Nice work on the neck-fat there John.
[image courtesy of Hardcoregaming 101]
[I was originally going to post this on 1up.com, but their editor won't save my work. Also, I'm at my day job and I don't want to make it a habit of writing up stuff, while I'm supposed to be doing other work. So, this is just between you and me internet.]
So the hammer came down pretty big for Team Bondi today. If you are lucky to have a registered account over at GI.biz then you've probably read about the big expose occuring with the developers of L.A. Noire.
Long-story short, e-mails were leaked. Harsh working conditions were explained, some of which may not be deemed legal by the IGDA.
If you haven't heard [or aren't able to read the thorough breakdown on GamesIndustry.biz] then I'm sure, as I type this, many blogs and news sites will punch more holes in Rockstar/Team Bondi's flood gates. Be that as it may, everyone is well aware of what 'the crunch' is for developers. I'm sure Rockstar San Diego felt it during the release of Red Dead Redemption. I'm sure our pals over at Irrational Games are/will feel it for BioShock: Infinite. Hopefully, not to this extent.
This isn't to minimize the impact of the news here. As development costs further increase and the split between 'the big budget title' and 'the budget title' grow to the size of a canyon, there needs to be someone to step in before things get to the point of, well, L.A. Noire's development. Clearly, Rockstar, as a publisher, wasn't THAT concerned. Or perhaps all of the e-mails being sent in Austrailia -- at this well known development studio, just never made it on to Rockstar's radar.
Now the image above is a result of a contest being held by the U.K.s Play Magazine's twitter account. Apparently, people have known for quite some time of McNamara's 'tyrannical method' of supervision.
L.A. Noire took 7 years to develop. It's speculated that the groundbreaking facial modelling took up a great deal of that time.
My question would be, as gamers, was it all worth it? Was the fun had in L.A. Noire worth all of this?