L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi and Australian production company Kennedy Miller Mitchell have received $200,000 in funding towards development of their open-world crime drama Whore of the Orient, investor Screen NSW announced today.
Screen NSW is a branch of the Australian government in the state of New South Wales that focuses on the region's creative and economic development. Through the organization's Interactive Media Fund, KMM — the collective name for the team developing Whore of the Orient — has been given funds to "help develop" the title, a game set in 1930s Shanghai and slated to launch on next-generation consoles.
A press statement notes that Whore of the Orient collaborator Kennedy Miller Mitchell has worked on several major films in the area, including the Mad Max films and animated movies Happy Feet and Happy Feet 2.
Another recipient in Screen NSW's recent round of funding is Intuitive Games Studios, which received $30,451 for development of its detective title Canonical Five. The studio was founded by former L.A. Noire developers and was publicly unveiled last month.
Whore of the Orient was unveiled last August and will be published by Warner Bros. Interactive.
Comments
Now taking bets on how long it’ll be before the Self-Entitled Soccer Moms of America lobby to have the name changed, or the game banned from the US.
By viper12 on 06.21.13 2:03pm
I’m no soccer mom but I think they’d be better off with changing the name. Not because I think it’s offensive, but because it sounds supremely stupid.
By Amazing Spiderham on 06.21.13 2:16pm
Touche
By eightbitprince on 06.21.13 2:49pm
I never understood why self-defeating names are ever chosen for products. Why isolate a potential group of customers? In the same way that “Gimp” is a stupid name for an image editing program, how many organizations wouldn’t even consider supporting Gimp for fear of negative perceptions?
They might as well call this game “Whoriental”.
By dejayc #1 on 06.21.13 2:55pm
Self entitlement is a strange term to use. People can request change without coming off in the manner you’re implying.
By Shaun McIlroy on 06.21.13 2:30pm
I’m referring to all those hyper-protective moms who think it’s their responsibility to police everyone else’s children and decided what is appropriate for everyone.
(a la the FCC)
By viper12 on 06.21.13 3:32pm
If they do come under fire, I hope they stick to their guns and don’t buckle like, say, Atomic games did with Six Days In Fallujah.
If, by definition, the game deals with a “whore” in some way, then what is the problem?
By daniel.hill.12139 on 06.21.13 10:01pm
The title refers to the nickname of the city of Shanghai of old which is the game’s setting.
I’d love to sound all high up there and educated, but I actually only know this because it had been mentioned when the game was first introduced.
By Lopogyn on 06.22.13 7:26am
A much, much more common contemporary nickname for Shanghai was “Paris of the East”. Of course, that doesn’t make a sensationalistic game title, now does it?
By DesVoeux on 06.22.13 1:06pm
Well, I didn’t live back then, so I have no idea which was said more often than the other, but as far as I recall what I read, the nicknam was actually both combined: “Paris Of The East, Whore Of The Orient”. Maybe to highlight the contrasts or whatever.
Anyways, I wouldn’t be so quick to insinuate a sensationalistic title as the motivation behind this. First of all, yes, giving a game a name that evokes interest is the whole point of it. Second, as has been pointed out, the whole “Paris Of This & That” isn’t exactly original and has been applied to several locations. And third … using the name “Paris” would, for my taste, wake too many assossiations with the actual city of Paris. I’d avoid the name of a different location would I pick a title.
Whatever the case and maybe it’s really just for the sake of sensationalism, but the title IS interesting or unusual and it got me to check a bit of info on Shanghai back when the game was announced, so it’s hardly a bad thing.
By Lopogyn on 06.22.13 7:51pm
“Harbin, a gray Manchurian industrial powerhouse 300 miles south of Siberia that McKinsey says will be the world’s 55th-most dynamic city in 2025, gets the award for the worst abuse of language: It is widely known in China as “The Little Paris of the Orient,” even though the two cities have nothing in common besides roads, people, buildings, and a fondness for bread."
By avoirdupois on 06.22.13 10:47pm
they could… but usually don’t
By LordTwinkie on 06.21.13 5:09pm
Between this and Murdered I’ll be getting my detective itch scratched for certain.
By patod on 06.21.13 2:38pm
judging from the past we may see this in 2018 :)
By BLOPSFREAK on 06.21.13 2:45pm
This is not a game I would ask for as a gift.
By Fuzunga on 06.21.13 2:53pm
Hopefully there isn’t an obligation to pay this lump sum back. The fiasco with Kingdoms of Amalur comes to mind when I read this article.
By SoldatRenard on 06.21.13 3:46pm
The first thing that came to my mind when I read this.
By daniel.hill.12139 on 06.21.13 9:58pm
So it’s been almost a year now and it’s still just that screenshot.
By Lopogyn on 06.21.13 4:44pm
Oh goodie, $200k more for Brendan McNamara to abuse his employees with.
By Peddie on 06.21.13 4:50pm
I hope this game is going to be good since LA Noire was fantastic. Can’t help but think that had a lot to do with Rockstars guidance though..
By furyia on 06.21.13 7:12pm
Do you know what I like about Polygon? It actually writes interesting articles. It’s not Kotaku – Kotaku writes opinion blogs and asserts them as absolute fact… And thank god Polygon is not that.
By PyramidHeadcrab on 06.21.13 8:32pm
My concern is that earlier this year KMM fired, to the best of my knowledge, their entire development staff and ended game development operations pending securing financing for the project. They maintained it was still pursuing development. The funding granted by Screen NSW would account for only a small portion of the project’s required funding.
It seems to be a case that $200,000 was granted to a company for the development of a game. This company has no, or few, full time game developers and no publicly announced prospects of actually being able to complete the game. This leads to three possible conclusions.
Firstly, it’s possible KMM was able to find funding for the project and Screen NSW were suitably convinced of the project’s viability.
Secondly, Screen Australia may have failed its due diligence in assessing the viability of the project and business.
Thirdly, Screen Australia was fully aware of these problems and chose to fund the project.
I’d like to think it’s the first possibility, but hold grave concerns it is one of the latter. The NSW industry is doing a bit of digging into the matter.
By Nathan Runge on 06.22.13 2:44am
I love the title, might just get it because of it.
By The_Icon on 06.22.13 11:47am
Being an Australian I see this as a major waste of money, the “developer” will not produce anything and Brendan McNamara the complete oxygen thief will probably pocket most of it.
By Mr Doom on 06.23.13 6:02pm