Given the likely cost to license the IP, I can’t imagine they will get another shot.
Whatever the next LotR-based game by Daedalic is, it has received €2m of public funding in Germany. They’re not gonna cancel it.
Did we talk about how they basically just apologized for the game being bad?
https://twitter.com/gollumgame/status/1662124108614717448?s=46&t=q1HWZnapBhcdbtSNUtA10w
Dear players,
We would like to sincerely apologize for the underwhelming experience many of you have had with The Lord of Ring: Gollum™ upon its release. We acknowledge and deeply regret that the game did not meet the expectations we set for ourselves or for our dedicated community. Please accept our sincere apologies for any disappointment this may have caused
Our goal as a studio, and as passionate The Lord of the Rings fans, has always been to tell a compelling and immersive story-driven adventure. Crafting a story with Middle-earth as our playground has been the greatest honor - and the biggest challenge we have faced so far.
At Daedalic, we understand that a game’s success relies on the enjoyment and satisfaction of its players. We genuinely value your feedback and have been actively listening to your voices, reading your comments, and analyzing the constructive criticism and suggestions you have provided.
Our development team has been working diligently to address the bugs and technical issues many of you experienced. We are committed to providing you with patches that will allow you to enjoy the game to its fullest potential.
Once again, we deeply apologize for any inconvenience caused, and we appreciate your understanding during this time. We will continue to keep you updated on our progress and provide transparent communication regarding the upcoming patches and improvements. Your passion and dedication as players have been the driving force behind our determination to make things right.
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
DAEDALIC ENTERTAINMENT
Mostly we see these kind of apologies for technical issues (Jedi Survivor), and some of that is mentioned here but this is more or less just “we meant to make a good game but we made a bad one” at a level I don’t recall seeing admitted to recently.
Indeed, from what I’ve heard even if every single bug was fixed, it would still be a solid IGN 7/10.
I brought it up in the business thread, because another developer argued against apologies like these and the seemingly entitled attitude of gamers:
Well, Daedalic announced that they’ll shut down their internal dev studio and focus on publishing going forward. 25 people getting laid off.
“Worst game ever”
At least it became a meme. How will those devs hide the time they spent on this in their CVs?
This is truly hilarious.
Let’s sum it up: It was a complete shitshow from conception to execution.
On an unrelated side note: Who ever looked at Gollum and said “I totally want to play as / hang around with that dude! He is such an interesting character and has so many hidden facets!” - that’s right, no one. He’s the Tolkien equivalent of a hopeless drug addict and his major motivations can be summed up with “Survive this” and “Get the preciousssss!!!”. Admittingly, not too different from a video game company CEO, so maybe that was the kicker…
I can imagine how a narratively-driven stealth game where you play as Gollum could be enjoyable. This was not that game.