The creation of 2011 blockbuster title L.A. Noire has enough drama surrounding it to warrant a Hollywood film adaptation.
The game took a whopping seven years to make, with an enormous amount of staff changes over the time period. Not to mention accusations that Team Bondi studio head Brendan McNamara ran the place like a sweat shop, with many ugly rumours of overworked staff and poor publisher relations hanging in the air.
The story even has a Hollywood ending, with LA Noire being a monumental success both critically and commercially. Unfortunately for the developers Team Bondi, the game’s success wasn’t enough to avoid the financial blender, and, in a decidedly non-Hollywood manner, Team Bondi has gone into liquidation.
The drama doesn’t end there however, as its now come to light that a lot of the people who made one of the most successful games of the year aren’t getting paid. Different individuals who worked in programming, design, production and gameplay are all owed between $1600 and $99,000. Even the poor intern isn’t getting a pay day.
It’s not like McNamara made a break for the border either – he himself is owed more than $102,000. The way things are going, it seems unlikely that anyone is going to see their money – a total of more than $1.4 million.
With the reports of Team Bondi being a less than stellar place to work, this is certainly a generous heap of salt in an open wound. As if that wasn’t enough, throughout the game’s creation Team Bondi is also said to have burned bridges with co-developer and publisher of the game, Rockstar.
After the company’s collapse, a lot of the staff have gone on to join production house Kennedy Miller Mitchell, who are currently working on the sequel to animated penguin flick Happy Feet.
Source: Gamesindusty.biz
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