Rockstar should've waited until Team Bondi folded then snapped the project up. I would disdain any company that exploits workers in any kind of bonding agreement withholding deserved bonus for overtime, etc. Most of the game developers are in the industry pursuing their passion, and slog through often thankless hours and poor management. Game developers should get together and form some sort of equivalent to SAG for film, I believe the game industry has matured enough to support such cause. Either that, more and more developers should make a transition to indie format that allows creative control of their creation not to mention being able to better savor fruits of their labor. 

@Nomin said:

Game developers should get together and form some sort of equivalent to SAG for film, I believe the game industry has matured enough to support such cause.

Here, here!

This is the tale that never ends.

But guys. The game is one good game. That's the good light in this situation, all the insane crunching and malpractice created something awesome.

Seriously, WTF Bondi...

@lordofultima said:

That's the good light in this situation, all the insane crunching and malpractice created something awesome.

Sure, but I think that's a very negative mentality to have.

Fuck those assholes. Something is seriously wrong when you don't pay your workers overtime.

I feel dirty for enjoying this game. It's like a blood diamond video game in a way.

"studio management treated the letter as more an object of derision and mockery, rather than any sort of wake-up call to how their own employees might be feeling."

This sounds Australian as fuuuuuck. We have are own unique way of not facing up to the facts. I imagine meetings over these accusations went thusly: "fuck mate look at these pooncy fuckin cunts trying to weasle out of doing that fuckin job, these slack cunts. Can't fuckin handle it. Now I'm gonna knock off early and complain about my Asian neighbours to the local council while the employees below me work 50 more hours a week then me! Such slack cunts"

Yeah... I don't know why but that original quote conjured up some really lucid specific memories of some Aussie assholes I've known.

This is a shame. Such a great game made in my home country's rather lacklustre development scene, and this is how it went down. 

It's about time the games industry gets unionized like the film and writing industries. It would all but eliminate stories like this, even if massive games like LA Noire would take a bit longer to develop without all of the imposed crunch time

And I was so excited for it coming to Steam...

Would it be dirty to buy it if it's helping those poor souls that worked on it or will I just be exasperating the situation? I'm not really concerned with not playing the game

That's the good light in this situation, all the insane crunching and malpractice created something awesome.

Sure, but I think that's a very negative mentality to have.

But guys. The game is one good game. That's the good light in this situation, all the insane crunching and malpractice created something awesome.

I knew Rockstar itself was a nightmare to work for but damn, they wont even touch Bondi anymore. That says something. The game was unique but far from as good as RDR or even GTA.

@pants said:

"studio management treated the letter as more an object of derision and mockery, rather than any sort of wake-up call to how their own employees might be feeling."

This sounds Australian as fuuuuuck. We have are own unique way of not facing up to the facts. I imagine meetings over these accusations went thusly: "fuck mate look at these pooncy fuckin cunts trying to weasle out of doing that fuckin job, these slack cunts. Can't fuckin handle it. Now I'm gonna knock off early and complain about my Asian neighbours to the local council while the employees below me work 50 more hours a week then me! Such slack cunts"

Yeah... I don't know why but that original quote conjured up some really lucid specific memories of some Aussie assholes I've known.

huh? McNamara is a wanker. Wankers know no borders. This has nothing to do with being Aussie mate. My bosses have never been such cunts, I wouldn't work for a cunt.

@Volgin13: Considering how many missions contain blood and diamonds, I like your analogy sir.

This industry is fucked up. But it always has been (read the 1980s histories of Atari, Commodore, Nintendo, etc.) it's just a matter of who pulls the strings at any given point. And I really don't get the sense that it is measurably worse than any comparably wealthy industry, entertainment or not. The only odd thing that "strikes" me is it seems to have bypassed the establishment of trade unions like you'll see in Hollywood and publishing.

so basically... the good things that came through in LA Noire was because of Rockstar... hmmmm...   
 
I wonder what this means for future DLC for the game?

this macnamara guy can go eff himself, l freaking loathe people like him, they have no regard at all to other peoples feelings or needs, all they care about is themselves, effin egocentric pricks.
 
I also love like how he thinks this is the way the industry is supposed to be, I bet that if he was in a programmer's/animator's/artist's shoes he would think differently, because vermin like him only change their minds once they feel the pain themselves.
 
My respect for Rockstar goes down exponentially each time I read something like this, it's IMPOSSIBLE that they didn't see all this crap going on, which means they did absolutely nothing about it, and of course there's the RDR thing... I completely hate what this industry has become, I truly do..

As a developer of 12 years, none of that stuff is surprising to me. Every trick in the book is covered according to those e-mails - it's a sad state of affairs but it's more than likely that this practice goes on in other development studios. The fact that the ugly truth has been uncovered in this way will hopefully highlight what's wrong with the industry to a wider audience.

Nothing will change though. I don't think the release of those e-mails will change McNamara's mind one jot.

Great article Alex. Enjoyed reading through it

@Ygg said:

@bkbroiler said:

Would any of us have bought this game if we didn't know Rockstar was attached to it?

Yeah I would have because the Rockstar name doesn't carry the same amount of weight anymore. Not for me at least. Plus I don't blindly buy games based on the developer/publisher. (and I knew that Bondi was developing, unlike many people on this site it seemed, which is sad) Vice City and San Andreas were absolutely fantastic. GTA IV was a huge step back in terms of fun, Red Dead Redemption and GTA IV both suffered from being very repetitive with lots of going A to B missions with pretty boring driving. (I label horseback as driving in this case) L.A. Noire was pretty average anyway. Great voice acting and polish let down by stale gameplay merchanics. Clunky as hell.

I'm not trying to make a statement of quality about Rockstar games. I too am a little tired of that format. I don't blindly buy games either, but the job Rockstar did of marketing the game and proving to me that it was more than another GTA set in the 50s sold me on it.

I think we would have heard almost nothing about LA Noire if Rockstar hadn't picked it up. Might not have even been released.

Incredible such an amazing game came out of it.

It's shame that this is how things went down during the creation of LA Noire, but it won't stop me from picking it up, and I won't feel bad about it when I do. If nothing else, I'm more inclined to buy it knowing that so many people suffered through such shit just to make it. Team Bondi may be horrible as a company, but you have to respect the effort put forth by the devs. Obviously, they shouldn't have been treated like this, but since what's done is done, I plan on enjoying the fruits of their labour. I just wished everyone had gotten paid properly, at the very least. It's one thing to crunch, it's another to crunch for free.

*facepalm* You guys, voting with your dollar doesn't actually work here.  If you want people from the studio, who busted their asses on this game & didn't get paid for overtime, to, I don't know, GET PAID, you have to buy the game.  It doesn't just pay executives who screw things up, it has a far more harsh impact on the lives of the people who did the actual work on it.

This explains at some level the game's sometimes schizophrenic design choices. I wonder what LA Noire would have looked like if Rockstar had simply taken it away from Team Bondi and finished it themselves. Rockstar has had its problems in the past, but I think it has mostly learned its lessons. If it hasn't, there's no excuse for it. Honestly, I wonder what the Team Bondi employment contracts looked like. I've worked in jobs in different fields that required overtime on time-sensitive deadlines, and being salaried meant I didn't get overtime. It's expected in those sorts of jobs, not just in the games industry but most other industries. But if they were hourly employees, they really should have gotten compensation for the extra time. That's usually how it works.

so basically... the good things that came through in LA Noire was because of Rockstar... hmmmm...    I wonder what this means for future DLC for the game?

everyone screaming for a union needs to realize that unions could cause more problems than it is worth. What these guys are doing, along with the "spouses" letters does 10x more than a union could ever dream to do because they hit the companies where it hurts, the press. Unions will most likely cause game prices to skyrocket and game development to go on forever which will greatly reduce the amount of games released and in turn cause more studios to shut down. In addition publishers will hire as few people as possible most likely cutting on QA. As long as employees keep speaking out, publishers and developers will realize that they can't get away with this shit.

Look at Naughty Dog who are notoriously one of the greatest companies to work for or Bungie who is able to put out quality products almost yearly without much strain. It can be done, publishers just need to stop funding people like this, which it seems like they are doing.

Well one upshot of that quote is that I now feel that people were maybe not out of order in calling L.A. Noire a Rockstar game despite it being in production and conception long before Rockstar got their hands on it.  I underestimated the level of creative input it seems Rockstar were able to have on that game in their time connected with it.

Must have been hilarious working on a game that deals a lot with corruption and capitalism while being treated like bitch labour.

This explains at some level the game's sometimes schizophrenic design choices. I wonder what LA Noire would have looked like if Rockstar had simply taken it away from Team Bondi and finished it themselves. Rockstar has had its problems in the past, but I think it has mostly learned its lessons. If it hasn't, there's no excuse for it. Honestly, I wonder what the Team Bondi employment contracts looked like. I've worked in jobs in different fields that required overtime on time-sensitive deadlines, and being salaried meant I didn't get overtime. It's expected in those sorts of jobs, not just in the games industry but most other industries. But if they were hourly employees, they really should have gotten compensation for the extra time. That's usually how it works.

It's a damn shame the people speaking out feel they will be black listed unless they do it anonymously.

@billyhoush said:

Must have been hilarious working on a game that deals a lot with corruption and capitalism while being treated like bitch labour.

Such an irony.

@haggis said:

This explains at some level the game's sometimes schizophrenic design choices. I wonder what LA Noire would have looked like if Rockstar had simply taken it away from Team Bondi and finished it themselves. Rockstar has had its problems in the past, but I think it has mostly learned its lessons. If it hasn't, there's no excuse for it. Honestly, I wonder what the Team Bondi employment contracts looked like. I've worked in jobs in different fields that required overtime on time-sensitive deadlines, and being salaried meant I didn't get overtime. It's expected in those sorts of jobs, not just in the games industry but most other industries. But if they were hourly employees, they really should have gotten compensation for the extra time. That's usually how it works.

If Rockstar would have done it then it would have had an overdone cliched story with stereotypical cartoonish characters and every encounter would have ended in a shootout.

Sad. L.A. Noire is a great videogame but it's still just a videogame. Items we purchase for our entertainment shouldn't require walking through hell to create.

I remember comment's like: Team Bondi is so great, how dare you mention the Rockstar name when it comes to this game, they didn't do nothing it was all team Bondi, they are the shit I wish I could suck their dicks for being so great!!!!!!!!!!! 
 
 
spoke to soon....It's like when Hitler was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year and then he went on to commit genocide....

Man, those people getting pissy about Rockstar putting their name on this can sure go eat a dick now.

@gothaggis said:

I'm a former game developer....we always worked long hours during crunch time and didn't get paid overtime...i don't know any game developers that get paid overtime as a matter of fact. this is common place in the industry, not limited to team bondi. the only way it will ever get fixed is for game developers to unionize, like it or not.

It's not that they had crunch time or didn't pay overtime. The problem is that they faked crunch periods so that they could scam free work out of their employees.

After all this hate against rockstar I'm starting to wonder if rockstar really does need to change the way it works.

Rockstar is the deathrow records of the video game industry if you don't finish your textures on time Sam Houser will bash you with a tire iron man I love Rockstar!!!

Where there's smoke, there's fire. And people wonder why labor laws exist.

@Faramir82 said:

I love L.A. Noire but the more that comes out about Team Bondi, it makes feel dirty for liking it.

Yeah I'm starting to feel the exact same way right now as I skim these emails.

@billyhoush said:

Must have been hilarious working on a game that deals a lot with corruption and capitalism while being treated like bitch labour.

Such an irony.

I'm so conflicted now! I don't know if I want to buy it anymore!

woo capitalism

woo capitalism

@OldManLollipop said:

woo capitalism

Woo it works a hell lot better than any other system! : )

It doesn't matter what the cost is to anyone when someone is creating art.

As an auteur, do you think Stanley Kubrick gave a shit if his actors felt conformed to his exact and precise direction with re-take upon re-take until he was happy? And everyone else working on the set?

True auteurs remain firm in their sole vision no matter the consequences, because in the end the result is all that matters to them.

Some may not like it, but sometimes this is how great art is made.

YO.

So should we buy it or not? Its still their jobs i suppose

I work with software project management, and if you have to work in "crunch" mode for more than two weeks, then somebody at the management level has failed to scope the project at the right level with the right ressources.

Team Bondi has made a great game, but failed to take care of its staff.