Mafia II was all set to have several ways the story could conclude. In an interview with IncGamers, Senior Producer Denby Grace has confirmed that the game will now have just one ending.
Grace explained that the reason for the decision came out of focus testing: “We worked on these things and we have our players that focus test [the game] and we found that people were just replaying and ultimately only felt satisfied when they got to the one GREAT ending.” Ultimately, the decision was made to scrap the other three endings originally present and focus entirely on the single one players will experience later this year.
This makes me happy. Not so much that Mafia II is taking this route, as I’m rather ambivalent about this particular title, but that any development team would choose to do this. Much as I can appreciate the inclination towards giving players the feeling of power which comes from a mutable destiny, I’d gladly trade that freedom for a powerfully moving story. Whether that is what Mafia II delivers remains to be seen.
Mafia 2 Drops Multiple Endings [IncGamers via CVG]