If two separate retailers are to be believed, Mafia 3 may be coming much sooner than expected.
Preorder cards for the game at Best Buy (via IGN) list the game's release date as April 26, 2016. This matches the release date in GameStop's system.
So, does that mean the latest entry in the open-world crime family franchise is coming in the first half of the year? Not necessarily. The game was previously confirmed for a 2016 release date, but Take-Two has yet to announce an official launch date. The publisher issued the following statement to IGN:
"Mafia III will release in calendar 2016 during Take-Two Interactive's fiscal year 2017. No official release date has been announced at this time. It is common practice for retailers to list placeholder dates before an official release date has been announced due to the requirements of their operating systems."
Take-Two does have a point. Placeholder dates are a common practice for many retailers, though it does seem strange that two separate retailers would use the same exact date. The publisher's statement is also far from the typical "no comment" responses that many of these release date "leaks" usually receive, for whatever that's worth.
It's probably best to take the date with a grain of salt, but it at least seems plausible. Regardless, what little we've seen of Mafia 3 so far certainly looks promising. Roaming around New Orleans during the social turbulence of 1960s should make for a unique setting that gamers haven't experienced before, and the developers promise that it will have connections to previous entries in the franchise.
A preorder card at Target may have leaked the release date for Homefront: The Revolution as well, but for the time being, we'll just have to wait for official announcements to learn if either game's dates turn out to be accurate.
