Team Bondi was an Australian independent third-party game developer. The company is responsible for the development of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game L.A. Noire, which was published by Rockstar Games.The group was founded during 2003.
An in-game trailer was released on 11 November 2010, which subsequently confirmed the release date as 17 May 2011. L.A. Noire was both a critical and commercial success, but allegations of poor working conditions by several former staff members caused controversy for the developer.
L.A. Noire ended up being the studio's downfall, due to its founder Brendan McNamara's serious anger issues and mismanagement, combined with the terrible mistreatment of their employees, which among other things, included 65 hour work weeks. Their hostility towards Rockstar ended up in disaster for Bondi, when Rockstar cut off all ties with Team Bondi after L.A. Noire's release, swearing to never again work with the studio.
After failing to secure another game project, Team Bondi was placed into administration and liquidated.
On October 5, 2011, Brendan McNamara announced that Team Bondi was closing down. According to McNamara, Team Bondi's assets and most of the staff went to KMM, a production company set-up by George Miller, the writer and director of the film Mad Max. Some of the people have gone to work in different Rockstar studios. Rockstar Games retained the L.A. Noire IP.
External Links[]
- Team Bondi on Wikipedia.