Daedalic closes game development after Gollum flop

Daedalic Entertainment, formerly a developer of point-and-click adventure games and most recently The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, is shutting down internal game development at its Hamburg-based studio and apparently laying off 25 of its employees. Instead, it’s reportedly pivoting to pure publishing, with eight games on its slate for the next fiscal year. It’s also canceled development on another Lord of the Rings game.

According to a report by GamesWirtschaf (translated from German), Daedalic has reached a “difficult turning point” following the critical disappointment of Gollum. Now it’s restructuring to begin a new chapter in the company’s history, which includes shuttering its internal development. The company said in a statement that it will “support our former employees in finding new opportunities within our network.”

Daedalic apologized last month for the state of Gollum upon launch, promising to keep working on patches for the title, and has reaffirmed that intention in its current statement. The company continues to publish games, with its most recent titles including Unrailed and Inkulinati. French publisher Nacon acquired Daedalic in 2022.

The company was also working on another Lord of the Rings title, for which it was to receive subsidies from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. A new game in Daedalic’s Deponia series, called Surviving Deponia, is in the works but is being helmed by another studio called Atomic Torch and won’t be affected by the restructuring.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz