The subject of Joe Barbaro's fate has been a source of debate here on the Mafia Wiki since shortly after the game was released. We've even opened up a discussion on the subject in our forums, feel free to join in here.
Conspiracy theories abound about Joe being Leo Galante's driver, shown at the end of the game, and how he could have come to be in that position. Whether I believe these theories is irrelevant, my job here is to keep our pages based in fact, and the fact is I think Hangar 13 screwed the pooch on this, as they did many other aspects of Mafia III.
Prior to the game's release, Hangar 13 Creative Director/Studio Head Haden Blackman was questioned in multiple interviews if the game would settle what happened to Joe Barbaro. On every instance he stated that the game would definitely reveal what happened to Joe. He never said it would be hinted at, he never said there would be clues that we could piece together and interpret on our own, he said in plain English that if you spent time with Vito and do his side missions, the game would reveal what happened to Joe.
Now once the game came out, people picked up on how Vito's version of events left just a hint of doubt, and how his reasoning that Joe was dead was that "if Joe was still alive, he would have found me by now". Of course the die hard fans didn't want to believe Joe was dead, so they took that as hope. Then someone noticed how the camera seemed to focus a little too much on Leo Galante's driver at the end of the game and how he bore an aged resemblance to Joe. The theories took off from there, and now even Hangar 13 seems to be playing along, but before you decide, lets take a look at the big picture.
Face it, Haden Blacknam and Hangar 13 dropped the ball on this game. Sure, they told a wonderful story, capturing the turmoil and racism of the period, and the stealth combat is well done, but many other aspects of it have disappointed both fans of the Mafia Series and gamers in general. While it has the makings of a good game, many have been asking why it seems unfinished. Hangar 13 never expected that response. They were convinced that an open world game needed nothing more than a compelling story to succeed. But a Metascore of 67 from countless bad reviews and bitching fans say otherwise.
This is why they're scrambling to add things like clothing, vehicle customization and side activities like car races. Things that most AAA open world games have at launch, the things gamers have come to expect from a game of this type and should have been on the drawing board from the start.
One of the biggest criticisms is that the gameplay is repetitive, and it is. But then most games are, the reason you don't notice it so much in these expansive open world games is because they give you tons of side activities and missions to help break up the monotony. Getting bored with taking over rackets? Go shoot a game of pool with Vito or head down to Duffy's Irish Pub and get drunk with Burke. Getting tired of Lincoln's look? Go shopping for a new outfit. Hell, anything that didn’t involve going someplace to kill people would have sufficed.
As an open world game, especially one with so much driving, being able to save, customize and even race cars should have been in there from the get-go. But the truth is they didn't want to interrupt the story with any of this stuff, as if gamers would forget what was going on if they spent half an hour doing something fun on the side.
What was it Haden Blackman kept saying over and over again in pre-release interviews on this? "Lincoln is 100% committed to his goal of taking over the Marcano crime family, everything he does in the game focuses on that single objective." That's a paraphrase of course but it's the general idea he harped on time and time again.
To bring this back to Joe Barbaro, what I believe happened is this. They never thought the fans would take his death so hard, nor did they think the game would launch to such dismal reviews, so when a theory that Joe may be alive surfaced they made the decision to go with it. If they planned this then Haden Blackman needs to admit he flat out lied in all those pre-release interviews. Because while one could argue that Leo's driver may be Joe, nobody will argue that contradicting accounts and a passing glance of some limo driver qualifies as "definitely finding out what happened to Joe".
By jumping on this conspiracy bandwagon with a few "wink-winks" about Leo Galante's driver and slapping "Unknown" across Joe's image on an info-graphic, it allows them to save a little face on yet another decision that backfired on them, the killing off of an icon and fan favorite from Mafia II.
What does all this mean for us here at the Mafia Wiki? Well, it means that Joe Barbaro's page will likely remain locked for editing forever, because unless they come out and explain exactly what became of Joe, not some wishy-washy maybe he's dead, maybe he's alive crap, it will be nothing but edit wars as users change it back and forth as they have done since his cliffhanger ending in Mafia II.
Joe Barbaro, fate unknown, the poor bastard.