Developers No Longer: Daedalic Entertainment

Daedalic Entertainment was founded in 2007 and made a name for itself with its point-and-click adventure games like the Deponia series. Although they might have received some criticism, they are still generally rated well on Steam. Some predicted it might have been quite a leap for the developers to switch to a game with as lofty of goals as Lord of the Rings: Gollum and it’s unfortunate that seems to have been the case. It’s no mystery in the gaming community that Lord of the Rings: Gollum was a massive flop. It fell short in almost all aspects and is one of the worst-rated games of 2023. Riddled with bugs, performance issues, and a “pointless, confusing” plot, the release of the game seems to have led to the worst for its developers.

According to an official statement made available to German outlet Games Wirtschaft, Daedalic Entertainment has announced that they are shutting down internal development teams and focusing their efforts on publishing. While it might not come as a surprise, that doesn’t mean it isn’t unfortunate for everyone involved. They have reported that there will be over 90 employees affected by this shift, but only 25 will effectively lose their jobs. Although it might not be good news for those 25, it’s still good to see a company trying to find placement for their employees instead of cutting them loose. An additional Lord of the Rings game had already been in development at the time of the announcement and sadly, that game will never see the light of day. However, they will stay true to their word and will be releasing one more update to Gollum before the development department shuts its doors. 

While this is devastating news for the company, it’s still business as usual in terms of publishing. Daedalic announced that they still have 8 games they’re publishing this year that we can look forward to. Hopefully, they can bounce back to restore their reputation and put the first half of this year behind them.