Sparks Fly as Rockstar and Team Bondi Relationship Is Coming to an End

The relationship between L.A. Noire publisher Rockstar and its actual developer, Team Bondi, might be coming to an end in a big way, as a former staff member cites big arguments between the two companies and describes how Rockstar needed to pour lots of money and allocate its resources in order to see the game completed.

L.A. Noire impressed a lot of people back in May when it was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with its detective gameplay and faithful recreation of 1947's Los Angeles.

Things didn't exactly go so well up until that point, however, as Team Bondi, its developer, has been working on it for over five years and, according to a new report, would have gone bankrupt without the intervention of Rockstar, the developer and publisher of games like Grand Theft Auto.

According to a report from a former Team Bondi staff member on GI.biz, the relationship between Rockstar and the Australian studio became extremely sour over the course of the L.A. Noire project for a variety of reasons.

Chief among them was the lack of competence on behalf of Team Bondi members, as Rockstar was forced to intervene several times over the course of development in order to see the game be completed, not to mention invest many of its resources, including design help, testing, not to mention marketing or other promotional efforts.

This, in turn, caused Team Bondi leaders, including its director Brendan MacNamara, to resent Rockstar for intervening in the development process, and actively tried to withstand any of their influence.

The report also mentions that, at first, Rockstar was quite confident in Team Bondi and wanted to bring it into its portfolio of local studios, probably as Rockstar Sydney. Over time, the publisher realized that the Australian studio wasn't efficient and couldn't have worked properly in the strict Rockstar family.

Official statements haven't been given by Team Bondi or Rockstar, while L.A. Noire is currently being ported for the PC by Rockstar Leeds and will appear later this year.