‘Gollum’ Game Publisher Lays Off Developers and Cancels Next ‘Lord of the Rings’ Project
Daedalic Entertainment is no longer in the development business after last month's critical misfire
Ooof... sad for all those devs, but wow was that game was a mistake from the start
I think they had mostly worked on point-and-click games before Gollum. Clearly they weren't ready to scale up to a project as large as a LoTR title. Sad to see though nevertheless.
Should have maybe sticked to their expertise and made a lotr point and click game, instead of trying to make a big RPG. 🤷🏽♀️
I think I heard that they didn't actually want to make a game as technically complex as it was, but the company that licences the rights to make games set in the Legendarium sort of forced them into it.
What I find rather funny is that LOTR is a setting that would be pretty perfect for a traditional PnC adventure game. They could have played to their strengths and possibly made a better game, even with their odd choice of protagonist.
Honestly the developers were not skilled for this knowing their past pedigree. They should have ramped up with something a little more small scale before this. At the end of the day they have to bring home a paycheck to feed themselves and their family and hope they find a new job as swift as possible.
It’s unfortunate. I’ve enjoyed some of Daedalic‘a games but this one was so far out of their wheelhouse I’m surprised they got anything out. It’s like if ConcernedApe was developing the next Mortal Combat.
That's what happens if you try too hard to milk an existing franchise instead of going with your own ideas...
Most wholesome MK ever.
Wtf I didn't realize that it was daedalic games
They have a lot of experience in 2d point and click games with limited 3d, a project like this is insane
Goodbye Deponia...
They only published the Point and Click games and they will continue to publish games. A new Deponia game (surviving Deponia) was just recently announced
No the point and click adventures where (often) developed in-house. They also served as a publisher for games by other studios but the Edna + Harvey series, the Deponia games, A new beginning, the whispered world and it's sequel, the two The Dark Eye games and the adaptation of The Pillars of the Earth all came from internal teams.
Someone I trust said that the Elvish dialogue that they charge extra for is badly pronounced and so garbled that it's not even intelligible most of the time. Mismanaged?
You had to pay extra for shoddy voice-over work?
IIRC you also had to pay for the idle animation. Like if you don't interact with the game, Gollum would catch a fly and eat it or something, but you had to pay for that.
They put the lore behind a paywall too. The game was just a huge fail overall.
It's sad really, the game had potential but it was very clearly undercooked and over ambitious considering the studios past. That's a lot of developers who will be out of a job, have to feel for them.
Did it, though? Do people really want to play as gollum? I think it only did as "well" as it did because of how hilariously bad it was, but who the heck ever said "I kinda want to play as one of the most pathetic villains ever created?"
I really loved the idea. I'm glad I didn't preorder, but if the game had mixed reviews instead of crazy negative, I would have bought the game.
this could have been an extremely quirky and funny retelling of a classic adventure through stealth and skullduggery.
Stealth games are a popular genre and I personally find the character of Gollum to be quite compelling and I think it could have been done well, but it obviously wasn't.
I do a pretty accurate Gollum impression and have entertained friends with it at great length and sometimes to their annoyance so maybe I relate to the character more than is usual but I can't be the only one.
It could be really cool to play gollum. The origin story is interesting and with a few good writers you could have spin a pretty nice tale.
I mean... the game looked worse than The Witcher 2 from 2011 and made up more BS about the lore than I thought possible for a story so short.
Still patching it?? Isn’t it time to just let it die?
Even redfall.. take the L and move on
What I'm not getting is, why are they closing all those game studios after one failed game? Everyone is going to fail sometimes, this does not seem sustainable
The success of the Gollum game was really needed, financially. They barley got by with their niche point and click games.
I wasn't aware of that, thank you!
Developing a game of that scale is a huge financial investment. If it doesn't pay out you gotta lay off people unless you've got a gigantic war chest full of money, which unfortunately German tax law makes quite hard because you pay taxes on that war chest just for having it
Well, I think there is a difference between "underdelivering" and exposing the company to a risk of lawsuits.
Good, never do anything related to anything ever
It makes me want to play it just to see how bad it is
Oh thank god, what a relief