Iconic gangster game that could get a sequel. Scarface: Empire would send Tony Montana to Las Vegas

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Vivendi Universal Games was developing Scarface: The World is Yours and was so sure it would be successful that they began planning a follow-up game even before the first one was released. When Radical Entertainment’s game launched in October 2006, the development team was immediately tasked with creating a sequel. However, problems arose shortly after, and the sequel was ultimately cancelled.

Although the team planning a sequel to Scarface moved on to other work, they did develop some initial ideas and even create early versions of the game. These materials surfaced years later, giving us a good idea of what the new story with Tony Montana would have been like.

Tony Montana in Las Vegas

The original Scarface movie takes place in 1980s Miami. Scarface: Empire, the working title for a planned video game, would have seen the protagonist relocate to Las Vegas to build a new drug operation. Essentially, Tony Montana would be starting over and establishing another criminal empire there.

Initially, the protagonist planned to sell goods inside casinos, but the casino owners would likely object. This led Montana to decide he’d have to create his own casino, using it as a disguise for his illegal operations.

Old, good Scarface and the desert

Okay, so when I first started playing Scarface: Empire, it felt pretty familiar. Basically, you get to run around a city – you can explore on foot or drive cars, which is cool. The missions are all about being Tony Montana and taking down tons of enemies, eliminating the heads of other gangs, and grabbing territory from your rivals. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a Scarface game!

Players could also hire a crew to help them, which would be essential for taking on enemies. These team members weren’t just helpful – they could actually save Tony’s life by intervening at the last moment, stopping attacks before they hit him.

Honestly, the desert area was a huge highlight for me! It wasn’t just supposed to look good around Las Vegas, the developers really wanted it to be a core part of how you played the game. I was so excited to hear we’d be using it for everything – picking up deliveries, making drops to clients, and, let’s be real, dealing with… unwanted problems in a discreet location. It felt like a really clever way to expand the gameplay beyond the city itself.

Death of the project

The game Scarface: Empire was showing promise, but when Vivendi Universal Games and Activision combined, the resulting company had too many similar open-world games already in development. This led to the game being cancelled as the publisher needed to reduce its projects.

As I said earlier, after working on the project, we had a ton of cool stuff left over – things like concept art and recordings of the early gameplay. Luckily, the Mafia Game Videos channel put it all together and released a really detailed video about the canceled game back in June 2022. It’s a great look at what could have been!

What happened next?

Following the cancellation of Scarface: Empire, Radical Entertainment managed to survive for a period and even found success with the Prototype games. Unfortunately, significant layoffs in 2010 and 2012 left the studio as a support team, ending its work on new, original titles.

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2025-11-23 13:32