The developer team behind one of the best selling and most critically acclaimed games of 2011, LA Noire, will now officially close its doors. Gamasutra reports that Australia-based Team Bondi, which went into administration back in September, has now filed a "Special Resolution to Wind Up Company" document with the Australian Securities And Investments Commission. The administrative team behind Team Bondi has resigned and a liquidator has been appointed to sell off the remaining assets.
It"s a rather spectacular end for a game developer that was formed back in 2003 by Brendan McNamara, who previously worked at Sony"s Playstation division and helped to develop the PS2 open world action game The Getaway. Team Bondi had much more ambitious plans for LA Noire, an open world crime action-adventure game set in 1940s Los Angeles. However the game suffered through a number of delays and a switch in publishers midway in its creation. In May 2011, LA Noire was finally released by Take Two Interactive"s Rockstar Games division for the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles. The game topped the NPD Group"s list of best selling games in both May and June of 2011 and received solid reviews from critics.
However, during the summer ex-employees of Team Bondi complained of poor work conditions and being left out of the game"s final credits. Other rumors said that Rockstar Games did not want to work with Team Bondi again after the issues they had with the development of LA Noire. Rockstar still has plans to release a PC version of LA Noire later this fall. The PC port will be handled by Rockstar"s internal development studio in Leeds, UK.