Home Gaming LA Noire creator Brendan McNamara's next game is “Whore of the Orient”

LA Noire creator Brendan McNamara's next game is “Whore of the Orient”

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So just what is the controversial creator of LA Noire working on next? He teased readers a few weeks ago by describing the project as “One of the great untold stories of the twentieth century”, but was coy from that point on, but it looks like McNamara is going east for his next project, as he looks set to tell the story of Shanghai City.

Whore of the Orient, Paris of the East” has been used often to describe the city of Shanghai, the largest metropolis in China. The term describes the glamour of the Chinese City and westernised appearance, that used to sit alongside the numerous brothels in the city.

The game is set to be produced by KMM Interactive, which is owned by George Miller, director of the Happy Feet and Mad Max films. The studio has been described as consisting of “not only the Krome team but Team Bondi’s last standing warriors”, two studios that were acquired when they went bust earlier this year.

“Team Bondi immediately went to work on Happy Feet Two”,director and owner Miller said when describing the recent activity of the staff. “People can move from a game to a movie and be completely at home, because it’s the same skills, process, the same game.”

After being quite impressed with the work of Team Bondi on LA Noire, Miller was quick to acquire the studio after their falling out with Rockstar Games and subsequent financial demise, making them an in house studio and securing funding from the Australian Government to produce two more games.

“With the government’s support we can immediately go forward with two games”, KMM Interactive Co-founder Doug Mitchell said to Games.on.net. “It’s not immediately obvious but the potential in the video games sector is massive. Just from the statistics people are showing me, it’s a $60 billion industry fast-tracking towards $90 billion.

“Films are very expensive, so studios are making drastically fewer of them. They’ll make ten films where they used to make 20. So, instead, people are drifting to game acquisition because of the budgets. The cost of a film may be $170 million, twice that to market it, whereas the basic cost of making a game might be 10% of that.

“Look at LA Noire, they sold about 3 million units in a week, about $US135 million ($130 million) net revenue, off a cost base which was infinitely lower than even your average low-budget film”.

Team Bondi is currently also working on a game to coincide with the upcoming film, Mad Max 4: Fury Road. While it’s great to see the remnants of Team Bondi back in the saddle, it’ll be interesting to compare how their future games stack up, without the guiding hand of Rockstar Games to lend them some experience and polish.

Last Updated: November 28, 2011

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