Daedelic Entertainment is closing its development division thanks to what has been called, so far, one of the worst games of 2023. After multiple delays and pushbacks Lord of The Rings: Gollum made its way to consoles and PC on May 25. Two days later the reviews came in and it became one of the lowest-rated games of the year to date. It seems that Daedalic’s development team is now set to feel the wrath of Mt. Doom as layoffs have been announced. Daedelic provided a statement regarding the 25 employees who are affected and said it will try to support them by finding other positions within the company to move them to.
Per Games Wirtschaft (translated by Google):
“We value each and every member of our team and it is important to us that the transition goes as smoothly as possible. Therefore, we will support our former employees in finding new opportunities within our network.”
Even though Daedelic Entertainment is closing its development division it will still continue to publish games. It currently has eight in the pipeline along with a diverse catalog of existing titles. At one point there were plans on another Lord of The Rings game but it too has been scrapped as part of this larger restructuring strategy. Daedalic does still have one game in development called Surviving Deponia, but that project is being worked on by an external studio and being led by the award-winning team of Carsten Fichtelmann and Stephan Harms.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is said to receive an upcoming patch but it is unknown if that will be its final support offering. Although the game represented one of the biggest losses for Daedalic it was not alone in book IPs which hadn’t managed to translate into profitable game sales. The developer had previously attempted an adaptation for The Pillars of Earth in 2017 that had flopped as well.