The Lord of the Rings: Gollums Failure Causes Daedalic to Shut Down Studio Shift to Publishing Only
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was always a bit of a weird project, from the choice of the protagonist to the fact that the developer had no prior experience making such a game. The Hamburg-based Daedalic Entertainment made a name for itself with point-and-click adventure games like Deponia.
With The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, they switched to a stealth action/adventure game. Gollum received a number of delays (it was originally scheduled to launch in 2021, then 2022) and was ultimately released in late May 2023 to mixed reviews. Ule Lopez wrote in Wccftech's analysis:
[...] if you're the kind of player who wishes to see stunning visuals and deep mechanics alongside high replay value and stable performance, I believe that this experience will leave much to be desired. Because of this, I can only give it a cautious recommendation for those outside of the aforementioned niches.
The day following the release of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, we learned that Daedalic already had plans to make another game based on Tolkien's beloved fantasy books. The news came directly from the German government, which had provided some of the funding and shared the following description publically:
Daedalic is working on a new project that will transport the player into a lush world full of mythical creatures and magic. It tells a story from a character's perspective that has never been told before. The player discovers new regions and influences the events of the world within the scope of his role and his abilities. In his own way, he tries to influence the course of things and change the fate of the world. This project is aimed at avid fans of the fantasy story and 3D action-adventure genres around the world.
However, the extremely low sales of the game had a devastating effect on Daedalic Entertainment. The studio announced it is closing its development division, including the studio that made The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. It follows that this new project will never see the light of day.
Daedalic Entertainment will therefore focus on publishing games in the future. The company was acquired by Nacon last year for an estimated $60 million.
Luckily, The Lord of the Rings can look forward to many other projects, such as the survival crafting game Return to Moria (due this Fall) and the projects in development at Wētā Workshop and Amazon (the latter is an MMO).
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