Team Bondi, the video developer of the hit game L.A. Noire, has filed for bankruptcy protection.
The news shows that making a beautiful video game that sells well isn’t enough, particularly if you take too long to make the game and an employee revolt arises from poor working conditions.
Team Bondi caught a lot of flak from former employees for treating its workers poorly during the development of L.A. Noire, which was the only game the company published since its founding in 2003. The employees claimed they were forced into unpaid overtime and that their names were omitted from the game’s credits.
The Sydney, Australia-based company filed for external administration with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission yesterday. Take-Two Interactive published the game for Team Bondi, but rumors surfaced that Take-Two didn’t want to work with Team Bondi again.
Team Bondi spent six years making L.A. Noire, which features outstanding human faces with synchronized lip movements. It had an innovative approach to storytelling, where users had to interrogate witnesses to crimes and figure out if they were lying or telling the truth.