LA Noire dev staff owed nearly £900k

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 7 October, 2011

Even the poor intern.

Developers who worked on L.A. Noire are owed nearly £900,000, legal documents have revealed.

40 Team Bondi staff behind the game are owed AUD $1.4 million (£886,000) Eurogamer sister site GamesIndustry.biz reports.

The Australian developer, which went into liquidation last month, owes money to programmers, designers, production and gameplay staff - and even an intern.

Staff are owed between $1600 and $99,000. Boss Brendan McNamara is owed more than $102,000.

With the embattled company currently in liquidation, it is unlikely its creditors will see a return on their investments.

Team Bondi's reputation was irrevocably harmed amid allegations of unfair working practices, despite the critical success of L.A. Noire.

Team Bondi's assets and most of the staff - including leader Brendan McNamara - reportedly went to KMM, a production company set-up by Mad Max maker George Miller. Rockstar retained the L.A. Noire IP, and is making a PC version for launch later this year.

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About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 8 months ago

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  • captain_Carl #1 8 months ago

    Bollocks to McNamara but i feel sorry for the rest of them.

  • wizlon #2 8 months ago

    Sounds pretty shocking, lets all have a whip round eh?

  • Daeltaja #3 8 months ago

    Owed, but will they get it? Bloody hope so..

  • coolbritannia #4 8 months ago

    I'm really glad I don't work in the games industry.

  • el_pollo_diablo #5 8 months ago

    Interns generally don't get paid, unless it was his/her travelcard refund.

    / pedant

  • rojjer #6 8 months ago

    Unlikely to get it once the creditors have had their fill, as the article says. Shitty state to be in, I've been there - fucking dreadful.

    Hope some of them made off with their PCs..

  • TruSmiles #7 8 months ago

    You can get paid internships/placements in the game industry. Well, you can in the UK anyway.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #8 8 months ago

    Hopefully they will see something after the PC version is shipped, but i wouldnt bet on it,

  • el_pollo_diablo #9 8 months ago

    Didn't know that. I thought internships were a way for evil bosses to get free work done under the banner of "it'll look good on your cv and anyway it's a recession."

    I stand corrected.

  • Tyranix #10 8 months ago

    Terrible stuff, I hope they somehow get the money they're owed. They bloody well deserve it.

    The only thing I can say that's good about the situation is that they managed to get L.A. Noire out...it's a work of art.

  • dirtysteve #11 8 months ago

    Hard to believe McNamara isn't getting paid,I thought he'd make sure and look after himself first.

  • TruSmiles #12 8 months ago

    @el_pollo_diablo Nah, that's called work experience :D

    Actual placements in the game industry are a great way to start out though, especially for students. But, there aren't that many of 'em and they can be hard to land in. Most of them tend to team up with specific University courses.

  • DiamondIce #13 8 months ago

    I very much enjoyed the game but hearing all that went on (and still is) at Team Bondi does leave a very bad taste.

  • HoraceGoesSquiffy #14 8 months ago

    When companies go into liquidation staff and contractors are generally the last to get paid, if at all. The auditors (people like KPMG, for example, who wind up the company) fees can swallow up quite a large sum before anyone gets paid at all.

  • BBIAJ #15 8 months ago

    @GamesProgrammer:

    Doubtful, R* Leeds are handling the conversion, it won't be down to R* themselves to pay what is owed.

  • mukki #16 8 months ago

    Horrible...

  • Ranger101 #17 8 months ago

    @dirtysteve

    I'm guessing these are mainly bonuses (especailly in McNamara's case) rather than wages. Slimebags like McNamara have ways of getting cash, so no doubt this is just the small end of stuff he hasn't got.

  • patchbox360 #18 8 months ago

    should the intern buy a used copy or a new copy

  • MisterM #19 8 months ago

    Damn shame, I really enjoyed that game but it's ruined people's lives.

    Video Games: SERIOUS BUSINESS.

  • evilrobot #20 8 months ago

    Post deleted at 22:12:53 08-05-2012

  • Dubya #21 8 months ago

    With the exception of McNamara, I feel sorry for the people who didn't get paid.
    This is the first I've heard about Team Bondi going bust - this probably also explains the no Red Dead port to PC scenario.

    I just hope McNamara never works in the gaming industry again...or any industry for that matter.

  • Tyronne #22 8 months ago

    Noire money left.

  • miiiguel #23 8 months ago

    When companies go into liquidation staff and contractors are generally the last to get paid, if at all. The auditors (people like KPMG, for example, who wind up the company) fees can swallow up quite a large sum before anyone gets paid at all.

    Here, in Portugal, it's the opposite, staff are the first to get paid.

  • Ranger101 #24 8 months ago

    @Dubya - RDR has nothing to do with Team Bondi, and a PC LA Noire port is being developed by Rockstar.
    Also, unfortunately, McNamara already has a job in another games development firm.

  • timewarp87 #25 8 months ago

    Maybe one of the crime cases should be set in team Bondais offices ?

  • nuanimal #26 8 months ago

    The Australian developer, which went into liquidation last month, owes money to programmers, designers, production and gameplay staff - and even an intern.

    Even an intern? What's the world coming too when you can't even exploit young people for free!?

  • penhalion #27 8 months ago

    Been there too and they are sadly more likely to see a green moon than any payments owed.

    Now when I get a contract with someone who is treating his/her staff like shite I pretty much leave there and then. I've yet to see a good product come from that kind of environment and I simply don't want to be associated with that. I've shocked a few people doing that. I'm not shy about telling them the reason for my leaving either.

  • LazyNinjaUk #28 8 months ago

    All McNamara deserves is a swift kick in the bollocks.

  • Rens11 #29 8 months ago

    If mcnamara is owed over 100k bonus his wages musta been ridicoulous just goes to show the discrepincies between staff and him

  • Kami #30 8 months ago

    That's just plain shit.

    For shame, for shame, for shame!

  • funkateer #31 8 months ago

    It's truly shameful, this.
    As I see it, game developers are generally hugely underpaid for their work that's arguably in one of the most technically demanding and specialised fields in ICT. I mean it's kind of sad that you can get paid 3 times as much doing technically less demanding and specialised jobs for banks and such.
    I think this could be offset by at least giving these developers some equity deal (shares) on top of their basic salary. That way the developers will have an opportunity to be well-paid if a game is successful.
    Not sure if it already works that way nowadays, but during my time doing game development, it didn't really.

  • Rack #32 8 months ago

    Kind of disgusting it's been wrangled so none of the money from PC LA Noire will go to them, but that's capitalism. Oh and +1 to Portugal's laws regarding this, in the UK the government pays unpaid staff emergency relief but not much at all compared to lost wages. Hope they get at least something under Australian law.

  • Daikon #33 8 months ago

    I feel bad about having bought this game.

  • Neil__ #34 8 months ago

    @rojjer
    If they're owed money then they are creditors. unfortunately once the government and the liquidators take their cut of any assets there will probably be pennies in the pound paid out in anything.