The Lord of The Rings: Gollum may have hit a major development roadblock, according to a new report.
First announced several months ago, German studio Daedalic Entertainment’s love letter to a certain ring-obsessed proto Hobbit is currently slated for release next year, though that could all be about to change. According to WCCFtech, recent poor performance has caused major shareholders to evaluate the viability of Daedaclic’s operations going forward, who consider the existing business model to be unsustainable and requiring “repositioning” in the near future.
Not an ideal start to 2020, then, and it appears as if the majority of Daedalic’s woes are the result of a specific commercial flop. Having failed to secure an audience since releasing via Steam’s early access program late last year, strategy title A Year of Rain has ultimately been responsible for mammoth financial losses, which could have a knock-on effect and spell doom for LotR: Gollum.
There’s no indication of that being the case just yet, thankfully, though a statement released by Daedalic’s majority shareholder Bastei Lübbe doesn’t exactly instill us with confidence. In it, the company’s CEO Carel Halff said:
The business model of our 51 percent financial participation is proving to be unsustainable. Together with the minority shareholder, we will therefore now examine all options for a repositioning of Daedalic Entertainment and its business model
Potentially devastating news for Tolkien fans and Daedalic’s employees, then, and we can only hope that the company manages, somehow, to continue working on LotR: Gollum. While we’ve yet to see any gameplay (and may never, given the circumstances), we were left intrigued by the team’s teasers provided last year to UK magazine EDGE. You can read all about that over here.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is currently scheduled for release in 2021.