The Godfather (2006 video game)

The Godfather
Developer(s)EA Redwood Shores (Wii, Xbox 360 & PS3)
Headgate Studios (Windows)
Page 44 Studios (PS2, PSP & Xbox)
Publisher(s)Electronic Arts
Producer(s)Hunter Smith
Designer(s)
Artist(s)Margaret Foley-Mauvais Nino rota
Writer(s)
Composer(s)
SeriesThe Godfather
EngineRenderWare
Platform(s)
Release
March 21, 2006
  • PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox
    • NA: March 21, 2006
    • AU: March 23, 2006
    • EU: March 24, 2006
    PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360
    • NA: September 19, 2006
    • EU: September 22, 2006
    • AU: September 28, 2006
    Wii
    • NA: March 20, 2007
    • AU: March 22, 2007
    • EU: March 23, 2007
    PlayStation 3
    • NA: March 20, 2007
    • AU: March 29, 2007
    • EU: April 20, 2007
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The Godfather is a 2006 action-adventure video game developed by EA Redwood Shores and published by Electronic Arts. It was originally released in March 2006 for Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. It was later released for the PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3.

Based upon the 1972 film The Godfather, the game follows a non-canon character, Aldo Trapani, who is recruited into the Corleone family and works his way up its ranks while seeking revenge against his father's killers. The story of the game intersects with the film on numerous occasions, depicting major events from Aldo's perspective, or showing him perform actions that happened off-screen; for example, he avenges Bonasera's daughter, kills Luca Brasi's assassin, drives Vito Corleone to the hospital after he is shot, plants the gun for Michael Corleone to kill Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, and places the horse's head in Jack Woltz's bed. Although the game was condemned by Francis Ford Coppola, who claimed Paramount never told him about its development or asked for his input, it does feature voice acting from several stars of the film, including James Caan as Sonny Corleone, Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen and Abe Vigoda as Salvatore Tessio. Marlon Brando also recorded dialogue for Vito Corleone, in what would be his final acting job, but his ill health made most of his recordings unusable.

The Godfather received generally positive reviews across most systems, although the PlayStation Portable version was commonly seen as inferior to the others. The game was a commercial success, selling over four million units. A sequel, based on the 1974 film, The Godfather Part II, was released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows in 2009, but it received mixed reviews and did not sell as well as the first game, causing EA to scrap plans for an adaptation of the third film.