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Team Bondi owed $1.4 million to employees, faces tech company

by Alexander Sliwinski on Oct 7th 2011 2:30PM

LA Noire's defunct developer Team Bondi owed AU$1,425,156 ($1.4M USD) to creditors when the decision was made to shutter the studio. Edge reports over a million dollars was owed to the staff, with tens of thousands owed to developers who defended the working conditions at the studio, and nearly $100k apiece owed to the studio's controversial executives.

The real kicker is that nearly $150K is still owed to Depth Analysis, Team Bondi studio boss Brendan McNamara's firm that created the MotionScan facial animation tech, unquestionably a major factor that helped the game stand out.

Hold up, we take it back... the real kicker is that $54,427.01 is still owed to Bondi's accountants.

Source: Edge

Tags: LA-Noire, microsoft, playstation, ps3, Rockstar, Team-Bondi, xbox

Reader Comments (34)

Pro tip: Keep your accountant happy. We know how to hurt you.

@Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En
They are not happy ... they work as accountants

@solidsnake8282

Man, are you kidding? As long as we don't see each other in April, I'm one of the happiest dudes you'll ever meet.

@Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En
Yup, my accountant is always happy as could be. Yet, in April you do not call that phone number.

Still really upset this went down the way it did. Left a bad taste in my mouth after buying it.

@Kirkpad

You and a lot of gamers.. probably why sales for the game have flattened, unlike Red Dead which was still selling this time last year.

The accountants would notice that $.01.

@Once known as Shadsy

That is what stands out the most for me in the amount. That crucial one cent. Lol

"the real kicker is that $54,427.01 is still owed to Bondi's accountants."

More like being hit in the face by an iron knee..

Don't worry, didn't you hear? The government will bail you out :D

They should buy a huge lot of land, build some flimsy houses, insure for the new value.....and you you know the rest.

@Trilancer It will all go down in the sewers in the end

It's really too bad what happened to Team Bondi, I'm sure many gamers would've loved to see what they came up with next. The facial tech in L.A. Noire was amazing and I hope that through their work other companies use it to improve storytelling in games.

I haven't bought this game yet, and this kind of thing unfortunatelly makes me want to not buy it... although I really want to play sometime in the future.

@Barry Burton
you can have my copy.

@Barry Burton

just rent it. I'm redboxin it right now! lol

This is pretty crappy - Take Two CEO's are going to get bonus checks off this IP for years to come and the hats that actually pounded out the game have to collect unemployment.

@JRock3x8

It's not Rockstar's fault. The guy who ran the company is a douche.

@Bubbameister33 yes I don't disagree. I'm not assigning blame - just calling out the inequality of it :)

@JRock3x8

It would be a stand up move by Rockstar to provide bonuses to the employees (not bosses) of Team Bondi to reward them for creating an incredible new IP for R*.

I blame pirates who didn't buy the game new.

Almost glad that Team Bondi got the boot, as these policies and standards are atrocious. L.A. Noire was remarkable, though. They deserve so much better.

And sorry for the double post, but I can't stand it when people actually try to defend the methods of Team Bondi's boss. If his "work hard, work fast" methods were truly effective, than L.A. Noire wouldn't have had such drawn out development time.

Ok, so the lawyers got paid too. Phew!

If there ever was an example of how not to do it, this would just about do it. When the first news of trouble came out about how terrible the conditions were, people made the excuse of "it's an industry standard", and "it's worth it for a good game". I doubt anyone would think this finale was worth the trouble. Damn.

To me, all this sounds like will never see another L.A. Noire again :(

@Slight of Ham

It's this generation's Bully.

Maybe someday I will actually get around to buying the game once I know that all the employees got paid. :)

Niche games are great until you put a AAA general public budget on it.
Then you're bound to disappoint in sales.

@xxMayDay31xx they didn't close due to disappointing sales

Proof that if manage poorly enough, you can snatch defeat out of the grandest of victories.

And too bad for them that real life isn't more like LA Noire, or they would have succeeded no matter what bad choices they made.

@JamesBE

"And too bad for them that real life isn't more like LA Noire, or they would have succeeded no matter what bad choices they made."

Hahaha. That's pretty good.

I don't get it.
They make a really good video game. Said good video game sells well. Now they have a lot of money. Why do they $1.4 million to their employees?

I don't get what everyone is complaining about. This happens in the clothing and shoe industry every day of the year. To thousands of people. Working for barely manageable wages and in terrible living conditions. All while the end result of the company employing them gets hundreds of millions of dollars.

This seems rather mild when compared to that. Sure, they got screwed over, but they're left with their talent and experience to bounce back from.

Stop acting like the shoes on your feet, the shirt on your back, and the keyboard you used to write your "oh that's so sad" comment are filled with morally sound business practices.

Welcome to the real world.

Breaking News

L.A. Noire

Team Bondi owed $1.4 million to employees, faces tech company

Reader Comments (34)

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:34PM Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:55PM solidsnake8282 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 3:39PM Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 4:30PM Duke said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:39PM Kirkpad said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 4:45PM SirUrza said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:42PM Once known as Shadsy said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 3:29PM JB said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:43PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:47PM THCMONSTER said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:47PM Trilancer said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:57PM solidsnake8282 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:48PM Kyle4 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:50PM Barry Burton said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 3:02PM phillibuster said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 11:39PM omgwtf said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:55PM JRock3x8 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 3:11PM Bubbameister33 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 3:16PM JRock3x8 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 5:09PM Courtney said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:56PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 3:05PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 3:08PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 4:23PM Duke said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 4:25PM ch3burashka said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 4:26PM Slight of Ham said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 4:47PM SirUrza said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 4:42PM FredMC said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 5:01PM xxMayDay31xx said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 7:49PM Brandnizzle said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 5:27PM JamesBE said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 6:11PM Gillium said

Posted: Oct 7th 2011 6:25PM Esposch said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 2:48PM (Unverified) said

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