L. A. Noire Development Studio Bankrupt
In a surprise revelation hitting NeoGAF, it would appear as though Team Bondi, the studio responsible for this year’s mega-hit crime drama L. A. Noire, is bankrupt. Its remaining team members, including founder Brian McNamara, are to be bought out by George Miller’s KMM studio.
This news comes on the heels of revelations regarding turmoil within the Australian development team. In June, we reported on allegations of employee abuse that were plaguing the team. As time went on, more and more testimonials began to emerge from employees about their negative experience in the development of the game. The entire scandal has damaged public perception of Team Bondi, as well as soured the relationship between them and publisher Rockstar games.
The NeoGAF posting also claims that Depth Analysis, who owns the technology that provided L. A. Noire’s incredible facial animation, is also in trouble, as both they and Team Bondi have made little to no money off of L. A. Noire’s success.
We’ll have more on this story as it develops.
Let’s hope that Miller can whip them into shape. It would be a shame to see an organization like this fail due to bad internal workings.
Yeah, it would be sad to see two teams that have brought a lot of technical achievement to gaming bite the dust.
Bankruptcy? Why not just license the mouth-engine? Isn’t that what every 3D game at present is missing? The parties involved freaking have hundreds of real-life peoples’ mouths’ wire-frame models speaking. Talk about a licensing goldmine. I fail to see how this is bad at all, for anyone. Sounds to me like bankruptcy is the easiest way to get out of a bunch of debt, if anything, which is a smart business decision, but shady at best morally.
I agree. How is it they have “failed” to make money off of the game’s success? Sounds like a shady publishing deal to me…
Glad to hear it. Team bondi was one of the worst places ive ever worked, and I would never work with them again. Finally after YEARS of us all having problems with brian, the industry took notice. It’s nice that everyone things the game looks great ,just like people like your shiny iPhones that are made in a factory where people commit suicide due to poor working conditions.
Good.
LA Noire sucked. It may be good to those who are 12 years old and just started video games but Police Quest 1 required more detective skills than LA Noire.
Anyone who says they like that game is lying to themselves because they dont want to feel stupid for shelling out $60 on a new game.
I bought this on launch day and returned it 24 hours later.
The first 30 minutes of the game were awesome. Then it just repeats itself getting a little more lame every 30 minutes.
Terrible, terrible game.
Why even have the player drive from location to location.
How does Cole know that one purse is good and another purse is not worth looking at or how one matchbook may be relevant to a case but all the other ones you see are not.
Its really frigging stupid and one of the worst games I have ever played.
Deja Vu on NES was 100 times better and came out 20 years ago.
Good.
LA Noire Hater’s comment sucked. It may be good to those who are 60 years old and remember playing video games from 1987 but LA Noire requires more detective skills than any other game this generation.
Anyone who says they like Police Quest 1 is lying to themselves because they don’t want to feel stupid for playing text adventures on a Mac.
I bought Police Quest 1 on launch day and returned I didn’t wanna feel stupid for buying a 30 dollar mouse that I couldn’t even use with the game.
I bought this on launch day and returned it after I got back to The Byte Shop after 72 hours of travelling uphill both ways through a blizzard.
The first 5 minutes of the game were awesome. Then it just repeats itself with the same commands using only the keyboard and crappy inventory every 10 minutes.
Terrible, terrible game on a floppy disk.
Why even have the character move with the keyboard. (<– this should be a question mark.)
How does Sonny Bonds even know that one pixel is good and another pixel isn't worth examining or how one parking spot is good and another is illegal. (<– probably broken question mark key or senile.)
Its really frigging old and one of the worst games I have ever played.
Call of Cthulhu on table top was 100 times better and came out 6 years ago.