A former producer at Team Bondi confirms that the Australian-based team is no longer working on Whore of the Orient, which was meant to be a successor to L.A. Noire.

At the time of its release, L.A. Noire was one of the most expensive video games ever produced, having been in development for nearly 10 years. All the time and money spent developing the game seemed to pay off, as the game earned widespread critical acclaim and managed to sell over 5 million copies. Despite this success, the team behind L.A. Noire may never have the opportunity to release their next game, a mysterious title called Whore of the Orient.

Whore of the Orient hasn't been discussed by the former developers at Team Bondi, now known as KMM Games, since an update was posted in 2013. Today, one of Whore of the Orient's former producers, Derek Proud, finally broke his silence on the title, expressing his doubts that it would ever be released to the public.

According to Proud, the team working on Whore of the Orient have stopped development on the project altogether. He added that he respects the team and the work they did finishing L.A. Noire, even though Whore of the Orient's similarly rough development didn't have a happy ending.

For the uninitiated, Whore of the Orient was nearly cancelled in 2013 until the Australian government stepped in with $200,000 to help the game finish development. Unfortunately, it appears as though that additional funding provided by the government has since been burned through, and with nothing of substance to show for it, it seems unlikely that Australia will be dedicating any more funds towards the development of Whore of the Orient.

As previously stated, L.A. Noire was also stuck in development hell for some time, with publishing duties for the game switching hands from Sony to Rockstar Games mid-development. Regardless of its troubled past, the software's advancements in motion capture technology have meant big things for the gaming industry, and now many blockbuster video game titles use similar tech. It would have been interesting to see if Whore of the Orient pushed the industry forward in any meaningful ways like L.A. Noire did, so it's surely disappointing for fans to learn that the game is no longer in active development.

It's worth noting that Proud didn't outright confirm Whore of the Orient's cancellation, but at this point it seems unlikely that the game will ever be released. Fans of the Rockstar-published detective romp will just have to keep their fingers crossed that Rockstar Games eventually pursues an L.A. Noire sequel, as the company has previously discussed.

Whore of the Orient was in development for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: Gamehugs