L.A. Noire dev Team Bondi selling up

By Robert Purchese Published 9 August, 2011

To Mad Max maker George Miller.

The rumour is apparently true: Team Bondi all assets and IP and be folded into KMM productions, the company owned by Mad Max maker George Miller.

Develop was tipped off by a source who said all staff at Team Bondi had been offered a job within KMM or a severance package.

Whether post-release work will continue on well received crime thriller L.A. Noire was a question refused an answer. Rockstar retains the L.A. Noire IP, Develop noted.

Brendan McNamara, the Team Bondi boss accused of enforcing unfair working practices, is rumoured to be joining KMM. If he does, he'll be reunited with developers who left Team Bondi due to the exhausting conditions before L.A. Noire was completed.

Rumours are also rife that the embattled Sydney, Australia-based Team Bondi had gone bankrupt prior to the KMM deal.

Brendan McNamara was seen touring around the offices of Miller's animation studio Dr D last week. Sources said Team Bondi had been "doomed" by the "scandal" of L.A. Noire's development, and couldn't find another publisher partner, post-Rockstar, to work with.

Rockstar, it was said, had developed "disdain" for Team Bondi during its lengthy relationship as L.A. Noire was made.

L.A. Noire.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • LEDgar #1 10 months ago

    "If he does, he'll be reunited with developers who left Team Bondi due to the exhausting conditions before L.A. Noire was completed. "

    Won't they be happy?

  • Stompy #2 10 months ago

    Post deleted at 23:13:35 17-04-2012

  • RodHull #3 10 months ago

    Brendan McNamara: Pig In The City.

  • Thunderbolt #4 10 months ago

    Why are they bankrupt I thought la noire was a success?

  • Burnt-Kona Verified Senior Artist, Full Fat Productions #5 10 months ago

    @Thunderbolt - Rockstar would have paid Team Bondi during development of LA Noire, but given the protracted development time and the fallout post-release, I very much doubt there would be any residuals from sales. Given the size of the development team at Bondi, the monthly wage bill would be huge. Without a publisher signing them up for another project, those wages come from whatever Bondi has in the bank. Hence why they are selling up.

  • X201 #6 10 months ago

    @Thunderbolt

    Cash flow is what usually takes most companies down.

    Delayed royalties?
    Small % cut of the final product?
    Only the winding-up petition /creditors report will explain it properly.


  • leaveitout #7 10 months ago

    "The rumour is apparently true: Team Bondi all assets and IP and be folded into KMM productions, the company owned by Mad Max maker George Miller."

    Something not quite right in this sentence, in fact, it makes no senses whatsoever. Please fix.

  • peppergomez #8 10 months ago

    Brendan McNamara: Beyond Thunderdome

  • shadow1979 #9 10 months ago

    Anyone with a name like Brendan McNamara is doomed to be a dick from the very beginning. I mean, it sounds like a douche the way it roles of the tongue.

    *puts on south park Sada voice* "I'm Brendan McNamara, relax guy!!"

  • dirtysteve #10 10 months ago

    I can imagine the relief of the people who left turning to horror. Are they going to be working under McNamara again? He sounds like the kind of prick who would hold a grudge.

    As for shadow1979's comment, it's a common name, nothing douchey about it.

  • OxWearingSocks #11 10 months ago

    I hope KMM employ Brendan McNamara to be the stress ball which can be kicked when the team are struggling with program bugs.

  • darkmorgado #12 10 months ago

    Brendan McNamara, the Team Bondi boss accused of enforcing unfair working practices, is rumoured to be joining KMM. If he does, he'll be reunited with developers who left Team Bondi due to the exhausting conditions before L.A. Noire was completed.

    Mass walkout at KMM coming soon?

  • Lexx87 #13 10 months ago

    "The rumour is apparently true: Team Bondi all assets and IP and be folded into KMM productions, the company owned by Mad Max maker George Miller."

    Something not quite right in this sentence, in fact, it makes no senses whatsoever. Please fix.

    Agree with this, what on earth :D

  • evarofzentral #14 10 months ago

    Please can we still have another L.A. Noire Mr. Miller. And a Mad Max game would be awesome!

  • Phantom_Dynamite #15 10 months ago

    When ever i think of Team Bondi, I think of Mad Max Beyond Thunder Dome and all the the disgruntled employees have to face Master Blaster in the pit where they are executed with Brendam McNmara laughing at the side lines.

  • penhalion #16 10 months ago

    Why are they bankrupt I thought la noire was a success?

    Er given the cost of maing it I think success is definitely not a word that can be used about the game.

  • Kanjin #17 10 months ago

    There's a good article on this site about the production of L.A. Noire, it's worth reading and it's part of the reason I'm not buying the game. I'm glad to hear the employees get a reasonable deal out of it, they deserve a break after that shit.

  • The-Bodybuilder #18 10 months ago

    Why is he getting re-hired? For what reason?

  • HeNiCiDe1988 #19 10 months ago

    so what actually happened at team bondi like heard that tehre was stuff to do with bad treatment of workers but was that bondi or rockstar treating them like crap?

  • darkmorgado #20 10 months ago

    10 years in the making, reportedly below-expectation performance, plus backlash and scandal?

    Not sure how it can be classed as a success to be honest. If I ran a studio there's no way in hell I would hire McNamara. What the hell are KMM thinking? He's a fucking poison chalice.

  • f01re #21 10 months ago

    As well as Mad Max he made Happy Feet too...

  • apoc_reg #22 10 months ago

    Sad that the team bondi working conditions is all that anyone will remember LA Noire for dont you think!

  • spekkeh #23 10 months ago

    Well if McNamara really wrote the script of LA Noire, he's certainly talented. Just not as a producer.

  • ToAks #24 10 months ago

    i gave brendan a second chance...... he fucked up for the third time(with L.A Noir)... glad i won't work under or with him ever again...

  • actionfitz #25 10 months ago

    " Team Bondi all assets and IP and be folded into KMM productions"

    Because the Team Bondi brand is toxic and no one wants to work for McNamara...
    So he's changing company names and carrying on business as usual... what a cunt.

    Here's hoping former Team Bondi staff - past and present - can come to together and form their own outfit and give that dick the finger :)

  • Bullet_Tunnel #26 10 months ago

    @#10- my name is brendan macnamara also, my life has been ruined since this scandal was exposed, im having it changed by d-poll to Dick Mussel

  • fabio78 #27 10 months ago

    Yes, this sentence doesn't make any sense:"The rumour is apparently true: Team Bondi all assets and IP and be folded into KMM productions, the company owned by Mad Max maker George Miller". And if it means that all the assets and IP's now belong do KMM, the article follows with "Rockstar retains the L.A. Noire IP, Develop noted." WTF Eurogamer, that was a really confusing story...

  • YenRug #28 10 months ago

    @fabio78

    I don't see what's so confusing: the "LA Noire" brand is being retained by Rockstar, any thing else developed by Team Bondi has been taken over by KMM, presumably including all the face scanning/modelling tech that they created for the game.

  • fabio78 #29 10 months ago

    @YenRug

    "...including all the face scanning/modelling tech that they created for the game". Well, yes... in my understanding that falls into the "assets" category, and it makes sense that Team Bondi get to keep it, sell it or take it to another arm. But the "LA Noire" brand is the Intellectual Property itself, right? In that case is dubious whether a possible sequel to LA Noire would belong to KMM or not. According to the opening lines yes, then Rockstar retains the IP. In the video game industry IP usually refers to the brand/series/character. It's just a salad of terms really...

  • woodyrulesok #30 10 months ago

    @f01re
    Don't forget Happy Feet 2 and a new Mad Max film in the works. Maybe there will be a Mad Max game, ooooooh yes please.

  • God_Octo #31 10 months ago

    If I was one of the poor people who escaped McNamara's reign of terror, only to discover he was then coming to my new workplace, I would cry. The guy sounds like a terrible boss- I don't understand why people keep employing him into positions of power?

  • Ahskay #32 10 months ago

    I don't get why Brendan gets another chance to screw another company up. Employees of Brendan, unite! Get your pitchforks and torches and burn that fool!