L.A Noire pushed back to 2011

Company
Team Bondi

Although there was a large feature on L.A Noire in the March edition of Game Informer magazine five months ago, not much has been heard since of the detective thriller title from Sydney's Team Bondi.

Earlier this year, publisher Rockstar confirmed a rough release time frame for L.A Noire in Fall (around September) this year, which was a welcomed relief for patient fans eager to get their hands on the game which has suffered numerousdelays since development initially started in 2004.

The bad news, however, is that L.A Noire seems to have been pushed back for a release next year. Gamespot quotes an analyst who has cited retail sources that the game is being pushed back. Evan Wilson, from Pacific Crest Securities, is quoted at Gamespot...

"We have confirmed the delay of L.A. Noire from fiscal Q4 (Oct.) well into [fiscal] 2011 [November 1, 2010 to October 31, 2011]," Wilson wrote. "As far as we can tell, Take-Two has not shown the game to retailers."

Rockstar, as of yet, have not provided a formal release date for L.A Noire.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 30/08/10 - 3:51 PMPermalink

So at which point exactly does Team Bondi's "holier than thou" attitude become justified? Working there was an absolute nightmare. Not because the developers were bad - quite the opposite - they were amazing. But the department leads and management were so inept and childish it would be comical were they not wasting millions of dollars and years of their staff's time.

The staff turnover there is phenomenal. Their tools are a mess, their idea of updating documentation is sending out an email (amidst hundreds per day) and hoping it gets read, schedules and progress percentages are completely improvised and arbitrary, and huge changes are made daily on a whim and rarely shared with the people who need to know.

Let's hope for Team Bondi's sake that the rumours of Rockstar taking the IP as insurance are false. Because that would leave them very few reasons to keep Team Bondi on the project.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 30/08/10 - 5:02 PMPermalink

Th inability of Team Bondi to keep on track makes me wonder. How when they are looking to secure their next project are they going to be able to convince a publisher that they can deliver on time and on budget.

Their current performance is not something that would instill confidence.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 31/08/10 - 12:57 AMPermalink

Team Bondi, is well known now in Australia as a slave labor, there is absolutely no justification for what is happening, developers were told there is no pay rise and you have to keep working as slaves all the extra hours and weekends using the tools which take forever to make simple changes. Advise to any game developer in Australia, avoid Team Bondi, and quit if you are still there. they will go down very soon.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 31/08/10 - 1:10 AMPermalink

History seems to be repeating itself as it was with Duke Nukem Forever

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 31/08/10 - 8:53 AMPermalink

I would love to know exactly what it is that has caused such a huge change in the potential release date for this game.

Is it the management over-selling their ability to finish the game in the initial time-line?
Is it the development team simply not being good enough to produce the game in that time-line?
Is it 'feature creep' with the game itself as, with Mafia 2 now coming out, they have to make the game stand out more from the rest?
Is it because they decided to release on consoles other than the PS3?

Is it all of the above?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 31/08/10 - 10:31 AMPermalink

It's all of the above. Feature creep is a *major* problem there. Rockstar and Brendan all have ideas off the top of their head that they want implemented, and then these change continuously. The problem might be lessened a little if Alex (the lead designer) put his foot down and said "No" to some of these features but he's just a yes-man who Brendan brought over from Team Soho.

So lots of "Hey let's do this!" with no self-restraint, no documentation, no time management skills, and a team who are burnt out from running a long, hard race with no finish line. And management just pulling dates out of the air without any real idea as to whether they're achievable or not.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 31/08/10 - 11:22 AMPermalink

As a gamer, I respect Rockstar games (GTA: SA, GTAIV, Red dead redemption), i see no purpose of keeping this game in the hands of this developer which failed to reach all deadlines, i hope Rockstar buys the ip and lets a more skilled development studio take over the project from Team Bondi. I won't be surprised next year when its delayed again for exactly the same reasons.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 01/09/10 - 5:25 PMPermalink

This is what happens when you have an abundance of vision and zero idea of how to actually make it a practical and commercial reality, and, don't want to hire and trust anyone who does.

This doesn't surprise me at all. But, I hope they don't just buy the IP and then take it to another studio to finish. That would be so wrong for a number of reasons. Rather if possible, neuter Brendan and the ineffectual leads by bringing in a new management team to steer and finish the project by the end of 2011.

To me, that would make more sense, especially, as I think that Rockstar could contract the expertise here, locally, to do it. They just have to do a bit of digging is all to find them ;).

And this is not another Duke Nukem Forever, in that they actually new how to create compelling gameplay -- there problem was "feature creep" to put simply.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/09/10 - 2:43 AMPermalink

I would like to take a different slant on this. I think Brendan who heads up team bond is a creative genius. Yes, his approach does not sit well in the Australian 38 hour week mentality, and yes, doing a game for 6 years is a looong time. These are very polarized issues, but I believe that once the game hits retail, it will be the highest grossing All-Ozzie made game of all time. It better be !
Working for a creative genius cannot be easy and it's not everyone's cup of tea, and for some, it's a game job. However, I would challenge you to think about it a little bit more deeply. He has been putting his soul into this game.Brendan does no public talks and appearances, he just works. He is very driven, and if any person in the games industry has a shot at greatness, it's him. In years time, I think many will lay claim of having worked on the game, with the pain and suffering simmering in the background, but proud of having delivered their overdue baby. Nothing great is ever easy.
It's so easy to criticize him and thevpeople there. I'm sure the comments of slavery are probably right. Heck, it's an artistic process driven by a creative genius. Whatvdo you think it's going to be like? Grateful you have a job, suck up the crap, and remain positive. No, do more than that. Work your are off, not because you are his slave, but because you have this ONE chance in your entire game job history to work on a true labour of love and if you can remain sane through the process, of avoiding joining in with the crowd in bagging, you will get much from it all and it will provide you with a perspective very few developers know - the cost and whatvit truly takes to be great. My advice, based on my kong career in this space and having watched truly amazing passionate people create greatness, is that it take everything,i your very all, to have a chance of success . Don't throwvit away. A Brendan only happens once in a lifetime in Australia, and if you are lucky enough to earn his respect, and able to tolerate the crap for the sake of the art and dream, then you will go very far in any other goal you may set for yourself.
I don't work for his studio, although I know Brendan. I have nothing personallybto gain by sharing this , probably controversial, post. Except to encourage the few who are sticking by Brendan and his dream and makingbit their dream. For without these folks, where would we be ?
One day you will read this post, and realize with hindsight of his game sales, how painfully accurate it was, and perhaps it might inspire you to reach out for you own dream, despite the odds or setbacks. Or perhaps it was all horses@@t, and I got it wrong. That is possible. But my experience and spider sense tells me otherwise
Industry Insider

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/09/10 - 11:41 AMPermalink

Brendan may well be a creative genius, but without his staff he is nothing. Nothing.
The talk of 'slavery' has very little to do with long working hours, and a lot to do with the total lack of respect the company has for it's people.
Everybody starts their time at Team Bondi passionate. They're ready and wiling, even craving, to work long and hard on something amazing. The company is extraordinarily efficient at beating this out of them. And it has *nothing* to do with the "Australian 38 hour week mentality".

The game may become a huge success. I hope it does. But that should not validate the retarded practices and processes of the developer. Surely you'd agree greatness can be achieved faster (and therefore cheaper) with a motivated, passionate and experienced staff.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/09/10 - 4:28 PMPermalink

How about common sense.

Creative industries do not need to be chaotic and poorly managed. I've worked on AAA titles which have sold millions and had very little crunch.

There is nothing wrong with the 38 hour week. If this is what people contract into, they have a right to expect it. People need time for a life, their family, sleep etc.

I have seen projects scheduled so that everyone has to do "crunch" for extended periods. This is extremely destructive and leads to burning people out and rapidly diminishing returns.

Just because times are tough in the games industry does not mean that people should accept destructive work practices. "Industry insider" speaks of "tolerate the crap", and "suck up the crap", but why should there be crap? It absolutely is not necessary.

Heathy creative companies treat talent well, and retain staff. It is part of a managers job to do this. If, as a manager, you see your role as being to get as much work for as little pay as possible from employees, sit for a moment and reflect: Is this a good thing? Is it sustainable? Am I hurting people?

I truly hope that the game does well.

I also hope that if it succeeds, it's success is not attributed to overworking and underpaying. Slavery is something which we should seek to emulate or even tolerate.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/09/10 - 8:52 PMPermalink

Completely agree with "Slavery is something which we should seek to emulate or even tolerate."

The pyramids were built on the backs of slaves, and while they might be grand structures, the slaves should not be "grateful" for the opportunity to work on something so big... Quality of life for developers above 'creative genius' any day. There are plenty of creative geniuses that manage to balance life AND large-scale creative projects.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 03/09/10 - 12:10 PMPermalink

The pyramids bring in a lot of tourism to Egypt. So strictly speaking, taking a long term view, slavery was good for Egypt. Not so much for the salves though...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 03/09/10 - 2:55 PMPermalink

I can't speak about the 'creative genius' in question, but alarm bells go off when I hear anyone complain 'the team didn't work hard enough, didn't care enough, 38-hr a week culture, etc etc'. I seem to recall a very similar interview being passed around after Fury's spectacular failure. Designers and management blaming the team for problems instead of taking it on the chin are a symptom of a deadly disease in your company. First and foremost because the team will NEVER trust or work as hard for that lead ever again. And why should they? You've just degenerated their efforts to the world at large, in order to protect your own precious ego and reputation.

Fact is, if you're not designing a game that can be created in the budgeted time, you've messed up somewhere. You haven't kept an eye on scope. Maybe you changed your mind too often because you didn't think things through properly in the prototyping stage. You've allowed feature creep. You didn't communicate the vision properly, or maybe you hogged all the creative control so the team didn't feel enough ownership to see the point in doing obscene amounts of overtime. Maybe something external threw you a curveball and made it worse. I don't know what the case is at LA Noire, but telling people to 'suck it up' is irresponsible.

You may be attempting to defend your friend, which is noble, but you're not doing him any favours here. His team and coworkers are far more likely to respect him if he steps up and says that he made some mistakes along the way, and that he's going to do everything he can to prevent it happening again. Even if he DIDN'T make any mistakes (unlikely in itself, creative genius or not.)

Apologies and thank-yous cost almost nothing, and go a long way, but protecting egos, making excuses, and blaming others just makes you captain of a sinking ship. That goes for those in the trenches, too.