LA Noire staff claim poor working conditions...

[Dreakon139]

Developers who worked on Team Bondi's LA Noire and were subsequently left without credit have been describing how they were asked to work 10-12 hours a day, every day, including weekends.

Earlier this month, over 100 contributing developers who were not included in the final credits roll for Team Bondi and Rockstar's LA Noire were highlighted on a special LA Noire Credits site.

Talking to the Sydney Morning Herald, a number of unnamed developers explained how, despite contributing large amounts of time and effort to the game's development, they were still not credited.

Read More: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35364/Uncredited_LA_Noire_Staff_Allege_PraiseFree_Working_Conditions.php

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Also, Rockstar intends to not work with Team Bondi again due to the "badly damaged" relationship between the companies.

Rockstar Games will not be publishing any future titles from LA Noire developer Team Bondi due to a "badly damaged" relationship between the two companies, according to media reports.

In a GI.biz report [registration required], an unnamed Team Bondi ex-staff member explained that co-founder Brendan McNamara and his management team made "insane decisions" that were eventually overruled by Rockstar.

"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 the source.

"Team Bondi are trying to find another publisher for their next title, but the relationship with Rockstar has been badly damaged - Brendan treats LA 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," continued the ex-Team Bondi staffer.

Read More: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35661/Report_Rockstar_Will_Not_Work_With_Team_Bondi_Again.php

Interesting stuff IMO. Just read about it in GameInformer so I thought I'd find some articles and post it up.

[navvy7]

I just finished playing this today, very interesting read it seems team bondi completely made a hash of their business.

[DJ_Keyser]

Those whinging developers need to get over themselves. Any developer worth their salt pulls those types of hours under that type of pressure. When they don't, we get shit games (or non-existent ones like Half Life 3). It's the nature of the business, if you're not cut out for it, fuck off and get a different job.

[Spark-N]

Dammit. So, this pretty much puts holes in any hope of an LA Noire sequel?

Well, this could turn into a Fallout situation- Developer goes under, then a larger company buys it up some years later and remakes the series in their image.

And that's how we got Fallout 3, and hopefully, __________ Noire.

Actually if i have read some websites right Rockstar own all the rights to L.A. Noir so dont give up on a sequel just yet and since the PC version is being developed by Rockstar Leeds it makes sense that Rockstar owns it

[Spark-N]

That made my day.

yeah im glad too and it looks like Rockstar does own the IP as i found this from VG247

[TranceVance]

Dammit. So, this pretty much puts holes in any hope of an LA Noire sequel?

Well, this could turn into a Fallout situation- Developer goes under, then a larger company buys it up some years later and remakes the series in their image.

And that's how we got Fallout 3, and hopefully, __________ Noire.

If we do ever see another instalment/sequel to the game, it wouldn't be any time soon. My money is that such a game would be released on the next generation console. I remember reading that the scripting/casting took many years alone.

[Elliot]

Team Bondi are done. A load of their staff quietly moved over to another Australian developer, because the Bondi name is in tatters and nobody would ever work with them again.

Sadly, I doubt the working conditions at the new dev will be any better. Brendan McNamara is a vile, cretinous man for what he did to those poor people.

[Dreakon139]

I'm not sure I follow, are 12 hour work days and weekends normal for your average game developer? I understand at crunch time when you have deadlines and release dates to meet... but otherwise?