14 DAY TRIAL // Brendan McNamara has been blamed by some for the disappearance of the Team Bondi development studio and for the problems that blamed the development of their one release, L.A. Noire, and the former leader seems ready to accept at least some of the blame.
Speaking to the Official PlayStation Magazine as part of a bigger interview the developer stated that, “It was a long, painful process, but making games is like making films in that it’s a marathon, not a sprint – and some people come into the process not knowing that – I’d love to spend more time at home with my family and kids. We run things differently now – we have flexi-hours, for example. But everybody has their view on who’s the worst boss in the world, and maybe that’s me.”
He added, “I’ve read some amazing things about Steve Jobs in his biography, and I’ve never seen him get as vilified any way as much as I have. Sam Peckinpah fired people off one movie, and nobody said a thing. Werner Herzog pulled a gun on Klaus Kinski to get him to finish a movie! Obviously I don’t compare myself to any of those people.”
Employees of Team Bondi stated that McNamara was the one which lengthened the development process for L.A. Noire by making requests from the team that could not be delivered on and by constantly changing the goals of the studio.
In 2010 Team Bondi managed to enter a deal with Rockstar linked to finishing the game and the end product was launched during May 2011.
The detective story set during the 1940 ‘s used a number of impressive technologies, like MotionScan, which focused on emotions and on how the player was able to read them while doing police work.
The game was rather successful but Team Bondi was forced to disband soon after.