After Gollum flop: Daedalic cancels its successor and no longer develops games

After the last game from Daedalic Entertainment was a huge failure despite a relatively high budget – we also gave The Lord of the Rings: Gollum only one star out of five – the Hamburg studio says goodbye as a developer and wants to focus on publishing games in the future.

Daedalic extracts the consequences of Gollum’s release

This also means that work on a successor to Gollum will be halted. Since mid-2022, the studio has been working on the title, which is also set in the Lord of the Rings universe. Donors from the Economy Ministry, who have been promised more than 2 million euros in subsidies, have already been informed, he writes the games.

As a pure publisher, Daedalic isn’t badly off, after all, Unrailed, Barotrauma, Inkulinati, Witch It, and Shadow Tactics live under its roof. Surviving Deponia was only announced in June and there are a total of “eight promising releases” for the current fiscal year.

More on The Lord of the Rings Gollum:

Gollum: Daedalic developer apologizes for the poor score after a wave of criticism

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum to the Test – The search for the Ring brings many frustrations

Lord of the Rings Gollum: The new 4K trailer shows the game in ray tracing

A patch for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is currently in the works. Released on May 25 for PC and consoles, the title was a disappointment to gamers, critics, and the studio itself. Technically, there were too many issues and the game itself couldn’t convince with its content – though Daedalic has put the most resources into the title so far. However, one feels grateful for the experience.

What do you think of this decision? Was the move rushed, or is it the right course for the studio after the failure of their hugely successful Lord of the Rings departure?