The company behind the poorly received Lord Of The Rings: Gollum has reportedly laid off 25 staff and will no longer develop video games in-house. Instead, Daedalic Entertainment will focus its efforts on publishing.
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German website Games Wirtschaft reported the layoffs, with Daedalic confirming that 25 employees out of a team of more than 90 will be laid off. “We value every member of our team and it is important to us that the transition is as smooth as possible. Therefore, we will support our former employees in finding new opportunities within our network,” said a statement provided to the website in German and translated via Google Translate.
Work on the Lord Of The Rings: Gollum sequel has also been halted. The project, which was reportedly in development since mid-2022, was originally scheduled for a late 2024 release.
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Lord Of The Rings: Gollum was met with critical derision and seemingly poor sales upon its release in May. In their review of Rock Paper Shotgun, they called it “ultimately a very boring game” and “pretty irrelevant.” Daedalic apologized in the days following its release and pledged to fix bugs and technical issues.
Most of Daedalic's success as a developer came through the point-and-click adventure games released in the 2010s, including the Deponia series. In more recent years, they have attempted to expand with mixed results, releasing the retro real-time strategy A Year Of Rain and the roguelike space RPG The Long Journey Home, as well as publishing indie games such as Barotrauma, Inkulinati, Warpips, and Shadow Tactics. In 2022, they were acquired by Nacon.
The recently announced survival spin-off Surviving Deponia appears to still be in development by an external studio, with Daedalic publishing it.
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source of information: rockpapershotgun.com
