McNamara: Bad press stopped us getting another deal
But lack of time to plan a follow up deal to L.A. Noire was also factor, says dev
Brendan McNamara has revealed that he believes bad press and being too busy to arrange a new deal were the two contributing factors in Team Bondi's failure to sign another deal after L.A. Noire.
Speaking as part of an extensive interview with Eurogamer, his first since Team Bondi went under, McNamara claims that the studio was too busy to arrange a new deal until the project was finished - by which time bad press had made it impossible.
"Mainly, I'd say because we got a lot of bad press about what it was like to work with us and our conditions," he replied when asked why the studio hadn't been contracted once the Rockstar game was finished.
"That, obviously, didn't come at the right time. To do a deal for a major video game probably takes about a year. We didn't start running around doing that stuff until well after the game was finished. That's the problem when a game is all consuming and you need to get out there and do whatever you need to do to get people to know it and interested."
Team Bondi entered administration not long after L.A. Noire was released, and reports suggested Rockstar would not work with the studio again, citing poor management and lack of vision.
Rumours of 110 hour weeks during a hugely extended crunch period arose, with emails leaked by studio staff confirming poor working conditions.
But in the interview, McNamara insists that those hours are not out of the ordinary for AAA development, and that they were never compulsory.
"Yeah, 110 hour weeks are tough," he agrees, "But not many people worked 110 hour weeks making L.A. Noire, I can tell you that. And it wasn't mandatory.
"It was just, yeah, it was hard, and it was brutal, but I would say, most of those triple-A games, when you aren't sure of what the technology is, and you aren't sure what the process is, it's going to be pretty difficult. Time's a finite thing. You can't extend it forever. We certainly had plenty of time."
McNamara also revealed that he has a new project in the works, a console title which he has been "pitching around for the last couple of weeks", although no further details were forthcoming.