For a moment there, it looked like The Lord of the Rings: Gollum might actually be a good game. It had a lot of things going for it: a beloved IP that was only getting more popular, a fresh take and the ability to control a protagonist that we’d never been in control of before, and a studio with a great pedigree. Then, it came out and quickly imploded. Now we’re hearing that Daedalic Entertainment is stepping away from game development for good.
Perhaps it’s for the best. The game was pretty much universally panned, with a critic average score of 37 out of 100 over at Opencritic. It has a 39 over at Metacritic. IGN called it “dull,” “bad” and “pointless.” According to GameCentral it’s not only “broken beyond belief” but also a “fundamentally bad idea for a video game.” I could go on but they’re all pretty much like this.
It is overwhelmingly the worst game of the year, and with an albatross like that around your neck it’s hard to stay in business. A German site called Games Wirtschaft shared the news and the company said it was moving away from game development and going to focus more on marketing and publishing games instead.
The company acknowledged that it was facing a “difficult turning point” after the game’s failure, and even offered an apology the day after it came out.
“We acknowledge and regret that the game did not meet the expectations we set for ourselves,” Daedalic said in late May. “Please accept our sincere apologies for any disappointment this may have caused.”
As a result of the less than favorable reception of the game, 25 people were laid off from the company (out of around 90). The company also had another LOTR game in development but that was permanently shelved. Gollum was supposed to come out in 2021 but was delayed a number of times until its eventual release last month.
The company said it would try to find jobs for the people it laid off. Might be better if they pretend they never worked on the game in the first place. We’ll keep you posted.