Following the woeful reviews trailing the dismal performance of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, the Germany-based game developer behind the failed game, Daedalic Entertainment, is laying off 25 employees. The worker’s retrenchment is large because Daedalic is shutting down its game development division and realigning its focus on publishing.
To drive home the point that it is really shutting the office on game development, Daedalic Entertainment has also canceled the second part of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum after the first part was widely condemned. The first part of the game was first announced in 2019 and set for release in 2021, but it eventually arrived in May after lots of setbacks and bottlenecks.
The gaming company had begun work on the second part of The Lord of the Rings game before the release of the first. And so when the first part was rejected and criticized by gamers around the world, the company revoked the second part and packed up its work equipment. The poor reception of the game was a clear disappointment to Daedalic who responded by closing shop.
Out of the more than 90 employees working with Daedalic, 25 have been sent home with the company saying that firing them was a “difficult turning point” that marked “a new beginning in the long history of Daedalic Entertainment.” The company also said it will assist the retrenched employees to find jobs in the gaming sector.
“We value each and every member of our team and it is important to us that the transition goes as smoothly as possible,” a company spokesperson said. “Therefore, we will support our former employees in finding new opportunities within our network.”
Established in 2007, Daedalic adapted Ken Follet’s The Pillars of the Earth and released it in 2018 but the game failed in the market. It also released another strategy game, A Year of Rain, and the same thing happened. And so Daedalic shut down its studios in Dusseldorf and Munich in 2021 but continued to operate out of the one in Hamburg.
Meanwhile, Daedalic is also in the process of developing another game, Surviving Deponia, a game series that is being created by AtomicTorch, an external studio. Surviving Deponia will still be released as per schedule when it is completed; the first Deponia series was created by Daedalic in 2012.