Team Bondi Officially Liquidated

[Andy Chalk]

Team Bondi Officially Liquidated

The final curtain has fallen on L.A. Noire studio Team Bondi.

It ain't over 'til it's over, as the saying goes, and now it appears to finally be over for Team Bondi, which was pronounced effectively dead back in early August [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112162-Asset-Sell-Off-Suggests-the-End-of-Team-Bondi] but has only just now had the official fork stuck in it. The company was put into administration a month ago and yesterday appointed a liquidator to wind up the operation. Whatever Team Bondi assets remain will be sold off, with the proceeds put toward payment of the company's outstanding debts.

Team Bondi has not yet issued a statement on the situation but it's a sad fall for a studio that at one point employed more than 100 workers and put out the acclaimed L.A. Noire [http://www.amazon.com/L-Noire-Playstation-3/dp/B002I0J5UQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317831526&sr=8-1] less than six months ago. The game racked up nearly 900,000 sales in its first month of release, not exactly smash-hit territory but still very respectable, and became the "fastest-selling new videogame IP ever" in the U.K. Near the end of June, Take-Two announced that L.A. Noire had shipped four million copies worldwide. It's a deceiving metric - "shipped" isn't "sold," after all - but the publisher has described the game as a "powerful new franchise" and a sequel is expected.

On the downside, truckloads of money were reportedly wasted on the project and complaints about unpleasant working conditions at Team Bondi and the behavior of studio head Brendan McNamara are well-documented, leaving Rockstar with no interest [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111445-Report-Rockstar-Saved-LA-Noire-Wont-Work-With-Team-Bondi-Again] in publishing its next game. That's a troublesome situation for any studio to be in.

As Happy Feet 2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112117-Rumor-Team-Bondi-Merging-With-Happy-Feet-2-Studio].

Source: Develop [http://www.develop-online.net/news/38809/Team-Bondi-liquidated]


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[Xanthious]

Good! Couldn't of happened to a more deserving studio. I can't wait to read their letter blaming it all on used games.

 

[Captain Pirate]

This saddens me.
A brand new, genuinely great IP comes out and it's creators end up dead in half a year.
I really hope a studio with equal talent picks up the reigns, because L.A. Noire is fantastic, and if it's franchise ends up dying too I will cry a tear of sorrow at humanity's tragic loss.

Someone pull a mass-hiring stunt a'la Respawn Entertainment and get Bondi back on their feet to make a sequel.

 

[Forsvaine]

I don't think L.A. Noire was that good, but McNamara and Team Bondi got what they deserved. I'm not a fan of L.A. Noire anyway, so I feel absolutely no remorse for this. I'm glad that the employees are getting new opportunities, as well. I sincerely hope that McNamara never gets involved in this industry again for what he did.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Well, fuck.

Thanks for that one game I really loved, Team Bondi. Would be a shame if this was the legacy you leave behind.

 

[Rawne1980]

I keep hearing that LA Noire is a pretty decent game.

Lucky for us PC gamers it comes out on the 8th November .... 8 months late.

 

[GonzoGamer]

So I guess slicing off a bunch of game content to be used as pre-order "bonuses" and for sale dlc didn't work out as well as they thought.

Maybe this will discourage crap like that in the future but it probably wont.

Good! Couldn't of happened to a more deserving studio. I can't wait to read their letter blaming it all on used games.

But used games were their excuse for the sleazy pre-order scheme. They couldn't possibly plan on blaming us AND punishing us (with held back content).... like every other dev studio and publisher has been doing this generation.

 

[SirCannonFodder]

Can someone bring me up to date on the whole McNamara thing? I can only remember stories which seemed perfectly normal for a dev studio. Crunch time is called crunch time for a reason, you know.

Can't remember the exact details, but there were also a lot of people left out of the credits, think it was people that worked on the game for extended periods, then left/were let go before it was done.

 

[fix-the-spade]

For some reason, I had imagine this being announced by Dr Evil.

I ordered Team Bondi liquidated, they were insolent!

 

[KissofKetchup]

At least they got to finish the game. At many points during the development of the game it was uncertain that it wouldn't even get finished

Fortunately, Rockstar is more than capable of carrying on the series should they make another

 

[Beryl77]

Can someone bring me up to date on the whole McNamara thing? I can only remember stories which seemed perfectly normal for a dev studio. Crunch time is called crunch time for a reason, you know.

This is the link to the news article [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111340-IGDA-Investigating-L-A-Noire-Dev]
This part here says what was happening at Team Bondi if you believe them

Brendan McNamara is accused by one of eleven anonymous insiders as "the angriest person I've ever met".

"It's one thing for him to be angry behind closed doors, but it was incredibly common for him to scream at whoever was pissing him off in the middle of the office," the person claimed.

Other accounts of life at the Sydney studio say McNamara was "required to sit isolated from everyone else" following a visit from a team-building company.

"But that just made it worse, since he would then pace back and forth all day, bothering people even more," said another anonymous studio source.

and sometimes 110 hours a week.

OT: If all of the employees got a new job then I don't really mind the studio going, if it's true what they said about McNamara.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

At least they got new jobs. That's all that can be said really.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

McNamara pretty much got what he deserved considering how much of a douche he was to people. Gaming has enough production troubles as is without bringing in douchebag director/producers who push others around.

 

[cookyy2k]

Though to be honest this whole manager on a power trip thing and expected hours outside your contract isn't video game exclusive. It's extremely common place. Managers like that are managers because they get stuff done. I'm not condoning it but as far a big business is concerned employees are nothing more than a resource.

 

[42]

Good! Couldn't of happened to a more deserving studio. I can't wait to read their letter blaming it all on used games.

It had nothing to do with used games you prat. and sure the head was acted like a prat as well (dude seriously that has to be the most far-fetched arguments i've ever seen in a forum) the studio workers didn't deserve it and L.A Noire was a fantastic game. or then again you could be trolling. because then again you could be confusing this studio with publisher EA. but i am interested in where you got the used games angle from.