According to Take-Two Interactive’s latest earnings report, Rockstar may be considering sequels to several long-dormant franchises such as L.A Noire, Midnight Club and Max Payne.
Executive Strauss Zelnick stated that:
“We have the strongest and most diverse pipeline in our Company’s history, comprised of new intellectual properties, as well as sequels to many of our beloved franchises. We look forward to delivering many of these titles in the coming months and beyond”
With the exception of the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead franchises, Rockstar Games isn’t known for sequels or keeping franchises going beyond a few titles. It’s interesting to consider here that while nothing is stated, this lends credibility to the long-rumoured and if rumour is to be believed, long in development, sequel to Bully (or Canis Canem Edit, depending on your region). As previously mentioned, nothing is confirmed or even outwardly hinted at, yet the slides shown within the earnings report certainly suggest that there’s something being thought about here by internal teams.
Something extremely interesting to consider here is that the team that worked on L.A Noire no longer exists. In 2011, the Australian developer Team Bondi was liquidated and dispersed, following allegations of extreme crunch. Andrew McMillen of IGN interviewed eleven former Team Bondi members in June of that year on their management style of Rockstar, with two commenters stating the following:
” I can certainly attest to the appalling working conditions, the angry and abusive boss and the ineffective leads who were completely unwilling to do anything to protect their team members.”
“It’s abhorrent that these young kids are being throwing into a 24/7 corpse grinder with perpetual crunch and weekend overtime“
If the decision is made to return to these franchises, we can only hope that the time away has allowed for a reflective period on workplace culture, and that there’s been improvements made.
