Rumor: Developers claim to be uncredited for LA Noire work

by David Hinkle on Jun 5th 2011 11:30PM

For the past seven years, Team Bondi and Rockstar Games have been toiling away on LA Noire -- an effort that, at least from a critical standpoint so far, has been totally worth it. But some developers who supposedly had a hand in solving the case of how to launch a game have gone uncredited and taken to the internet for justice by ... launching a website and Facebook page.

T.K. Rose, an alias of one such member (why hide your name?) of the group looking for recognition, told Destructoid that unless individuals were involved during "the final month or two of production" were left out of the game's credits, affecting about 100 individuals who apparently worked on the game. "A significant portion of these people did not leave Team Bondi by choice," Rose detailed, "they were made redundant as the art production wound down, and as Quality Assurance was shifted off-shore to Rockstar's studios."

Rockstar has yet to comment on the claims of these individuals. We've reached out for comment and will update accordingly.

Via: Destructoid
Source: L.A. Noire Credits

Tags: credits, LA-Noire, la-noire-credits, microsoft, playstation, ps3, RockStar, team-bondi, xbox

Reader Comments (32)

Why hide their name? I don't know. Fear of retaliation, probably? Fear of not getting a needed reference in a desperately bad job market?

Try not to make it sound so sinister next time.

@Dalrint

Rockstar should patch the Alias into the Credits

@Dalrint

Agreed. I read that and thought it was rather unnecessary.

I'm glad that this person hid their identity,

That sucks; without the credits you can't prove that you worked on the game. It really sucks that they would hide your name like tha-

What? They're hiding their own name, too?

He'd hide his name incase he worked at Team Bondi or Rockstar. To come out open like this while employed will get you fired.

I feel bad for those guys / ladies, especially if you made something you are proud of and is so well received by the public and you don't get any credit for all the hard work you had put into the game.

Who reads the credits?

@Mustang Fanboy

Me. Every movie, every game. I don't know why; I just always do.

@Mustang Fanboy
It's not just about people reading the credits. It's about having some kind of proof that you worked on the game and what you worked on.

@Mustang Fanboy
The credits aren't for us. They're the proverbial signature on the corner of an artist's painting. The audience could care less about it, but the artist should have every right to sign their name on any piece of work they've worked hard on.

@Mustang Fanboy

I do!

Oh. I had been hearing this L.A. Noire credits site make the rounds, but I assumed it was created/sponsored BY Rockstar. This is a bit more interesting.

@Kirkpad
No they did the same with Manhunt 2. They fired the entire Rockstar Italy team and then none of them were listed. They instead had Rockstar North, who did nothing but censor the game to get it to sell, in the credits.

Plenty of reasons to hide your name, including actual legal retaliation. The biggest one I'd be concerned about is the use of the LA Noire name in the web address and on the website, which almost certainly infringe the trademark. Also, if the claim is false, they could be sued for defamation.

I hope everyone gets the credit they deserve, but there are better ways of getting it.

"T.K. Rose, an alias of one such member (why hide your name?) of the group looking for recognition, told Destructoid that unless individuals were involved during "the final month or two of production" were left out of the game's credits, affecting about 100 individuals who apparently worked on the game."

That's one of the most poorly constructed sentences I've ever read, and there's only FIVE in the entire post. Joystiq has been really sloppy of late.

Also, the judgement in parentheses is mighty obnoxious as well. But seeing as how much this site has had their collective tongues up Rockstar and Team Bondis' asses (read: the game isn't that great), I guess it's no surprise.

@Aphate

Was L.A. Noire too hard for you?

@A Sandwich

Not at all, it's just an average game with interesting tech. It's not bad by any stretch, although I think it has some boring, repetitive components. It does one interesting thing with the tech, which doesn't remain interesting throughout the entire game, while every other mechanic is pedestrian. Boring shooting, chases, driving, and collectibles.

Yet more than half the reviews on metacritic are 90 or above...nothing against Rockstar personally, but their games always seem to be weighted heavily in reviews. RDR was pretty wholly excellent though.

Then again, you probably weren't looking for a well-reasoned response.

@A Sandwich

Or, it's his opinion, one that I partially agree with.

There is some logical fallacies in the game, as if they were going with one angle, then suddenly decided against it and changed it while leaving in all the dialogue hints to it. Hell, the first case you work on has one, the whole "glasses" thing for instance. Otherwise my record is perfect out of the several cases I've done.

Controls are still rather wonky and characters still move rather unnaturally, like every other game Rockstar has done, and is pretty much unforgivable by now considering just how long its been like this in their games.

There's other issues I have, but those are the biggest two.

@Aphate

I agree that Rockstar seems to benefit from grade inflation in the reviews dept. I tried LA Noire and have a much lower opinion of it than you did. The sad thing is, with this history of hyped up reviews for their games, if they ever did come out with anything genuinely good, I would still be skeptical.

@Aphate
The game has its share fo flaws. I couldn't finish GTA 4 because I got tired of reloading and driving half way across the city.

In Red Dead, riding my horse was fun and in this game, once I got tired for driving I had the auto-drive to get me there in LA Noire.

The game is far from perfect, but you cannot compare an open world game to a shooter or an RPG. While it might seem like a free pass if you compare certain elements to other genres it is not a combat sim or a driving game. Compared with others in the genre it was a fun outing with cinematic experiences that wowed it's jump into and past the uncanny valley. 9/10 for my review.

So in an effort to be known... they hide their names?

...

If true, that's messed up.

First, RDR and now this???

Hmm... wouldn't be easy for Rockstar to just compare the list on the newly created website to the one in the game/instruction manual? That way they would at least know it's one of those 130 people (according to the Facebook page) that made the site?

I mean really, they could do a little detective work themselves. After spending 7 years thinking like detectives, you would assume they don't need Sherlock Holmes to figure out who made the site.

Can someone explain why this happens in some games? Why would the developer leave any people out of the credits? There's no reason not to include everyone. Unless there's a whole legal process to it that I'm not aware of.

@FunkyVerb

Because producers and only a small number of people do the credits. They will take you out for whatever reason and if they feel like you didn't work long enough on the project they'll leave you out. I know how this guy feels.

Most likely the people who weren't credited were contracted employees. That doesn't mean their work was any less important or dedicated. It's just likely they were artists, QA testers, and programmers hired as the project ramped up. This kinda stuff happens every day in the gaming industry and it sucks ass.

@Anticrawl

AND what's worse is when you are a 3rd party (or outsourced work) on the title that isn't wholly employed by the publisher. Your chances of being actually credited for your thankless work is even less.

@Anticrawl Per your second comment, yeah ...

All to often your studio or company gets a logo or name drop at the end of the credits, or just on the last page of the manual, with no mention of the people who actually worked on it save maybe the studio head in the special thanks.

Why tell Destructoid?

People get left out of the credits all the time. I know I've been left out of the credits for development work on a couple games, and only got a "Thanks" on the one I wrote the backstory for.

yes, this happens way more often than people realize, and it's not just limited to games. artists in the creative field (movies, commercials, games) have to deal with this a lot.

if you're ever missing from credits that you deserve, it doesn't matter all that much as long as someone else can verify that you actually worked on it. in the end, credits really only matter for when we're looking to change jobs, and as long as you know you worked on something, it's on your resume, and someone can verify and/or recommend you, then you'll be fine.

my .02 cents.

They obviously ran out of disc space. Those credits... They really take up the rams and roms.

Seriously, though... It's really an odd thing to purposely go out of your way to omit people from credits.

L.A. Noire

Rumor: Developers claim to be uncredited for LA Noire work

Reader Comments (32)

Posted: Jun 5th 2011 11:35PM Dalrint said

Posted: Jun 5th 2011 11:49PM oOWallaceOo said

Posted: Jun 5th 2011 11:53PM KungFuChaosNinja said

Posted: Jun 5th 2011 11:41PM Acosta02 said

Posted: Jun 5th 2011 11:45PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Jun 5th 2011 11:49PM Aesir Renegade said

Posted: Jun 5th 2011 11:51PM Mustang Fanboy said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 12:12AM ItsameMatt03 said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 12:20AM Lerkero said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 1:26AM PointlessPuppies said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 4:59AM kentuckyfried said

Posted: Jun 5th 2011 11:51PM Kirkpad said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 12:29AM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Jun 5th 2011 11:56PM vidguy said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 12:00AM Aphate said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 12:03AM A Sandwich said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 12:23AM Aphate said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 12:30AM DevilSei said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 1:05AM FlashJS said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 8:55AM Cap Morgan said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 12:01AM OneManFreakShow said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 12:12AM MLC said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 12:30AM Aesir Renegade said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 1:13AM FunkyVerb said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 1:21AM Anticrawl said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 1:22AM Anticrawl said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 1:24AM Anticrawl said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 2:40AM Epoque said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 4:51AM superchamois said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 9:42AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 9:48AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 6th 2011 10:59AM (Unverified) said

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