IGN AU were at the Games Convention Asia 2008 where Game Developers' Association of Australia president (GDAA), Tom Crago, gave a presentation on the Australian games industry. Tom talked a bit about Team Bondi's L.A Noire, of which he said "could be the biggest budget videogame in development anywhere in the world. It would certainly... in terms of console titles, be in the top ten... LA Noire is a massive massive project." Tom also talked about L.A Noire's importance to the Austalian games industry. From IGN AU...
"It's one that we hold huge hopes for. It has been said about Australia that we've not been that successful putting out a title that really has set the world on fire; a big budget title that's sold multiple million copies and that has really put us on the map as a hub for videogame development. There are plenty of people who are hoping that L.A. Noire will be that title."
The IGN AU report made a note of two things about Tom's talk about L.A Noire which agrees with some rumours and observations met from various sources.
1. Tom says that L.A Noire is in for another years worth of development, and is planned for a 2009 release date.
Late last year, those nosy people at Kotaku went through publisher Take Two's financial conference call details and noticed that L.A Noire had been pushed out of their 2008 fiscal year release schedule.
2. Tom mentioned that L.A Noire is coming out for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
Game blogger, Surfer Girl, reported some conflicting rumours of the possibility of a multiplatform release for L.A Noire. Earlier this year, she/he cited the Xbox 360's small disc capacity as the main reason why it isn't heading to that platform...
LA Noire definitely ain't coming to Xbox 360, the size of the game is an obstacle to this.
However, a few months later, Surfer Girl wrote that the door was open for the game on Microsoft's console...
The game is not being funded by Sony, who dropped the title (Phil Harrison and Brendan McNamara can't stand each other, McNamara & Company's tendency to miss milestones did not help either, but had very little to do with Phil's decision), there is nothing stopping a 360 release.
What also helped fuel the multiplatform possibility was Team Bondi's change to describe L.A Noire from an "upcoming next generation PlayStation title", to a more general "upcoming next generation console title", as well as job descriptions for which called for talent to work on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games.