It seems that Daedalic Entertainment has made the radical decision to cease developing games, choosing to focus purely on publishing, licensing, marketing and sales. German website  Games Wirtschaft broke the story.

Daedalic have been around since 2007 and in that time they’ve put out some really great games, but The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was undoubtedly not one of them. It earned itself the dubious honour of being the worst-reviewed game of 2023, and still holds that title, and in my own review I described it as, “a pitiful wretch corrupted by the allure of the One Ring.”

The launch was so poor that Daedalic had to apologise for the game’s state. Word then got out that they were already working on another Lord of the Rings project, and had secured a subsidy from the German Government to aid development.

While I cannot say with certainty that Daedalic’s shift in focus is because of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, the timing is suspect. Just recently, parent company Embracer stated that it needs to “heavily exploit” The Lord of the Rings license going forward, and Daedalic’s foray into Tolkien’s iconic world may have pushed them to take it away from Daedalic.

There’s also Embracer’s own restructuring to consider. The company is gigantic in size and has spent years buying everything it could reach, resulting in a hefty debt that it needs to manage. Daedalic’s shift may be a result of Embracer’s larger shakeup.

The news also comes with a very real price: 25 employees will lose their jobs as a result of Daedalic’s new direction.

As bad as Gollum was, it’s still a shame to see Daedalic stop developing games. They’ve crafted some excellent point-and-click adventure games. Gollum seemed to be a case of a developer stepping outside of its comfort zone and struggling to adapt.