Where’s Polygon’s Mafia 3 review?

Mafia 3, the anticipated follow-up to 2010’s Mafia 2 developed in concert with Marin-based studio Hangar 13 and 2K Czech, is in stores around the world next Friday, October 7. Unfortunately, neither Polygon nor any other outlet is likely to have a review up before the game launches next week.

Polygon was informed via a phone call from a 2K representative yesterday evening that 2K Games has decided not make the game available to press from any outlet prior to its release. This is, of course, 2K’s decision to make, though it is a departure from both 2K’s previous track record with non-sports titles and general industry practice, despite some noteworthy exceptions in recent years from various publishers on games like Destiny and, most recently, Id Software’s reboot of Doom.

In development since at least mid-2013, Mafia 3 is arguably 2K Games’ largest Fall release for 2016, despite September’s launch of NBA 2K17 and next month’s Civilization 6.

2K games offered Polygon reviewable copies of Mafia 3 that would unlock upon the game’s "first global availability" on digital retail storefronts — at approximately 4:00 AM Pacific on Thursday, October 6. We’ve declined this offer, and will be securing our own retail copies of Mafia 3 at the earliest opportunity. With that in mind, it is extremely unlikely that Polygon will have a review up at the time of Mafia 3’s launch next week, though we will do as much as we can to expedite the review process and share our impressions once we have the game in hand.

You can read more about Mafia 3 in our feature from this year’s E3, which explores the game’s narrative and African-American lead with the game’s director, Haden Blackman.

Note: This story originally stated that 2K Games offered review copies that would unlock upon Mafia 3’s North American availability, and has been corrected.