15 years after its original release, Team Bondi and Rockstar Games‘ LA Noire continues to have a sizeable following, but – despite Rockstar saying it wouldn’t “count out the possibility” of a follow-up back in 2012 – a sequel has never emerged. Even so, new comments from Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick have suggested there’s potentially still hope.
Addressing fellow executives at the recent Iicon summit, Zelnick discussed a range of topics, including GTA 6’s current state and price tag. That same conversation (via IGN) also touched upon the potential of revisiting other Take-Two properties, including the likes of LA Noire. “There’s nothing to announce on LA Noire specifically,” Zelnick replied, “and if there were, it would be Rockstar announcing it, not me.”
He did, however, acknowledge Take-Two is more broadly “looking at doing something in the future with all of our intellectual property” and that its teams “are always looking at what we have and we’re always thinking about it. The question is, at any given time, do we have a team that’s passionate about working on that?”
It’s non-commital, then, but also worth noting that Take-Two does in fact now have a team who might perhaps be passionate about working on a LA Noire sequel. Last year, the publisher announced subsidiary Rockstar had acquired developer Video Games Deluxe, which was to be renamed Rockstar Australia. Why’s that significant? Video Games Deluxe is led by Brendan McNamara, perhaps better known as the director of LA Noire, and has already dabbled in the series, having developed a VR version of LA Noire for Rockstar in 2017.
As for the original LA Noire, Eurogamer called it “a genuinely mature game” made with patient gamers in mind when we reviewed it in 2011. “If you’re willing to take the rough with the smooth and submit to the story,” Oli Welsh wrote, “LA Noire will pay you back in spades.”