The Lord of the Rings: Gollum studio stops developing games

Daedalic Entertainment will no longer make games and will instead focus on publishing games. As a result, almost a quarter of the staff has to leave. The studio released The Lord of the Rings: Gollum in May, which was almost unanimously poorly received.

The company speaks of ‘a difficult turning point’ and ‘a new beginning’, according to a statement shared with the German medium Games Wirtschaft. Due to this decision, 25 of the 90 jobs will be eliminated. The studio was working on another The Lord of the Rings game; it is not clear whether another studio will take over this work now. Work on Surviving Deponia will continue, as it is being made by an external studio.

The studio is best known for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, an adventure game that was released for consoles and PC. Gollum and stealth are central to the game. After release, the game received almost exclusively negative reactions, partly due to bugs and poorly developed gameplay. The developer previously apologized for this. The company says it is still working on a patch. French game publisher Nacon acquired Daedalic in February last year.