In what is probably a surprise to no one, it appears that L.A. Noire's spiritual successor, Whore of the Orient, will not be coming out.

In an interview with podcast GameHugs (transcribed by Finder), former Kennedy Miller Mitchell (KMM) Games producer Derek Proud said the he seriously doubted the game would ever be released. "I don’t think so," he said, but refused to say if the game was outright cancelled. Proud became producer on the game after developer Team Bondi's assets were acquired by KMM in 2011, including the Whore of the Orient IP. Team Bondi had shut down the previous month, and much of the team joined KMM.

The game was to be set in 1930s Shanghai, using the tech from L.A. Noire. "Shanghai was the only place in the world you could go to in the 1930s and 1940s if you didn’t have a passport," Proud said. "So everybody who was running from something went to Shanghai. The whole city was run by a gangster called Big-Eared Du and it’s just the most fascinating time, place and setting."

In the end, the game just never materialized, even though the team fought for it "to the bitter end," he said. "This was a team forged in blood and fire. They are incredibly talented developers, and while we lost a couple of them in that transition, I have amazing amounts of respect for everybody that put out L.A. Noire."

The KMM games division was shut down in 2013, followed by the release of some supposed footage from the game.