Big News for Lord of the Rings Fans: Gollum Studio Wraps Up Exciting Game Projects!

Daedalic Entertainment will be disbanding its internal game development team and focusing solely on game publishing and marketing. Their latest project, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, received overwhelmingly negative reviews and will be the final game developed by the internal team. Daedalic Entertainment has been publishing games from external development teams since 2002 but their own internal team, launched in 2008, has struggled to produce successful titles. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, their most high-profile release, was plagued with bugs and criticized for its dull gameplay, uninteresting story, and poorly designed puzzles.

The release of Gollum was in such poor condition that the studio found it necessary to publicly apologize for the multitude of technical and game design flaws. Although Daedalic is shutting down its internal development, they have committed to releasing patches for Gollum. The length of time they will support a game that was both critically and commercially unsuccessful remains uncertain.

Additionally, Daedalic Entertainment has announced the discontinuation of another game set in the Lord of the Rings universe. Not many details were provided regarding the genre or storyline of this game, only hinting at the possible involvement of magic-wielding wizards. It is known, however, that development started in mid-2022, suggesting that the project was still in its early stages when it was terminated. The Ministry of Economics in Germany, from which Daedalic received €2 million, has been informed of the game's cancellation.

Gollum, a video game based on The Lord of the Rings, joined the ranks of game developers and publishers offering public apologies for releasing technically flawed games. Being Daedalic's most costly project to date, its failure both financially and critically spelled doom for the development team. Currently, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is accessible on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with a Switch version scheduled for a future release.