Rockstar Likely Will Not Be Publishing Team Bondi’s Next Title
It looks like Rockstar Games won’t be jumping to publish Team Bondi’s next title anytime soon. A couple of sources close to the developer spoke with GamesIndustry.biz through e-mail, one a game designer and the other a gameplay programmer. The e-mails sent to the site describe more in detail the heinous working conditions put on the development team by Team Bondi, specifically Brendan McNamara, the Studio Head of the developer.
It seems that the relationship between Rockstar and Team Bondi were “badly damaged” over the course of L.A. Noire’s development process. These relations were so damaged that it is highly unlikely Rockstar will ever work with the developer again. One source stated in an e-mail:
“It’s pretty well reported now that the working conditions were bad [but] what hasn’t been discussed yet (from what I’ve seen) is the relationship between Team Bondi and 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. Team Bondi are trying to find another publisher for their next title, but the relationship with Rockstar has been badly damaged – Brendan 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.”
Of course, many of you will remember the news surfacing last month when this whole issue started, with employees describing unethical working conditions, broken promises, and much more with Team Bondi. A report surfaced soon after the initial interviews with past employees, claiming that Rockstar appeared to condone the actions placed on employees by the developer. The source continues to explain in his e-mail that this isn’t such the case: “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. At a lower level, Rockstar also pitched in with programmers, animators, artists, QA, etc. Part of the conflict between Team Bondi and Rockstar was due to Rockstar’s frustration with Team Bondi’s direction, and eventually Team Bondi’s management in turn resented Rockstar for taking lots of creative control. 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.”
The breakup of this relationship between Rockstar and Team Bondi could mean an incredibly shaky future for L.A. Noire. While nothing has officially been stated yet about the game, the sources speak for themselves. You can find the whole story over on the GamesIndustry.biz page, if you’d like to see more. After seeing this, what’s your opinion on the matter? Do you think Rockstar had the right to offer guidance and opinions? Or do you side with Team Bondi in how they handled the situation?
