L.A. Noire creator's next game is Whore of the Orient
Kennedy Miller Mitchell Interactive will develop Brendan McNamara's next game, Whore of the Orient.
In an article in the Financial Review, film maker George Miller revealed he has acquired the rights to the new project, titled Whore of the Orient. The phrase "whore of the Orient, Paris of the East" has been used to describe the city of Shanghai, the largest city in China.
Team Bondi founder McNamara teased the new game earlier this month, describing it as "one of the great untold stories of the twentieth century" but giving no further details. We've contacted KMM Interactive but are yet to receive comment.
KMM Interactive
According to co-founder Doug Mitchell, Kennedy Miller Mitchell Interactive is staffed by "not only the Krome team but Team Bondi’s last standing warriors", snapped up when both studios shuttered.
The studio is a spin-off to long-time collaborators Mitchell and Miller's film production company, Dr D Studios, which produced Happy Feet and is working on its sequel.
"Team Bondi immediately went to work on Happy Feet Two. People can move from a game to a movie and be completely at home, because it’s the same skills, process – the same game," Miller said of the development staff's recent activity.
The Sydney-based developer is also working on an adaptation of Mad Max 4: Fury Road, an upcoming entry in the notorious post-apocalyptic series to be published by Warner Bros. Interactive.
According to the feature article, the licensed title was to be developed by an unnamed Swedish studio - rumours had suggested Avalanche - but Miller was so impressed by Team Bondi's work on L.A. Noire that he decided to have it made in-house.
“With the government’s support we can immediately go forward with two games," Mitchell said. “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.”
Thanks, games.on.net.