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Controversial L.A. Noire director announces new game, ‘Whore of the Orient’

Is it better to be famous or infamous? In gaming circles, at least, L.A. Noire director Brendan McNamara has the dubious honor of being both, and the title of his new game, Whore of the Orient, will likely just feed both opinions.

After years (and years and years) spent in development, McNamara’s Team Bondi released L.A. Noire, one of the most ambitious and groundbreaking titles in recent years. The critics loved it, and the sales were very good, shipping over 4 million copies worldwide. But then it all went sideways.

Several former employees came forward and accused Team Bondi of unsafe working conditions, prompting the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) to launch an official investigation. And while all of the upper management at Team Bondi were criticized for their actions, McNamara was repeatedly singled out by employees.

McNamara, the founder and President of Team Bondi, was accused of intimidating employees, as well as creating massive amounts of confusion in the development process by making changes on the fly and not telling the proper leads–among other complaints.

“When Brendan came on board, it became clear that he was a huge bully with no talent, vision or management skill. But he really knew how to intimidate,” a former Team Bondi employee said.

It is not uncommon for employees to take issue with the management of gaming projects. The development cycle can be cruel to families, and the hours are beyond demanding. And when a game like L.A. Noire comes along that is creating something fairly unique, those problems can be magnified. But while Team Bondi could easily handle disgruntled employees—even if their claims were proven valid—being criticized by one of the biggest publishers in the world is a different matter.

Despite early rumors that Rockstar was considering incorporating Team Bondi into the family and rebranding them Rockstar Sydney, relations between the two companies soured. Soon after the release of L.A. Noire, Rockstar severed ties with Team Bondi, and among other things, claimed that McNamara specifically and the upper management in general were too difficult to work with, and that it was thanks to Rockstar’s assistance that the game was ever completed. The move proved a costly one to Team Bondi, who soon closed their doors for good.

But it didn’t take long for McNamara to land on his feet. According to the Australian Financial Review, McNamara and a sizeable chunk of the Team Bondi staff have landed at KMM studios, founded by George Miller , the creator of Mad Max (he also created the Happy Feet movies, but that doesn’t garner nearly the same amount of street cred).

Since reestablishing himself, McNamara has announced his new project, which bears the provocative title Whore of the Orient. No details have been released, but it seems possible that the title is referring to an old nickname for Shanghai.

The name was typically used during the city’s more colorful years before the Communist revolution in 1949, as the Shanghai attempted to integrate several different societies that were all vying for dominance of China. If the period setting of L.A. Noire is any indication, it seems like the setting will be Shanghai around or before the Second World War.

Although details are still mostly non-existent, you can expect that the game will feature the same type of facial animation technology that made L.A. Noire so groundbreaking.  

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Ryan Fleming
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…
Team Bondi game IP and assets will reportedly be acquired by George Miller’s KMM

Last week we brought you word of a rumor that L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi was in discussions with Mad Max creator George Miller's company for some kind of acquisition. Those rumors picked up steam today with a report from Develop stating that a deal is indeed going through, with the film company taking possession of the game studio's IP and assets.

This comes from sources "close to the matter," so the following details aren't necessarily a done deal or even a reflection of the reality of this situation. All Bondi employees have reportedly been offered jobs at KMM, including Noire director Brendan McNamara, who was at the center of a scandal following the game's release in which former studio staffers raised allegations of harsh and unfair working conditions during the Rockstar-published game's development.

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L.A. Noire dev Team Bondi may be joining Mad Max creator’s Australia studio

Team Bondi, the developer of the Rockstar Games-published L.A. Noire, may be in discussions that will see Brendan McNamara and his crew absorbed into George Miller's KMM Studios, insider sources tell Kotaku. Miller is of course known as the creator of the Mad Max series; more recently, KMM's animation spin-off Dr. D has seen success with its Happy Feet movies. It's hard to say what role the Bondi staffers would take on, or if that possibility is even being discussed.

In terms of concrete information (albeit from anonymous sources), McNamara has visited the offices of Dr. D. It is also "broadly known" at KMM that Miller is a fan of the Noire director, largely for his "refusal to compromise his artistic vision in the face of deadlines" (Kotaku's words). Everything else in the story is speculation on the part of both the sources and the writer.

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L.A. Noire lead programmer defends Team Bondi in a letter to the IGDA

Reports emerged last week of troubling working conditions at Team Bondi, the Australia studio responsible for developing Rockstar Games' latest, L.A. Noire. The info came from a number of unidentified former Bondi staffers, who also indcated that the situation led to a split between Rockstar and the studio on future projects.

As is always the case with these sorts of stories, there are multiple perspectives and not all of them see things as the whistleblowers do. Disturbed by the allegations raised by those former Bondi staffers, Noire lead programmer Dave Heironymous fired off a letter to the International Game Developer's Association, which he then shared in its entirety with Gamasutra. Heironymous admits that working conditions were difficult -- really, that's nothing new for the games industry, especially during "crunch" periods -- but he believes that the allegations which have been raised are not so much meant to make things better as they are meant to see the studio "destroyed."

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