The Commission are the overarching antagonists of 2K's Mafia franchise.
They consist of the most powerful crime families in the United States. The Commission in the series has its base of operations in Empire Bay, with its most powerful don being Frank Vinci.
History[]
Mafia: The Old Country[]
The Commission aren't mentioned due to not being founded yet. The American Mafia do appear in game when visiting Sicily, the game's setting. A younger Leo Galante's grandfather Niccolò Galante is the head of his own crime family, and acts as a mediator between rival families in order to keep the peace in the area. This ends up failing when Niccolò is assassinated in 1907.
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven[]
The Commission are not mentioned in Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, with the only two powerful mobsters being Ennio Salieri and Don Morello. Salieri and his crime family bring down Morello's criminal organization and assassinate him, which leaves the Salieri crime family the most powerful crime family in the city. They are later testified against by their lieutenant Tommy Angelo in 1939, although by 1951 the family still hold power in the city despite Ennio Salieri's life imprisonment.
It is possible that the Salieri family have some connection to the Commission due to having a hit sanctioned on Tommy Angelo who was living in Empire Bay, although this revelation wouldn't happen until Mafia II.
Mafia II[]
The Commission play a slightly larger role in the events of Mafia II, which spans from 1945 to 1951. The crime families that are part of the commission in Empire Bay are the Vinci crime family (led by Frank Vinci), Falcone crime family (Carlo Falcone) and Clemente crime family (Alberto Clemente). Vinci is the most powerful and seasoned crime boss on the commission with a code, whereas Falcone and Clemente are more willing to bend the rules and defy the commission for their own ends. Clemente is involved in practices such as trying to extort money from their own enforcers with promise of making them made men, and Falcone becomes interested in narcotics. Falcone puts a plan into motion to wipe out the other two families in order to prevent them compromising his drug operation. He uses newly recruited mobster Vito Scaletta as a pawn in his game.
Mafia II DLC[]
The Commission aren't featured in the DLC mission packs The Betrayal of Jimmy and Jimmy's Vendetta, instead Judge Hillwood rules over Empire Bay in an alternative continuity to the main Mafia II canon. He is the head of crime bosses Sal Gravina and Tam Brodie. Gravina and Brodie are killed by protagonist Jimmy and their respected gangs wiped out, and Hillwood is assassinated at his mansion shortly afterwards.
Mafia III[]
In 1951, the Clemente family are wiped out, and Falcone sets out to take down the Vinci crime family. Vito, Joe Barbaro and Henry Tomasino find out that Falcone has been doing drug dealing on the side, so decide to do their own side hustle by selling narcotics. This causes a war with the Triads after they brutally kill Henry on the belief that he was an undercover informant, and in return, Vito and Joe wipe out most of the Triads. This leads to a gang war across the city, with Vinci and the Commission desperately trying to maintain peace and make sense of the situation. The police put out a warrant for Falcone's arrest, with Falcone now becoming a potential danger to the Commission. The Commission force Vito to assassinate Falcone in exchange for his own life, due to many of the gangs wanting Vito and Joe dead. Following Falcone's assassination, Joe goes missing when the Commission have him taken away for possible execution, and Vito is sent off to New Bordeaux in the south to work for Sal Marcano.
Whilst not seen, the Commission play a bigger role in Mafia III and serve as the overarching antagonists of the plot, due to Sal Marcano's strained relationship with them. The story takes place in 1968, and features an older Vito who breaks from Marcano after surviving a hit made by him and joining up with Lincoln Clay's developing crime family. Clay's family work to take down the Marcano family piece by piece and take over the criminal underworld of New Bordeaux. This leads to Clay eventually killing Marcano at his headquarters. Depending on the player's choice, Clay can rule together with his lieutenants, betray and kill his lieutenants or leave behind the city and leave it to one of his lieutenants to rule. After Marcano's death, Leo Galante arrives on behalf of the Commission and reveals he is happy to allow Clay to rule the city as long as the Commission still get their cut. By this point, the Vinci crime family's stance on drugs appears to have been relaxed in the 17 years since Mafia II.
