L.A. Noire dev Team Bondi enters administration

L.A. Noire's deeply troubled developer Team Bondi has entered administration in a bid to regain solvency and keep from going under.

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L.A. Noire's deeply troubled developer Team Bondi has entered administration in a bid to keep from going under, official documents show. It's far too early to say whether the process will save the Australian studio and pay off its debts or see it close.

Australia administration is similar to the USA's Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It allows failing companies to keep from shutting down while an appointed administrator attempts to regain solvency, reorganising the business, selling off assets, and laying off staff if needs be.

Team Bondi has yet to comment on entering administration, but business records (via Gamasutra) show the stark truth.

The studio has had a rough time since the launch of L.A. Noire in May, despite a strong critical and commercial reception. First, it was alleged that over 100 people who had worked on the game were left out of the credits. Then, complaints about 100+-hour working weeks and a hostile workplace led to the International Game Developers Association launching an investigation into the studio. Unconfirmed reports later suggested that the bad situation at Team Bondi went far beyond working conditions.

One report said that Noire publisher Rockstar would have no interest in publishing Team Bondi's next game, after being frustrated by dealing with Team Bondi's direction, or lack thereof. Rockstar taking more creative control also led to resentment from the Aussie management, so the story goes.

Another report, earlier this month, said that Team Bondi had sold its intellectual property and assets to Australian multimedia production studio Kennedy Miller Mitchell. It was also said that Team Bondi staff were offered a choice of new jobs at KMM or severance pay.

The best of luck to the folks at Team Bondi in these troubled times.

"But what about me?" you may ask. As the PC edition of L.A. Noire is in development at Rockstar Leeds, not Team Bondi, that's almost certainly safe.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 1, 2011 6:45 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, L.A. Noire dev Team Bondi enters administration.

    L.A. Noire's deeply troubled developer Team Bondi has entered administration in a bid to regain solvency and keep from going under.

    • reply
      September 1, 2011 6:51 AM

      In English, please?

      ;)

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        September 1, 2011 6:53 AM

        Yeah I'm showing my ignorance, but I've never seen the term 'entered administration'. I'm guessing it's similar to filing bankruptcy/Chapter 11.

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          September 1, 2011 6:54 AM

          Yep.

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          September 1, 2011 6:59 AM

          It effectively means what it says - someone is brought in to manage the company and get its finances in order at all costs.

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            September 1, 2011 12:40 PM

            ^. Heard it plenty of times in NA.

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          September 1, 2011 7:02 AM

          It's a precursor to redundancies. (Why does the empire use these awful terms?)

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          September 1, 2011 8:03 AM

          British/Aussie term for what we Americans call receivership, more or less. Still perfectly valid.

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            September 1, 2011 9:52 AM

            Companies can leave Administration with no redundancies at all, if sale of assets is enough.

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      September 1, 2011 7:10 AM

      Who's doing the PC port?

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      September 1, 2011 7:23 AM

      Alright, was this story edited after it was posted or what? The answers to the first 2 comment threads are both very clearly in the story. Do people just not read the fucking articles before asking questions pertaining to the situation?

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        September 1, 2011 7:24 AM

        Welcome to shacknews.

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          September 1, 2011 7:43 AM

          You mean, "The Internet"

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        September 1, 2011 7:25 AM

        Certainly we're all idiots and there's no way the story could be edited.

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        September 1, 2011 7:25 AM

        This is shacknews. No one actually reads articles before replying. It's sad.

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        September 1, 2011 7:31 AM

        What articles?

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        September 1, 2011 11:33 AM

        Wait what??? Team Bondi hires more administrators? :P Jking but really this whole thing sounded like a mess with this company. Just go under already... I hope RockStar can continue this game to a sequel... Why can't we all just make games and LEAVE THE FUCKING DRAMA OUT.

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        September 1, 2011 12:37 PM

        You expect me to leave the chatty? :(

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      September 1, 2011 7:36 AM

      I wish I had known there was going to be a PC port of this before I went and purchased the PS3 edition.

      Now I'm debating waiting and getting the PC version instead. I would hope that it would alleviate any frame rate issues and have higher resolution textures.

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      September 1, 2011 7:42 AM

      "Entering administration" has some sexual undertones.

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        September 1, 2011 8:02 AM

        if that's what you're calling it, it might be best to reevaluate your anatomy terminology

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          September 2, 2011 10:43 AM

          Holy shit...I'm going to call it that from now on!

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      September 1, 2011 8:02 AM

      [deleted]

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        September 1, 2011 8:05 AM

        somethings fucked when you can release a hit game and end up going bankrupt

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          September 1, 2011 8:09 AM

          Well, when you spend 8 years making that game, it's kinda hard to recoup the investment. Not to mention the fact that so much came out about the management post-release that nobody wants to work with them again.

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            September 1, 2011 11:26 AM

            What Jason Bergman said. 8 years creating an open world game and building a brand new motion capture face-scanning technology from scratch would make it hard to make the money back, and their bad reputation also probably left this studio without a publisher for their next game. Rockstar refused because of the mismanagement, and they own L.A. Noire, so any other publisher probably just sees Team Bondi as a studio that takes forever to ship a game, with a burned-out workforce, and they don't even have a valuable IP.

            Plus, games are expensive. Rumour has it that despite being a huge seller, the first Assassin's Creed didn't break even due to the cost of building the engine, all the assets, huge marketing, etc. They depended on it becoming a massive hit so they could make their return on investment with the sequels.

            It sucks for the Team Bondi employees though. The years of working ridiculous overtime under an asshole manager, they probably thought of the success at the end of this endeavour to push them forward. Now they're probably going to be unemployed and not get any bonuses that were due to them.

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      September 1, 2011 8:10 AM

      A company so badly ran it went under after a hit release.

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        September 1, 2011 12:39 PM

        How the fuck is this possible? :( Was LA Noire so expensive to make, and did it not sell enough?

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          September 1, 2011 3:46 PM

          I think they're survival was very dependent on Rockstar, so when Rockstar decided not to publish their next game, their future was in limbo. From what I've read, it didn't seem like they were being managed well financially, so when Papa took away the credit card, they weren't in a good place to support themselves.

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