[Shiggy]

Deserves a new thread...

Team Bondi are now bankrupt and the remaining staff are going to be bought by KMM, including Brendan McNamara who was instrumental in sealing the deal. Apparently Depth Analysis (the sister company who own the face tech) are also in some trouble after making little to no money off of LA Noire (like TB themselves). Rockstar own the LA Noire ip, so it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Thats after this:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...emails-article
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-seeking-buyer

[Pranay_]

:(

[kittens]

That is so F'd. Damn. :-(

[Dennis]

I am still getting a PC version of LA Noire, right?

[TheLegendOfMart]

Karmas a bitch aint it.

[weeaboo]

Team Bondi are now bankrupt

loooooooool

But the game sold well, what the hell have they done?

[DaBuddaDa]

I am still getting a PC version of LA Noire, right?

Rockstar's got your back.

[Scythian]

I am still getting a PC version of LA Noire, right?

I'd like to know this as well, also I supposed that the game sold pretty good, what gives?

[TheOddOne]

"It happend"

[dallow_bg]

Topped NPD for two months y'all!

[obonicus]

So they're buying the staff? Labor laws in Australia are rough.

[TheStevo]

Always sad to see a good developer go out of business.

I am still getting a PC version of LA Noire, right?

Damn, I hope we are. :[

[Dynamite Shikoku]

someone will bail them out - this is the 21st century

[schick85]

Good for McNamara.

[ezekial45]

loooooooool But the game sold well, what the hell have they done?

Rockstar owns the IP. So i'm assuming that they took a big chunk of the revenue?

[Hot Coldman]

Oh boy. This shouldn't be surprising, really.

[LiquidMetal14]

The game and tech were probably not cheap to make. I understand why it was not on just 1 platform. Anyone can see that this game doesn't exactly look cheap to make.

[DaBuddaDa]

There was a big thread a little while ago with David Cage of Heavy Rain infamy said that the face tech in LA Noire was a dead end, unsustainable and not the direction the industry should be headed in. Many jumped at his throat and it turned into a David Cage/Heavy Rain shitfest.

Lookie what we have here...

[Pie and Beans]

theres money in them thar games.

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

So did Rockstar fuck them over? Making little to no money off of a million seller seems unlikely.

And some of the devepolment cost would have been paid by Sony so its not like Bondi would have to shoulder that burden.

[TheStevo]

Topped NPD for two months y'all!

I thought it sold over a million as well... just how much money did they invest into LA Noire? I thought this game was a hit...

[spindoctor]

I don't get it. Where did all the money they had to have made from L.A. Noire go?

[SolidSnakex]

Rockstar owns the IP. So i'm assuming that they took a big chunk of the revenue?

It probably hasn't even turned a profit yet. Sony was rumored to have pumped 20m into the game before Rockstar bought the IP in 2006. There's no telling how much money Rockstar had to put into it.

[nib95]

So did Rockstar fuck them over? Making little to no money off of a million seller seems unlikely. And some of the devepolment cost would have been paid by Sony so its not like Bondi would have to shoulder that burden.

This....Smells fishy.

[An-Det]

I'm not surprised, considering they couldnt find a new deal after the shit with Rockstar and Sony. The game did well, but just not good enough.

At least LA Noire will live through Rockstar.

[LiquidMetal14]

Bad management decisions if the game did decent or well and still went bankrupt. After those stories on how hellish the process was and such I'm even less surprised.

[Meisadragon]

So this is why Sony bailed out. Smh.

7 years in development + just over 1 million sales. Yeah. GG.

[Vinterbird]

I thought it sold over a million as well... just how much money did they invest into LA Noire? I thought this game was a hit...

Doesn't mean the amount sold makes it turn a profit. There's without a doubt massive and insane R&D budgets and after seven years, there must have been some serious employee costs involved.

[Sho_Nuff82]

But LA Noire sold like 3 million copies in a month, and still charts pretty regularly in Europe.

I remember saying a little while back that that if there was ever a point where a multi-million selling game still can't make back its budget, then we reached the feasible limit of game budgets. Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. Barring a revolutionary improvement in the time and manpower invested in asset creation, modern games have reached the upper limit of what we can expect in terms of content.

Edit: Scratch that, it's 4 million shipped as of mid-June

[SirIgbyCeaser]

haha I like McNamara, he's a really artist with a relentless aim to accomplish envisioned goals.

That face tech in the game wouldn't have been invented without his design plans I assume. I think he is the kind of guy who needs to be challenged at every turn for ingenuity.

[Lyphen]

It's his studio, he can bankrupt it if he wants to.

[djplaeskool]

For a game to have sold as well as LA Noire did, the development of the MotionScan tech must have cost a fortune.
Edit: Oh yeah, it was also a dev marathon (6+ years was it?). That still seems like some way unbalanced spending.

[sixteen-bit]

Not surprising with a game of that development time and budget.

[Foliorum Viridum]

Not nice that a company went out of business, but the game was a huge letdown and in some regards an absolute mess, so... I don't feel too bad about it.

I hope Rockstar internally develop LA Noire 2 and it's equally as Godly as GTA IV/RDR.

[Foffy]

There was a big thread a little while ago with David Cage of Heavy Rain infamy said that the face tech in LA Noire was a dead end, unsustainable and not the direction the industry should be headed in. Many jumped at his throat and it turned into a David Cage/Heavy Rain shitfest. Lookie what we have here...

It didn't come off that Cage was referring to finances and profitability. Which is why people got into an argument in the first place.

[dallow_bg]

So not the way to make videogames. Whole situation is crazy.

[Carl]

Guess there's a big reason why the creepy face tech shouldn't be used in all games, then

[diffusionx]

I thought it sold over a million as well... just how much money did they invest into LA Noire? I thought this game was a hit...

Depending on how it cost... that might not even be enough. I know historically "million seller" has always been a benchmark, but these damn games are costing so much that it is entirely possible that it's not enough anymore.

I remember saying a little while back that that if there was ever a point where a multi-million selling game still can't make back its budget, then we reached the feasible limit of game budgets. Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. Barring a revolutionary improvement in the time and manpower invested in asset creation, modern games have reached the upper limit of what we can expect in terms of content.

Eh... this game was mismanaged for 7 or 8 years, and the studio was run by an incompetent dictator. Thankfully not every game is like that (more than there should be, though).

[LiquidMetal14]

But LA Noire sold like 3 million copies in a month, and still charts pretty regularly in Europe. I remember saying a little while back that that if there was ever a point where a multi-million selling game still can't make back its budget, then we reached the feasible limit of game budgets. Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. Barring a revolutionary improvement in the time and manpower invested in asset creation, modern games have reached the upper limit of what we can expect in terms of content.

I think this will improve next gen, like many others. Things need to come down, not get exponentially complex.

[Stallion Free]

I am still getting a PC version of LA Noire, right?

Yeah, the port is being worked on by one of the Rockstar teams. This should have zero effect on it.

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

There was a big thread a little while ago with David Cage of Heavy Rain infamy said that the face tech in LA Noire was a dead end, unsustainable and not the direction the industry should be headed in. Many jumped at his throat and it turned into a David Cage/Heavy Rain shitfest. Lookie what we have here...

While the face tech would be expensive its really not the reason for any of this, it looks to me (just by the known history) like McNamara was hard to work with after Sony dropped the project they would have had to self fund, leading to McNamara taking what ever offer Rockstar would give him, turns out the deal meant they kept all the cash.

[THE NO LIFE KING]

Woah!!!! Never thought they go bankrupt this fast. I thought give them another year at least.

[BlazingDarkness]

:O

[Mammoth Jones]

A lot of expensive tech and development time for what ended up being a mediocre (at best) game.

I won't lie, I fell for the marketing hype. I read up and I was impressed by the tech. And I will admit, the facial animations are great. But at the end of the day I just didn't have *fun* with LA Noire.

[TheStevo]

Doesn't mean the amount sold makes it turn a profit. There's without a doubt massive and insane R&D budgets and after seven years, there must have been some serious employee costs involved.

But the game is still selling pretty good right now--topped both months on NPD, and has been expected to shift 4 million from what I recall (may be inaccurate, just going off memory). Pulling the plug on the Studios so soon after it released seems a bit off base to me. Craziness, actually. Anyways, I hope for the best for the employees--pity that they were brought down after their game was a hit.

[SolidSnakex]

It didn't come off that Cage was referring to finances and profitability. Which is why people got into an argument in the first place.

He was referring to how much it would cost to use it and how viable it was as a tool for developers. People still dismissed his opinion.

[AgentChris]

Team Bondi is a clusterfuck. If you can't make it work with SCE or Rockstar then you is fucked.

[Fine Ham Abounds]

the remaining staff are going to be bought by KMM

Que?

[Sho_Nuff82]

And remember guys, Pachter told these employees to stop whining and get back to work. 7 Goddamn years.

[TheStevo]

Depending on how it cost... that might not even be enough. I know historically "million seller" has always been a benchmark, but these damn games are costing so much that it is entirely possible that it's not enough anymore.

Indeed, which is inherently a very sad ordeal. I don't suppose any of us here are privy to the costs they faced with LA Noire?