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L.A. Noire

Rockstar abandon Team Bondi?

Leaked e-mails and former employee drama.

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L.A. Noire might have sold well, and got a lot of good criticism, and usually one would assume that'd be that and that we could all lean back and wait for L.A. Noire 2. But there's been a lot of grumbling coming from former employees at the studio, kicking off with a report on IGN about how working conditions at the Australian studio were during the development of the title.

Andrew McGillen, the same journalist that wrote that piece on IGN, has kept digging into the story - and today his new article on the whole affair is up on Gamesindustry.biz. Included are a lot of leaked e-mails from internal mailing lists at Team Bondi and several witness statements, including a statement that points to that Rockstar have distanced themselves from the L.A. Noire developers.

"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." the former employee told McGillen. "Team Bondi are trying to find another publisher for their next title, but the relationship with Rockstar has been badly damaged - Brendan [McNamara, co-founder of Team Bondi] 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. 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," he continues.

"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."

One of the leaked e-mails includes a reaction from Brendan McNamara after the logo for L.A. Noire had been changed without his input.

Every dog has its day and there's going to be hell to pay for this one. I'll never forget being treated like an absolute **** by these people.

The saga of Team Bondi, the former employees (referred to as The Bondi Eleven by McGillen) and how the employer supposedly treats its workforce is a long one - but absolutely worth a read. You'll need to sign for Gamesindustry up to read the whole thing.

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