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L.A. Noire lead programmer defends Team Bondi, admits development hardship
Team Bondi has caught a lot of flack from ex-staffers recently about unfair work hours in the final weeks of L.A. Noire development. Lead gameplay programmer Dave Heironymus recently defended the company to the IGDA in a letter republished by Gamasutra, explaining that he "didn't want to see [Team Bondi] destroyed by anonymous ex-employees." Taking a similar stance as studio boss Brendan McNamara, Heironymus says that while employees worked long hours, they weren't being asked to do anything that their superiors weren't also doing. Heironymus also downplayed the 100-hour weeks that some staffers have claimed, saying that he would have discouraged any members of his team attempting to work that much. However, Heironymus isn't claiming innocence for Team Bondi's management. He writes, "no-one at Team Bondi is under the illusion that crunching is a good way to work and we're actively working to learn from our mistakes for our next project."
June NPD: Duke Nukem Forever is #2
Yes, it's true. A startling (and vaguely insulting) number of American consumers ignored our review and purchased Duke Nukem Forever, rocketing it to the #2 position on the NPD sales charts for the month of June. Perhaps they just didn't want to ask for refunds on those 14-year-old pre-orders. The Duke occupies a position on the charts just under its equally retro (in a different way) Take-Two contemporary, L.A. Noire. Also notable on the sales charts is the debut of another time-lost title, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. At #5, it is the first 3DS exclusive to chart in the NPD top ten. Find the top ten best-selling games listed after the break. It's definitely a triumphant month for the past, as total game sales were down from $1.15 billion in June of 2010 to $1.03 billion in June of this year. Once again, however, Microsoft is happy, declaring its Xbox 360 the only console in the US to show year-over-year growth. The Xbox was the top-selling console with 507,000 units which Microsoft claims is "nearly twice as many units as other current-generation platforms" this month.
Zumba Fitness tops UK charts for fourth week in a row
For a fourth consecutive week, Zumba Fitness maintained its spot atop Chart-Track's UK all-formats chart. The title has danced its way to the gold seven times since the Wii version launched in March. Another fitness game that's making moves on the charts is THQ's UFC Personal Trainer, which debuted at #22 a couple weeks back, but is now close to punching into the top ten at #13. No new releases broke the Top 40 last week, so the top ten is full of the usual suspects, many which benefited from price promotions. Such was the case with Dirt 3, which raced into second, with a 28 percent increase in sales. Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the tie-in title to the summer blockbuster, transformed that extra exposure into a 10 percent increase in sales, placing it in third. Autobots can roll out past the break for the UK top ten.
LA Noire's 'Reefer Madness' going green next week
The debut trailer for LA Noire's next downloadable case, "Reefer Madness," has been released, showing off the illicit substances Cole will tackle when the DLC drops July 12. You know what substance we're talking about, right? Mary Jane. Jazz cigarettes. Um ... lung whiskey.
Report: Emails show Team Bondi/Rockstar schism, long hours for L.A. Noire devs
More and more, its seems that L.A. Noire's most perplexing mystery is how the detective game got made without any of its developers sizing each other up for concrete shoes. Late last month, a story in IGN Australia painted a pretty miserable picture of the working conditions at developer Team Bondi. Now, original author Andrew McMillen has returned to GamesIndustry.biz to reveal some of his whistle-blowing emails. In the story, we see a fracture begin to form in the developer's relationship with publisher Rockstar when the latter pulled out of E3 in 2010. We read why some environments in L.A. Noire seemed lifeless, and about developers scared to quit before the production wrapped, for fear that they wouldn't received accrued overtime pay. We're familiar enough with crunch time in the industry, but this sounds like a particularly egregious case. We know we should be able to separate art from its artist but, frankly, stories like this make us appreciate the end product just a little bit less.
Zumba Fitness manages chart-topping hat trick in UK
Zumba Fitness has maintained the top spot on the UK charts for three straight weeks, with Chart-Track prognosticating the title has "a good chance of holding on for a few more weeks yet." The workout dance game has reached the top spot in the UK a total of six times and -- here's the mind blowing part -- last week beat the sales of the games in spots two through five combined, despite Zumba experiencing a 5 percent drop in sales. We know this time is "quiet" in terms of sales, but this is just getting seriously awkward. With the completion of Wimbledon 2011, two tennis titles racketed up some sales. Virtua Tennis 4 stormed the court, moving up 15 spots into the fifth seat, while Top Spin 4 jumped two spots into eigth. Last week's debut titles to crack the top 40 were Capcom's Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D and THQ's UFC Personal Trainer, at spots 21 and 22, respectively. Check out the UK's top ten games after the break.
LAPD Homicide Detective details L.A. Noire's inaccuracies
Sure, Rockstar's detective simulator L.A. Noire is popular, but is it accurate? If hard-pressed, could Noire train someone to solve a real-life murder, or would they make a hash of it and go to prison forever and ever? We're really hoping it's the former: Ever since Joystiq PD's Homicide Desk got wiped out by the recession, we've had a lot of unsolved murders piling up around here. Like, a lot. Thankfully, long-time LAPD veteran Skip Bauchman (yes, his real name) is here to tell us just how true-to-life Rockstar's true-to-life melodrama really is in the G4 video above. It's all fascinating stuff, but after watching the interview we're starting to think L.A. Noire hasn't given us the skill-set necessary to finally figure out who shot J.R. [Thanks Michael!]
IGDA looking for feedback on L.A. Noire development conditions
The International Game Developers Association, a game industry non-profit organization, is responding to this past weekend's report of continuous "crunch" and dictatorial working conditions at LA Noire development studio Team Bondi by launching a full investigation. According to IGDA chair Brian Robbins, the organization will be soliciting reports, "positive or negative," from "any Team Bondi employee and/or family member." Robbins told Develop, "Reports of 12-hour a day, lengthy crunch time, if true, are absolutely unacceptable and harmful to the individuals involved, the final product, and the industry as a whole," echoing sentiments made in the past by a variety of game industry leaders. He also encouraged the aforementioned folks tied to Team Bondi to shoot an email to "qol@igda.org," before he added, "But no lolcats please ... okay, maybe a few."
Zumba Fitness stays atop UK charts for fifth week, LA Noire brings up second place
It seems that 505 Games' Zumba Fitness motion game is destined to occupy every living room in the UK, as it was the UK's highest selling title last week -- even after 31 weeks of availability. Regaining a place in the top five, Rockstar's LA Noire took second place, though it saw a 15 percent dip in sales. Here's where things get really depressing: Suda 51 and Shinji Mikami's excellent Shadows of the Damned debuted on the charts at number 31, beaten not only by the likes of recently released stinkfest Duke Nukem Forever, but even older titles like Art Academy and EA Sports Active 2. FEAR 3 faced a starkly different reception, landing the number three spot just below LA Noire. We're not mad, UK readers and EA marketers -- just, ya know, disappointed.
LA Noire has shipped 4 million copies
Hidden within the announcement of a PC version of L.A. Noire is a clue as to Take-Two's motivation for making the game available on another platform. "Since its release on May 17," Take-Two said, "L.A. Noire has shipped approximately 4 million units worldwide to date." We don't know exactly how many of those 4 million copies were sold to consumers, except for the 899,000 that were sold in the US last month. In addition, we know that ... a lot of copies have been sold in the UK.
LA Noire arriving on PC this fall, with 3D support and improved graphics
After Red Dead Redemption failed to make an appearance on PCs, computerologists may have worried that Rockstar had abandoned the platform entirely, in favor of totally wimpy consoles. But the publisher just announced that Team Bondi's L.A. Noire "will be arriving this fall for the PC" with porting being handled by Grand Theft Auto Stories-developer Rockstar Leeds. Okay, so Rockstar hasn't abandoned the platform, but what about the performance issues that plagued the initial PC release of Grand Theft Auto IV? The press release promises that not only will the PC release feature 3D support and "improved graphical enhancements" but it will "run on a wide range of PCs" – naturally, we'll wait until its release, when PC gamers will inevitably assault the game with every hardware permutation imaginable while clinically taking frame rate readings every 15 seconds. L.A. Noire will find its way to PCs this fall, in both retail and digital formats.
PSA: LA Noire's 'Nicholson Electroplating' DLC out today
If you're ready to return to the beat as LA Noire's Cole Phelps, heed this friendly reminder that the "Nicholson Electroplating" DLC case will be available today on both Xbox 360 (for 320 Microsoft Points) and PS3 (for $3.99). Or, as we prefer to call it, "The Case of the Totally Huge Explosion." In this arson case, the titular facility explodes in downtown LA, and Phelps and partner Biggs have to figure out whether this was due to intentional arson or accident. Our first clue: OSHA was established in 1970.%Gallery-126814%
Zumba Fitness regains top UK sales spot; Ocarina of Time plays second fiddle
We've given up trying to understand. Zumba Fitness is back atop the UK charts this week, a position it's enjoyed several times before. This latest ascension for Zumba was thanks to a 51 percent increase in sales of the Wii version. Chart-Track doesn't provide an explanation for the sales boost ... probably because some things just can't be explained. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for 3DS enjoyed a second place debut on the charts, with around 20% of UK 3DS owners buying the title during its launch week. Duke Nukem Forever sales slipped 58 percent and the title drops two spots into third place for its second week at retail -- this hasn't quite been the glorious comeback for Nukem. Other premieres last week were Dungeon Siege 3 and Alice: Madness Returns, which charted at ninth and 13th, respectively. Child of Eden, the Kinect-enabled sensory experience appreciated by critics, debuted in 25th. Taste the purple of the UK top ten after the break.
Cole Phelps takes a stilted walk around 'Real Life LA Noire'
Like any good comedy, Funny or Die's interpretation of LA Noire protagonist Cole Phelps is a bit over the top, but it also does a great job of pointing out some of the game's oddest missteps. For instance: why are there so, so many useless bottles to look at?!
No Rockstar Pass required to watch this LA Noire 'Nicholson Electroplating' DLC trailer
Next Tuesday, Detective Cole Phelps will be on the "Nicholson Electroplating" case and receive a traditionally stern talking to by his boss. Remember that you can pick up all the L.A. Noire DLC for $12 using the Rockstar Pass.
LA Noire sold 899K units in US during May
MarketWatch reveals that Rockstar's L.A. Noire sold 899,000 units during its May debut. The stat, which NPD no longer regularly reports, was below the million-unit expectation by analysts and far below that of Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption premiere during the same month last year. Red Dead Redemption 1.5 million units during the month of May 2010, going on to become a blockbuster for Take-Two and unintentionally killing game sales of any premiere for months after. There is speculation that the Call of Duty: Black Ops "Escalation" DLC, which premiered in early May, could have chiseled into Noire's numbers. Despite L.A. Noire not reaching RDR sales in its first month, it did have a solid debut in the States and abroad, so Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick isn't wrong when he says the game is a "powerful new franchise" for the company.
Visit the $40s with LA Noire on Amazon
The cheapest ticket to Los Angeles you're likely to find is on Amazon.com, of all places -- the retailer has discounted Team Bondi's LA Noire to $44.99. Pick it up with a Mad Men box set and watch Cole Phelps, 13 years after the events of the game, go undercover as an affable New York advertising exec! If you're still in the mood for buying stuff, you should check out the "Dads & Grads" sale, which discounts PS3, Xbox, and PC stuff this week. Standouts include Mortal Kombat for $40, Final Fantasy XIII for $17, and the PC version of Portal 2 for just $30 (it's a reasonable $40 on consoles, too).
May NPD: LA Noire makes the case, Xbox 360 stays on top
Even though we hid the list of May's top software sellers in North America after the break, we have a suspicion that your unparalleled acumen and unmatched perception will provide the clues necessary to determine what the month's top seller was. Simple. Let's move onto harder stuff. Without a solid historical basis, determining the month's top-selling console might be difficult. So we'll give you a hint: It's been the top selling console for 11 of the past 12 months. That's right, it's the Xbox 360 which managed to move 270,000 units according to Microsoft, representing 39% year-over-year growth and marking the "seventeenth month of year-over-year hardware sales increases," according to a now routine email boast from Redmond. Overall video game spending is down 13% year-over-year, dropping from $829.4m to $718.8m; while hardware is only down 5%, video game software was down a whopping 19% from May 2010 to 2011. Looking at the list of top sellers, you'll see a few notable facts: the poorly received Brink managed to arrive in second place; there are two Lego games from two separate publishers; and perhaps most notably, there isn't a single Nintendo-published title on the list. Find the full software rundown after the break.
Duke Nukem Forever is all outta bubblegum for UK charts
After 14 years, it'd be sad if Duke Nukem Forever didn't enter Chart-Track's UK All Formats chart in the top spot. So, hail to the king, baby. L.A. Noire graciously slipped only one spot into second, despite a 54 percent drop in sales. We knew Rockstar's crime drama had a massive premiere, becoming the UK's fastest-selling new IP, but those debut numbers must have been massive to survive several large double-digit percentage sales declines the past few weeks and yet maintain such a high ranking. Rounding out the top three: Zumba Fitness, which only saw a 2 percent decline. Two other premieres made it into the top ten last week, with inFamous 2 and Red Faction: Armageddon heroically taking spots four and eight, respectively. Check out the full UK top ten after the break.
LA Noire guilty of being UK sales winner for third week in a row
L.A. Noire, despite a 56 percent drop in sales this past week, remained the top game in the UK, according to Chart-Track's All Formats chart. With little in the way of competition, Rockstar's crime procedural, which debuted as the UK's fastest-selling new IP two weeks ago, maintained its position atop a list of the usual suspects. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean caught the trade winds and sailed back into second, while Dirt 3 lost some ground and slipped one spot into third. Sims 3: Generations, the fourth expansion pack for the series and the only game that wasn't previously playing musical chairs in the UK top ten, premiered in tenth. The only other debut that made it into the Top 40 was the Bethesda published Hunted: The Demon's Forge. Despite receiving (at least in the States) what feels like little promotion, InXile's decent game still managed to come out swinging a sword in 14th place. Check out the full UK top ten after the break.
