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LA Noire's Team Bondi Shutting Its Doors

Started by garbon, October 10, 2011, 09:18:01 PM

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garbon

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2011/10/05/la-noires-team-bondi-shutting-its-doors/

QuoteIt's a sad thing to report that the studio behind the creative and thoroughly excellent LA Noire is closing down. Team Bondi worked with Rockstar to put out the crime thriller title, and is now out of business, despite the game being a smash hit critically and commercially.

So what happened? It's sort of a mystery at this point, but there have been a few controversies that could point to larger issues. In June, it came out that over 100 developers were left out of the final credits despite their extensive work on the game, and the slighted even launched a website to voice their complaints.

Bondi studio head Brendan McNamara also took some flak from ex-employees accusing him of "mismanagment," which he denied. But something was clearly mismanaged as you don't produce a hit like this then shut down for no reason. Time will tell what really happened at Bondi, but for now we can only speculate.

The first title apparently took 7 years of development on Bondi's part, which is far above most games, and likely contributed to their ultimate downfall, as some employees were reporting they had to work 100 hour weeks to meet deadlines. The last we heard from Bondi about the matter was lead programmer Dave Heironymus saying "no-one at Team Bondi is under the illusion that crunching is a good way to work and we're actively working to learn from our mistakes for our next project." Apparently they just didn't learn quickly enough.

So what will happen to LA Noire? Rockstar has a habit of turning its titles into franchises, and there's every reason to think that they will bring the name back with a new team. The game was far from perfect, but was a refreshing piece of original content in a landscape full of sequels. To call for another game may seem ironic, but that's how the industry deals with hits, and it stands to reason that with 4 million sold, we'll see another Noire adventure in a few years time.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Neil

I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.

garbon

That said - people whining about pulling a 100-hour week. Boo-hoo.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

grumbler

Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2011, 09:27:27 PM
That said - people whining about pulling a 100-hour week. Boo-hoo.
Yeah, really.  Anyone working less than 200 hours a week is a pussy.  I generally put in 300 hours a week, upping that when it gets busy.  You don't hear me complaining.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

garbon

Quote from: grumbler on October 10, 2011, 09:45:50 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2011, 09:27:27 PM
That said - people whining about pulling a 100-hour week. Boo-hoo.
Yeah, really.  Anyone working less than 200 hours a week is a pussy.  I generally put in 300 hours a week, upping that when it gets busy.  You don't hear me complaining.

No, I didn't mean anything like that but thanks for playing.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Alcibiades

Yeah, seriously, Garbon works nearly as much as you every week Grumbler.  I don't get these lazy sods or their complaints.
Wait...  What would you know about masculinity, you fucking faggot?  - Overly Autistic Neil


OTOH, if you think that a Jew actually IS poisoning the wells you should call the cops. IMHO.   - The Brain

garbon

"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

sbr

Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2011, 09:27:27 PM
That said - people whining about pulling a 100-hour week. Boo-hoo.

I didn't see anyone whining about it here in this article, they just mentioned it in context of mismanagement.  Have you seen another article where people are whining about it?

garbon

Quote from: sbr on October 10, 2011, 10:56:08 PM
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2011, 09:27:27 PM
That said - people whining about pulling a 100-hour week. Boo-hoo.

I didn't see anyone whining about it here in this article, they just mentioned it in context of mismanagement.  Have you seen another article where people are whining about it?

Sure.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/blockbuster-la-noire-faces-credits-crisis-20110620-1gaw3.html

QuoteAnother developer, who contributed to the gameplay of L.A. Noire for just over three years, said he left before the game was completed because "I felt as though my sanity depended on it".
Brendan McNamara ... a humbling experience.

Team Bondi boss Brendan McNamara Photo: Jon Reid

He said he was asked to work 10-12 hours almost every day and on weekends and described working at Team Bondi as being an inflexible and virtually praise-free environment.

"So, after my wife had been pushing me to quit for more than a year, I did," he said.

The developer said he didn't believe being left off the credits had affected him prefessionally but he wanted to be recognised because he had dedicated "25 per cent of my professional life" to the blockbuster game.

It's similar to whining that I once did. :Embarrass:
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Warspite

Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2011, 09:27:27 PM
That said - people whining about pulling a 100-hour week. Boo-hoo.

What's wrong with whining about that? Working those kinds of hours does little for either productivity (bad for the employer) or health (bad for the employee).

As workplace moaning goes, 14 hour days, seven days a week, is probably quite justified.
" SIR – I must commend you on some of your recent obituaries. I was delighted to read of the deaths of Foday Sankoh (August 9th), and Uday and Qusay Hussein (July 26th). Do you take requests? "

OVO JE SRBIJA
BUDALO, OVO JE POSTA

The Brain

100 hours of moaning a week is excessive.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Syt

Quote from: Warspite on October 11, 2011, 10:23:12 AM
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2011, 09:27:27 PM
That said - people whining about pulling a 100-hour week. Boo-hoo.

What's wrong with whining about that? Working those kinds of hours does little for either productivity (bad for the employer) or health (bad for the employee).

As workplace moaning goes, 14 hour days, seven days a week, is probably quite justified.

I'm guessing garbon's point was that if your employer makes you work those hours, and you hate it, you should quit, not whine.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

sbr

Quote from: Syt on October 11, 2011, 12:49:15 PM
Quote from: Warspite on October 11, 2011, 10:23:12 AM
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2011, 09:27:27 PM
That said - people whining about pulling a 100-hour week. Boo-hoo.

What's wrong with whining about that? Working those kinds of hours does little for either productivity (bad for the employer) or health (bad for the employee).

As workplace moaning goes, 14 hour days, seven days a week, is probably quite justified.

I'm guessing garbon's point was that if your employer makes you work those hours, and you hate it, you should quit, not whine.

Right, especially when they are giving away new jobs in Cracker Jack boxes, right?

Razgovory

Quote from: sbr on October 11, 2011, 05:56:04 PM


Right, especially when they are giving away new jobs in Cracker Jack boxes, right?

From what I gather work schedules like that are endemic in the industry.  Especially toward the end of a project.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

garbon

Quote from: sbr on October 11, 2011, 05:56:04 PM
Quote from: Syt on October 11, 2011, 12:49:15 PM
Quote from: Warspite on October 11, 2011, 10:23:12 AM
Quote from: garbon on October 10, 2011, 09:27:27 PM
That said - people whining about pulling a 100-hour week. Boo-hoo.

What's wrong with whining about that? Working those kinds of hours does little for either productivity (bad for the employer) or health (bad for the employee).

As workplace moaning goes, 14 hour days, seven days a week, is probably quite justified.

I'm guessing garbon's point was that if your employer makes you work those hours, and you hate it, you should quit, not whine.

Right, especially when they are giving away new jobs in Cracker Jack boxes, right?

Lots of them did leave - which is why they didn't make the credits.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.