developed by Hangar 13 and published by 2K Games. It was released in October 2016 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, in May 2017 for macOS, and in October 2021 for Google Stadia. It is ...

'', released in October 2016. In 2017,

2K Czech 2K Czech, s.r.o. (formerly Illusion Softworks, a.s.) was a Czech video game developer based in Brno. Founded as Illusion Softworks in 1997 by Petr Vochozka and Jan Kudera. The company was acquired by Take-Two Interactive in January 2008 and sub ...

was merged into Hangar 13, wherefore the studio received two additional studios in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

; another studio was opened in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

in 2018. Their second title, '' Mafia: Definitive Edition'', was released in September 2020.

History

Hangar 13 was formed around September 2013, when 2K Games announced that

Rod Fergusson Rod Fergusson is a Canadian video game producer, best known for overseeing the development of the ''Gears of War'' franchise, originally at Epic Games and then as head of The Coalition. More recently, Fergusson moved over to Blizzard Entertainm ...

would be running a new San Francisco studio. However, Fergusson left the position by January 2014, which he claimed was due to "creative differences" with management. On December 4, 2014, 2K announced that it had set up a new game studio, Hangar 13, led by

, formerly

creative director A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...

for

LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as ...

. Blackman told

GamesBeat ''VentureBeat'' is an American technology website headquartered in San Francisco, California. It publishes news, analysis, long-form features, interviews, and videos. History The ''VentureBeat'' company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall, a ...

that the studio would work on a game for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

. ''

'', the studio's debut title, was announced in August 2015.

, the developer of previous entries in the ''

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

'' series, had a supporting role in the game's development. ''Mafia III'' was released on October 7, 2016, for Microsoft Windows,

and

. In 2017, 2K Czech was merged into Hangar 13. In February 2018, 2K announced that Hangar 13 had been hit with sizable layoffs, without disclosing exact numbers. 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 Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., doing business as Harmonix, is an American video game developer company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in May 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. Harmonix is perhaps best known as bei ...

's cancelled game ''Chroma.'' In May 2018, Hangar 13 opened an additional studio in

, UK, headed by Nick Baynes. In July 2018, the studio announced that it was working on a new

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

. In March 2019, it was announced that the studio had collaborated with

Gearbox Software Gearbox Software is an American video game development company based in Frisco, Texas. It was established as a limited liability company in February 1999 by five developers formerly of Rebel Boat Rocker. Randy Pitchford, one of the founders, se ...

to develop a free update for '' Borderlands: The Handsome Collection,'' which added 4K graphics to the remastered versions of ''

Borderlands 2 ''Borderlands 2'' is a 2012 first-person shooter video game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games. Taking place five years following the events of ''Borderlands'' (2009), the game is again set on the planet of Pandora. T ...

'' and '' Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel''. In May 2020, 2K and Hangar 13 announced the Mafia Trilogy. This contained a

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...

of the first ''Mafia'', a remaster of ''

Mafia II ''Mafia II'' is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by 2K Czech and published by 2K Games. It was released in August 24 2010 for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360. The game is a standalone sequel to 2002's ''Mafia (video game), Mafia'', an ...

'' (developed by d3t) and a platinum version of ''

'' 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. In November 2021, it was confirmed that ''Volt'', an unannounced game by Hangar 13, was cancelled by

after running up a loss of $53 million in production costs. In May 2022, Blackman announced his impending departure from the company. He is to be succeeded by Hangar 13 Brighton studio head Nick Baynes. 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. 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 5th 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. In August 2022, development on a new Mafia game was confirmed to have started.

Games developed

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2014 establishments in California 2K (company) American companies established in 2014 Companies based in Marin County, California Novato, California Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Take-Two Interactive divisions and subsidiaries Video game companies established in 2014 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies