It’s been a bizarre run of bad news and even worse press for Australian developer Team Bondi since the release of their critically acclaimed, Rockstar-published, detective thriller L.A. Noire, and it appears it has culminated in the studio collapsing into bankruptcy – despite Take Two revealing yesterday that the game has sold over 4 million units.
We reported several days back that Team Bondi may have been in the process of being absorbed into Sydney-based production studio Kennedy Miller Mitchell, who work across a range of media, and now Develop understands that staff at Team Bondi have been given the choice between moving to that business – or accepting a severance package and unemployment. Game IP and other assets are also apparently in the process of being sold off, which would appear to indicate that Team Bondi has become insolvent – or are possibly being acquired by KMM. Australian law means that Team Bondi is not required to formally notify authorities that they are filing for bankruptcy for 28 days after the fact, so no public confirmation has yet been forthcoming.
The staff themselves appear to be in the dark as much as everyone else, with Develop noting that they have received little information from studio boss Brendan McNamara. McNamara was at the centre of a storm of allegations concerning ill-treatment of staff at Team Bondi during the development of L.A. Noire, and one of the ironies of the present situation would be if he joined up with KMM – since that is where many disgruntled former Team Bondi employees headed to when they left.
