He’s dead, Jim.

In a time when it’s hard for new I.P’s to be very successful, Rockstar Games took a huge gamble and a deep investment, in publishing L.A. Noire, the freshmen effort for Australian studio Team Bondi. Seven long years it took for the game to be made, and after its release in May of 2011, it was met with great critical acclaim, and nearly 4 million units sold. Normally success stories like this can lead to the rise of a new developer team. But the saga behind the scenes leads to a different tale.

After months of speculation, confirmed corporate buyouts, ultimatums to find new jobs, and entering administration back in September, Team Bondi has officially closed it’s doors. According to Edge Magazine, official documentation has been filed to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to liquidate the remaining assets of the company to pay outstanding debts. As for the I.P of L.A. Noire, it is already in the hands of Take-Two interactive, and will likely appoint Rockstar games as the primary developer for possible sequels.

The inner conflict at Team Bondi during the development of L.A. Noire is pretty much a well-known fact in the gaming world now. The timeline of events that fell over the development team is, in many ways, tragic yet poetic. Former head of the studio, Brendan McNamara, was reportedly very tyrannical over his employees, forcing unpaid overtime shifts and arduous work schedules to make sure the game was complete and perfect. It got to the point where Rockstar cut ties with Team Bondi, and McNamara independently sold all of the assets to the Australian Film Company KMM.

So what went wrong? A lot can be said but should be saved for another day. In the end though, the rise and fall of Team Bondi can serve as a cautionary tale for the future, that obsession and hardship, while yielding amazing results, can also lead to your downfall. As Sam Spade once said in the immortalizing flick The Maltese Falcon, “This, is what dreams are made of.”

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