L.A. Noire dev moves to shut down

Despite a glowing critical reception and chart-topping sales for Team Bondi's period crime sleuther L.A. Noire, the weeks and months following the game's May release have been fraught with uncertainty about the developer's future.

Most recently, Team Bondi was placed into administration, with control handed off to a separate entity. Now, according to official Australian government documents, the studio's total closure is imminent.

Multiple documents regarding Team Bondi have been filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission today, including one appointing a liquidator to the studio. A "special resolution to wind up company" was also filed today with the government agency.

Team Bondi's reputation was tarnished earlier this year when employee complaints about working conditions and credits omissions drew the attention of the International Game Developers Association. At the time, one of Team Bondi's senior-most developers said the studio would learn from its mistakes.

Despite the closure of Team Bondi, a PC iteration of L.A. Noire is due out on November 8. However, the game is being ported over by Rockstar Leeds.

Take-Two Interactive owns the rights to the L.A. Noire intellectual property, meaning the franchise could survive its original studio's demise. The game has already shipped 4 million units for Take-Two.

L.A. Noire follows Cole Phelps, a detective entangled in a violent web of vice, corruption, and crime in 1947 Los Angeles. Players jump into the seedy underworld of the metropolis and are tasked with solving a series of murders and other criminal offenses, ranging from arson and drug trafficking to racketeering.