Publisher Daedalic Entertainment announced that they will be shutting down their internal development studio in Hamburg, Germany after the failure of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.
Daedalic said that the company would be shifting its focus entirely on publishing, halting internal development entirely. This includes the cancellation of another Lord of the Rings game which was early in development at the studio.
The studio’s closure was first reported on by German publication GamesWirtschaft, with Daedalic providing an additional statement in English to Polygon regarding their decision. In the statement, the publisher stated that they had plans to assist developers losing their jobs in the closure in finding new employment, though specifics on this were not given.
“We value each and every member of our team very much and it is important to us that the transition goes as well as possible. We will therefore support our former employees in finding new opportunities within our network,” the statement reads.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum released to overwhelming critical failure, with the PS5 version of the game hitting the lowest Metacritic score of the year so far. Daedalic acknowledged this reception in their statement as well.
“Even though The Lord of the Rings: Gollum did not live up to the expectations we had for the game, we are very grateful for the opportunity and the learning experience it brought us.”
Daedalic confirmed that they are still currently developing an additional patch for the game in what will likely be the last action by the studio.