Fans of the "Mafia" game franchise can rest assured that "Mafia 3" release date is slated on 2016. Earlier, it was reported by N4G that the game is set for an April release date.

This is based from a Game Stop listing that shows "Mafia 3" release date is well on its way on the second half of 2016. However, 2K Games issued an announcement that debunks the said launch date.

"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," as stated in the announcement released by 2K games via Examiner.com.

With that said, fans will have to wait a bit more until 2K games officially announce the "Mafia 3" release date. Meanwhile, it is time to know the new protagonist of the series, Lincoln Clay. According to director Hayden Blackman, the new character is a sucker for family and would do anything for those he treats as one.

"That whole notion of being an orphan and looking for a place to belong was something we had really early on. We explored a couple of things with this," he said via Cross Map. "One is it's not just that he was raised as an orphan, he was raised in a Catholic Orphanage and that has its own weight to it. But once the orphanage is closed, what was he going to do?"

Blackman continued, "Well he's probably going to have to hit the streets and start trying to figure out how to survive. For me, what's really interesting about him is this notion that no matter what he does, he is always looking for this place to belong, though he can never really find it. It instills in him this overblown sense of loyalty and that becomes his fatal flaw."

In the trailer, it can be seen that he is accompanied by his four lieutenants including the protagonist of "Mafia 2" Vito Escaleta. Will Lincoln Clay be the next big Mafia boss Vito will never be? Stay tuned.