It appears that efforts on the part of protesters towards Take-Two’s Mafia II may have resulted in a poor turn out at the game’s launch party last week.

As we reported last week, certain representatives of the Italian American community are expressing their disdain for newly released gangster game, Mafia II.

Andre’ DiMino, president of UMICO, an organisation that aims to uphold Italian American cultural values is leading a coalition from the Italian American community that aims to see the game banned.

He claims that their efforts against Take-Two interactive, publishers of Mafia II, has resulted in their recent launch party in New York City being less than stellar. “I have no doubt our efforts resulted in the Mafia II launch party, at the 92nd street Y’s Tribeca Centre, being a dismal failure,” he said.

He said the event was aimed at mocking the Italian American community by promoting the Mafia II video game. But one would think that an international AAA video game title launch would have a wider aim than that, launching the new game for instance.

The launch event in New York City, where the studio is located, went off a lot quieter than expected. According to reports a comparatively small group of young people were present at the launch party. Apparently Strauss Zelnick, president of the company, nor any other Take-Two executives were present at the launch.

The coalition led by DiMino apparently tried to persuade the 92n street Y to cancel the event, without success. DiMino said that he believed the combined efforts of the coalition made the venue organisers nervous that the event would attract unwanted attention, explaining the lack of media coverage of the event.

He concluded by saying, “for us, this is one small, satisfying victory in a much longer, more sophisticated campaign within the Italian American community opposed to Mafia II specifically, and the continued misrepresentation of the Italian American community, generally.”

He also said that Take-Two and its major investors would be “forcefully” hearing more from them in the future.

At this stage it isn’t clear what exactly they plan to do about the case, especially since the game has already been released.

Do you think this is a valid issue or is DiMino’s group getting upset over a non-issue? Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comment box below.