L.A. Noire news

[Ironman273]

L.A. Noire delayed again - Analyst

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot Posted Aug 28, 2010 3:24 am AEST

Pacific Crest Securities' Evan Wilson cites retail sources as saying detective thriller has been pushed to Take-Two's next fiscal year, expresses "low confidence" in management team.

In June, Take-Two Interactive said L.A. Noire would launch in the quarter ending October 31. Since that time, the publisher has barely mentioned the Rockstar-published, Team Bondi-developed game, much less ramped up a pre-launch advertising blitz. In a note to investors this morning, Pacific Crest Securites' Evan Wilson gave a possible reason for that, saying retail sources have told him the game is being delayed into next year.

Gamers eager for L.A. Noire might grow appropriately jaded and cynical in the face of the game's continued delays.

"We have confirmed the delay of L.A. Noire from fiscal Q4 (Oct.) well into [fiscal] 2011 [November 1, 2010 to October 31, 2011]," Wilson wrote. "As far as we can tell, Take-Two has not shown the game to retailers."

Representatives with Take-Two and Rockstar had not returned GameSpot's requests for comment as of press time.

By Wilson's count, L.A. Noire would be the 20th major delay for the publisher since its current management team took over in 2007. L.A. Noire would have accounted for three of those delays.

Wilson doesn't believe the delay will prevent the publisher from missing its full-year financial guidance. He said the company set the bar conservatively low with its numbers, and whatever negative impact it might have on the company's fourth quarter results could be made up for by continued strength of Rockstar's last title, Red Dead Redemption.

"Clearly, management either has no control over the release of its games, cannot accurately predict the timing of their completion or is not concerned with the forecasts it issues to investors," Wilson wrote. "In any case, the delays have reinforced the low confidence we have in current management. We continue to have low confidence that management has any idea about when its games will actually be released and believe the confidence that it displays to investors is misplaced."

The debut effort from Australia-based Team Bondi, L.A. Noire takes place in 1940s Los Angeles, a popular setting for detective films and novels. The game will have players entangled in a violent web of vice, corruption, and crime in the titular metropolis's underworld, tasked with solving a series of murders in what Rockstar describes as an "open-ended challenge."

L.A. Noire was originally announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive in 2005, with Rockstar picking up the publishing rights to the title the following year. Rockstar cofounder and creative director Sam Houser is executive-producing L.A. Noire, with Team Bondi founder Brendan McNamara (writer and director of The Getaway) serving as director of development.

Source: Gamespot

[SaltLife]

Maybe its not going to be s exclusive as we think so they're pushing the date. Or even move support,or they're just busters who can't manage their resources.

Either way, still patiently waiting for this release

[Neo003]

Is this PS3 exclusive game, I thought it was ps3 & 360.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/adventure/lanoire/news.html?sid=6250005

[Spookie]

Agent is the exclusive one I thought this was multi-plat?

[Ironman273]

Is this PS3 exclusive game, I thought it was ps3 & 360.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/adventure/lanoire/news.html?sid=6250005

I think you're right. It used to be an exclusive but then it was announced that it was being released on the 360 also. Maybe a mod can move this to Gamer's Hangout.

[Corris Veteran]

This game will never come out, lol.

If I remember the story, it was once a Sony ip, but wasn't going anywhere so they sold it to rockstar a few years ago or something to save money and got exclusivity of Agent instead.

Or something like that, lol.

[Lamp0]

yea, this game has been multiplatform for a long time. Also, I thought this delay was announce a good while ago...

[Ironman273]

yea, this game has been multiplatform for a long time. Also, I thought this delay was announce a good while ago...

This is another delay on top of the original delay.

[soniqstylz]

This is another delay on top of the original delay.

on top of delay after delay. This was supposed to come out in 2007 I think. McNamara has good ideas (still like the first Getaway, even if it didn't have much replayability since it wasn't as sandbox as a GTA, but the story and cut scenes were good), he just sucks at implementing them in a timely and on-budget manner. I still look forward to the game, but I doubt it'll be profitable.

[Neo003]

Maybe they should rename the game to "L.A. Noire Forever" :rofl:

[MightyJordan]

Hang on, was it originally a PS3 exclusive? :blink: Because I distinctly remember seeing an old showcase of the Xbox 360 (back when it was called "Xenon") from 2005, and I remember seeing a car crashing into a block, and this game, L.A. Noire.

Unfortunately, I can't find the damn video. :(

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Yeah at first it was PS3 exclusive.

Don't recall the trailer you're talking of though.

[Motoko.]

I remember this game was in development since GTA IV

[Ironman273]

For a little background I found this on Wikipedia:

In February 2004, Brendan McNamara, Team Bondi's president, responded to an interview with Kristen Reed that "the project is wholly funded by Sony Computer Entertainment America. We have a long-term exclusive arrangement with SCEA."[6] On 11 June 2007, Take-Two Interactive, the sole publisher of Rockstar Games, re-confirmed the release of the PlayStation 3 version by listing it amongst its "announced to date" titles for "fiscal 2008" in a press release regarding the company's second quarter financial results.[1] However, during the shareholders conference-call, a spokesperson for Take Two implied that both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases were likely and that "L.A. Noire is being developed for next-generation systems."[7] L.A. Noire had, however, only been officially announced for the PlayStation 3.

On 10 September 2007, as part of their Q3 2007 financial disclosure, Take Two announced the game had been delayed until their 2009 fiscal year.[8] On 21 January 2010, in a Question and Answer section on their blog, Rockstar said "There will be something great to see soon - a proper in-depth look at the game and why it is so ground-breaking and innovative, both in terms of the game's design and the amazing new technology to support it. Expect to see a long-awaited reveal via a big cover story next month.".[9] On 4 February it was announced that L.A. Noire would be on the cover of the March 2010 issue of Game Informer and confirmed the game would also be available on Xbox 360.[4][10]

L.A. Noire is expected to have a large amount of audio. Game Informer reported L.A. Noire to have over 20 hours of voice acting.

[Massiveterra]

So it's not vaporware? :rofl:

[Lamp0]

I really can't wait to see what this game will play like. It sounds pretty amazing.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Roll on Thursday :D

[Massiveterra]

half an hour more...

[Corris Veteran]

I'd like to be excited, but it's not like we really have anything to be excited about in truth, will be interesting to see what we get from this trailer after all this time in development and also seeing how it stacks up to all the other, more recent games that take place around the same era that go for a similar styles.

[Ironman273]

It looks like they're taking GTA and putting it in different settings. First RDR and now LAN. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I loved RDR.

[Massiveterra]

Trailer is up

http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/11751/watch_the_l.a._noire_first_trailer.article

[AbandonedTrolley]

Looks okay I guess, will see how it pans out, Rockstar are normally pretty good with storylines so here's hoping! :)

[Massiveterra]

It looks like they're taking GTA and putting it in different settings. First RDR and now LAN. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I loved RDR.

This game is being published by Rockstar, but it's not developed by Rockstar so I don't know how much "GTA" is in this game.

Does anyone know if this is Biondi's first game?

[AbandonedTrolley]

Does anyone know if this is Biondi's first game?

Looks that way from their site

http://www.teambondi.com/about/

Team Bondi is an independent developer producing titles for next-generation consoles.Team Bondi was founded by Brendan McNamara, the former Director of Development for Sony Computer Entertainment?s Team Soho Studio in London and the writer and director of The Getaway which has gone on to sell over 4 million units on the PlayStation?2 console.

[bob_c_b]

All I can say is RDR was delayed many times and that was a great game, so I can wait.