It’s been made ”quite clear” Rockstar won’t publish anything more. Without their money and marketing Team Bondi would have ”gone under several years ago.”
”I’ve heard a lot about Rockstar’s disdain for Team Bondi, and it has been made quite clear that they will not publish Team Bondi’s next game,” said a former developer of the Australian studio. Harsh working conditions and treatment of staff have been revealed.
”Team Bondi are trying to find another publisher for their next title, but the relationship with Rockstar has been badly damaged - Brendan treats L.A. Noire like a success due to his vision but I think Rockstar are the ones who saved the project.”
”They continued to sink money into LA Noire, and their marketing was fantastic. Without their continued support, Team Bondi would have gone under several years ago.” In 2006 Rockstar Games became the publisher for L.A. Noire after Sony dropped out.
”Rockstar also made a huge contribution to the development; their producers were increasingly influential over the last two years of the game’s development, and overruled many of the insane decisions made by Team Bondi management,” they continued.
”At a lower level, Rockstar also pitched in with programmers, animators, artists, QA, etc. Part of the conflict between Team Bondi and Rockstar was due to Rockstar’s frustration with Team Bondi’s direction, and eventually Team Bondi’s management in turn resented Rockstar for taking lots of creative control.”
”It’s also worth pointing out that Rockstar used to be very keen on making Team Bondi something like ‘Rockstar Sydney’ - the more they worked with Team Bondi management, the more they came to understand that this was a terrible idea,” said the source.
Internal emails have leaked from Team Bondi and reveal the resentment between Rockstar and studio boss Brendan McNamara, who one employee called the ‘angriest person they’d ever met’. The studio is currently being investigated over work conditions.
”Every dog has its day and there’s going to be hell to pay for this one,” wrote McNamara, angry over a L.A. Noire logo change. ”I’ll never forget being treated like an absolute ** by these people.” This email accidentally got sent to all studio staff apparently.
L.A. Noire went on to score very highly with critics and recently a PC version was announced as being released by the end of this year given its success on Xbox 360 and PS3. Depending on who owns the IP a L.A. Noire sequel might have trouble.
