Rockstar överger Team Bondi?

L.A. Noire blev som bekant en rejält framgång och man kunde tro att allt var bra i och med det. Men icke. Games Industry har snackat med en före detta Team Bondi-utvecklare och även kommit över en email-konversation som visar att relationen mellan Team Bondi och Rockstar är så dålig att förstnämndas framtida spel inte lär publiceras av Rockstar.

Den anställde säger: "I've heard a lot about Rockstar's disdain for Team Bondi, and it has been made quite clear that they will not publish Team Bondi's next game. Team Bondi are trying to find another publisher for their next title, but the relationship with Rockstar has been badly damaged - Brendan [chefen för Team Bondi, vår anm.] treats L.A. Noire like a success due to his vision but I think Rockstar are the ones who saved the project."

"They continued to sink money into LA Noire, and their marketing was fantastic. Without their continued support, Team Bondi would have gone under several years ago. Rockstar also made a huge contribution to the development; their producers were increasingly influential over the last two years of the game's development, and overruled many of the insane decisions made by Team Bondi management.", fortsätter han.

"At a lower level, Rockstar also pitched in with programmers, animators, artists, QA, etc. Part of the conflict between Team Bondi and Rockstar was due to Rockstar's frustration with Team Bondi's direction, and eventually Team Bondi's management in turn resented Rockstar for taking lots of creative control. It's also worth pointing out that Rockstar used to be very keen on making Team Bondi something like 'Rockstar Sydney' - the more they worked with Team Bondi management, the more they came to understand that this was a terrible idea.", avslutar han.

I det läckta brevet kan vi se hur en rasande Brendan McNamara är upprörd över hur Rockstar ändrade L.A. Noires logo i sista stund och heller inte inkluderade Team Bondis logo i marknadsföringen.

Date: Monday, October 11, 2010

From: Brendan McNamara

To: Everybody List

Every dog has its day and there's going to be hell to pay for this one. I'll never forget being treated like an absolute **** by these people.

Sägas ska också att Team Bondi anklagas för att ha behandlat sin personal väldigt illa under de sista åren av L.A. Noire-utvecklingen, såpass illa att de blivit föremål för en undersökning. Återstår att se vad de kan åstadkomma på egen hand utan Rockstars hjälp framledes, alltså.