Team Bondi Head Blames Bad Press, Being Busy for Company's Decline

Former Team Bondi studio head Brendan McNamara tells Eurogamer he thinks bad press and "being too busy" to nail down a new development deal following the completion of LA Noire were the two contributing factors in the company's eventual fall. McNamara claims that the studio was too busy to arrange a new deal until the project was finished and all the bad press from LA Noire's development had made it "impossible."

"Mainly, I'd say because we got a lot of bad press about what it was like to work with us and our conditions," he told Eurogamer in response to a question about why the studio hadn't been contracted once the Rockstar game was finished. "That, obviously, didn't come at the right time. To do a deal for a major video game probably takes about a year. We didn't start running around doing that stuff until well after the game was finished. That's the problem when a game is all consuming and you need to get out there and do whatever you need to do to get people to know it and interested."

Team Bondi entered into bankruptcy (or administration as they call it in Europe) not long after L.A. Noire was released. The bad press generated from complaints about an unhealthy work environment at the studio led to Rockstar announcing that it would not work with the studio again. That bad press was generated by current and former employees complaining about 110 hour work weeks, an extended and never-ending crunch time, and some developers not being included in LA Noire's credits.

McNamara insists that 110 hours a week is not unheard of when developing AAA game, and that these work hours were never compulsory.

"Yeah, 110 hour weeks are tough," he agrees, "But not many people worked 110 hour weeks making L.A. Noire, I can tell you that. And it wasn't mandatory. It was just, yeah, it was hard, and it was brutal, but I would say, most of those triple-A games, when you aren't sure of what the technology is, and you aren't sure what the process is, it's going to be pretty difficult. Time's a finite thing. You can't extend it forever. We certainly had plenty of time."

Finally, McNamara revealed that he has a new console title in the works, which he has been "pitching around for the last couple of weeks." Details on that project were not revealed.

Source: GI.biz