14 DAY TRIAL // A source inside the 2K Czech video game development studio has stated that the team is now actively collaborating with Rockstar in order to develop Grand Theft Auto V while also working full time on a new installment in the Mafia series.
The source inside 2K Czech has told VG247 that the studio has been involved with GTA V for about one year and that it has mainly worked on the cutscenes of the new game and the general gameplay features, where it has a strong expertise.
Rockstar is also working on Mafia III, which has apparently now gone into full development after about one year of prototyping and initial concept creation.
2K Czech has taken the core concepts of the first two titles in the series has extracted the essence of the franchise and plans to deliver a third game that will make Mafia one of the major franchises in the open-world genre.
It is not clear what aspect of Mafia III Rockstar is assisting 2K Czech with, but they are probably offering information on how a successful open world can be created using a real-life setting.
The source inside 2K Czech also says that representatives of the studio were in attendance at the Durango developer meeting which took place in London.
This might mean that Take Two and its development teams have direct access to the next hardware from Microsoft, which has not yet been officially announced.
Mafia III might be linked to next-generation hardware, but it is unlikely that GTA V, which has been officially announced in November 2011, will stay in development enough for Microsoft and Sony to launch their new consoles.
Rockstar released a teaser trailer for GTA V and confirmed that the game would use the same core concepts as the rest of the series, but it has failed to offer an actual launch window or talk about the platforms on which the game will appear.