Report: Team Bondi sells assets to Mad Max studio, KMM; staff offered new jobs or severance
Following last weekend's rumor that Sydney-based L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi was to be acquired by Kennedy Miller Mitchell, the Australian production company thought to be working on a Mad Max game, comes a report from UK trade site Develop seemingly corroborating the rumor. "Game IP and other remaining assets owned by Sydney studio Team Bondi have been sold off," Develop reports, citing a single anonymous source "who engages with both companies locally." The staff at Team Bondi were reportedly "given choice of new job at Kennedy Miller Mitchell or severance pay." Develop doesn't know if Team Bondi will continue to exist and the developer has declined to comment.
Develop lists several additional, unconfirmed rumors or bits of speculation, including whether or not the studio has "gone bankrupt" or whether Brendan McNamara would join KMM as well, reuniting the Team Bondi leader with the "many staff" that left during L.A. Noire's troubled development. While the sale ostensibly included "game IP," one thing KMM won't be getting is the L.A. Noire IP, which is owned by publisher Rockstar. Depth Analysis, the company whose technology powered L.A. Noire's eye-catching facial animation, "is not thought to be affected" by the sale, Develop reports.
