L.A. Noire - Development

Development

L.A. Noire had a protracted seven year development, which included a change of publisher, expansion from a single platform to three, and numerous cancelled release dates.

"L.A. Noire is nothing like other games in the genre. It isn't a game about action and firefights. We really wanted to nail the detective aspect of the game. Each object, each street, each investigation is a result of research using archived images and film as to make the perfect illusion that you are there. While playing L.A. Noire, you'll quickly realize that you must first investigate before shooting."

—Brendan McNamara, founder of Team Bondi.

In October 2003, Brendan McNamara, director of the PlayStation 2 game The Getaway, left his position at Team Soho in London to form his own studio in his native Australia. The former employee of SCEE named the new six-person studio Team Bondi and immediately announced that the company had begun work on its first project, a game for "a next-generation Sony platform." In February 2004, McNamara said in an interview that "the project is wholly funded by Sony Computer Entertainment America. We have a long-term exclusive arrangement with SCEA."

A year later in June 2005, the developer revealed that the game would be called L.A. Noire, and it would be an exclusive PlayStation 3 title. Little was known about the game except that it was described as a "detective thriller." It was also revealed that Team Bondi was in an exclusive agreement with Sony to produce two more PlayStation 3 games. A further year later in September 2006, the publishing arrangements changed when Rockstar Games announced that it would be publishing L.A. Noire. Rockstar's announcement only referred to it as a "next-generation crime thriller", with no platforms specified.

In 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. It was at this point, during the following shareholder conference-call, that a spokesperson for Take Two implied that both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 releases were likely and that "L.A. Noire is being developed for next-generation systems." In their September 2007 financial disclosure, Take-Two announced the game had been delayed until their 2009 fiscal year.

Despite the game being missing from Take 2's updated release list for 2009, speculation of a release increased when Team Bondi increased its staff levels in 2009.

On 4 February 2010 it was announced that L.A. Noire would be on the cover of the March 2010 issue of Game Informer, which also finally confirmed that the game would also be available on Xbox 360 and would arrive in September 2010. The cover was followed by Take-Two confirming that L.A. Noire would be released during the August–October quarter. Although this joined the growing list of missed release dates in September 2010, when Take-Two delayed the game until the first half 2011.

An in-game trailer was released on 11 November 2010, which stated the release date as Q1/Q2 2011. L.A. Noire was featured on the cover of the February 2011 edition of PlayStation: The Official Magazine, which gave a new release window of March 2011. A trailer for L.A. Noire, called "Serial Killer", was leaked on 16 January 2011. The trailer shows 90 seconds of gameplay footage as well as a release date of 17 May. Rockstar officially confirmed the release date a few days later.

Speaking to Official PlayStation Magazine (UK), Brendan McNamara talked about why L.A. Noire took seven years to make. McNamara said L.A. Noire's ambitious scale and proprietary technology caused development to expand to seven years. "One is the size, it’s a huge game – probably too big. The map’s massive, and so that’s probably my fault." As well as sheer scope, L.A. Noire's pace was hindered by the team’s devotion to getting the feel – if not all the details of 1940′s Los Angeles just right. "I'd say the first year and a half – even longer – was just research," McNamara commented.

When asked by PSM3 about how Team Bondi came up with the idea to make L.A. Noire, Brendan McNamara stated, "We wanted to do something new, something that nobody had developed before. To do this, we looked at what people watched the most (on TV). And then, we realized that police dramas had become increasingly popular nowadays. So our game had to be like these series so that everyone could benefit from the experience."