The developer behind 2023's worst-rated PS5 game (so far) has another Lord of the Rings title in development, it seems. This follows the chaotic launch of Lord of the Rings: Gollum, which was released in such an atrocious state it prompted an immediate apology (absent an explanation) from the developer and a 2/10 from us.
As reported (and translated) by IGN, German developer Daedalic Entertainment appears to be working on another game set in Tolkien's classic world, this time focusing on its mysterious and enigmatic wizards.
Codenamed "It's Magic", this 3D action-adventure game will "transport the player into a lush world full of mythical creatures and magic," apparently. German language publication Games Wirtschaft points out that Daedalic took roughly €2 million in funding from the German government during the development of Gollum for a project supposedly taking place between June 2022 and August 2024.
According to the description of the project on the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany website, the title "tells a story from the perspective of a character which hasn't been told before."
Will you roll the dice on another Lord of the Rings game? Can Smeagol (or Gollum, for that matter) ever be redeemed? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source ign.com]
Comments 41
I wonder what the chances are that this will get cancelled
"Gollum Studio"...🤣🤣
The studio should fold or go back to making small games for its own sake.
I think the most asked follow up question would be why? Haven't they brought enough pain and suffering into this already cruel world
Failing upwards…
The Lord of the Nightmare.
Oh no... SHOCKED
It’s ok for games to be bad. Games have been bad as long as games have been released. We don’t know how good their next project is, you’re only as good as your next game. If you look at a lot of developers that are acclaimed, they often worked on licensed titles that could not be considered good back in the days when that was way more prevalent. Hell, DICE made a Shrek game. I think the whole ‘put out a statement’ thing was really unnecessary, they aren’t a huge dev and the expectations weren’t high enough to make it feel like a massive letdown.
Who owns the rights to lotr games? Why is an unknown studio handling such a huge brand? Does the tolkien estate have a clue about this or did they give them the rights for quick cash?
Alright, guys. I'm applying for that LotR licence next. How hard can it be to get it?
I'll make a LotR games with stick figures and a lot of imagination.
@nessisonett Its pretty insane though that Daedelic was trusted with such a massive IP so I think having semi high/normal expectations is reasonable given the huge pre-existing fan base. HOWEVER, there were so many reports in the past couple of years of Gollum being a complete dumpster fire so I will say I don't get why people are surprised that it flopped so hard. And hey to be fair to dice, that Shrek game was awesome lol. That was back in the days when video game adaptions of movies were actually pretty good.
They ought to go back to botching indie games.
@Arisen The game rights aren’t handled by the tolkien estate… Those rights were sold in the 60s or something. The rights are currently owned by Middle-earth Enterprises which was bought by Embracer Group in 2022.
@naruball Can I do the voice overs of all the characters male and female? I promise to at least match the quality of their Gollum game and maybe even surpass it 🙂
Not for long they don't!
Absolutely no chance they continue to work on anything LOTR related after this Gollum horror show.
There will be a lot of people that actually care about the LOTR brand and will ensure this studio goes nowhere near it in the future. Second chance? Sod off. This is LOTR. It's one of the most successful and recognisable entertainment brands in the world. You get one chance. You failed. Miserably.
HP>LOTR confirmed.
Jokes aside. I don’t want them to get shut down.
They’re one of the few German publishers that are in the console space instead of PC. Don’t want anyone to lose their jobs, but there’s no recovering after that. Just the license itself must have cost them millions.
Who owns LOTR video game rights at this point? Embracer? Amazon?
@Juanalf Audition over. You're hired!
@naruball judging on quite a lot of the gunk wheeled out for the PlayStation showcase it looks like a lot of So called Indy devs are doing that already
The joke of the day)
Daedalic have made some good games, like Pillars of the Earth and Deponia.
But its mostly point-and-click adventures it seems, so this might have been a bit beyond their scope.
J. R. R. Tolkien is rolling around in his grave right now….
@Arisen The Tolkien estate doesn't own the film / TV / videogame / merchandising rights to The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit ever since Ron Tolkien sold them off to United Artists in the late '60s to pay off his back taxes. What they do own is all rights to everything in the Tolkien legendarium that isn't in those two books (e.g. pretty much everything First Age and earlier) & unlike the various corps that have been trading the LoTR / Hobbit rights among themselves, have been extremely reluctant to license them to, well, anyone.
"HAD" another LOTR game in dev soon - I hope.
@Arisen They're not really unknown though most of their games aren't on consoles so console-only gamers are less likely to have heard of them. They've made a lot of successful point-and-click adventure games in fantasy settings as well as adapted Pillars of the Earth into game form, so that'd would actually line them up well for making a LotR game. Problem is that they normally make lower budget, 2D games so they were really overreaching with this. It's like if the guys that made Shovel Knight tried to make a game like FFXVI.
Yawn, another LOTR game I'll be waiting for a dirt cheap sale, or to be free with PS Plus.
Give the license to a studio that won’t trash it
@Savage_Joe I don't think it can be fixed, just improved. The game will remain bad, unfortunately.
LOFR. (Laughing on floor rolls)
I'd like to see how the next one goes.
Nah nah.
They need to do a hard pass on it.
Just a hunch, but....
2nd game is probably headed straight for PSVR.
It can not be worst than the Amazon Rings of Power or their own Gollum game (I hope...)
LotR: That's Magic
The license should be stripped from them. They don't deserve it at all.
how did this mediocre publisher/developer obtain the rights to lotr in the first place?
Honestly, i mentioned how Gollum looked like a completely different game from the reveal trailer to when it resurfaced. It did feel like development was reset at some point and they decided to develop a ps2 game. 🤣
@Blackmagehobbit It probably is.
I don't get the hate for rings of power though. It was perfectly entertaining.
I guess its a hardcore Lotr fan thing. I don't care enough to well... care.
They'll be apologizing for this game too after it releases
Please Daedalic...no more.
I wish I could fail upwards this spectacularly.
Dwarven Breeding Simulator? Witch King Angmar Manager? After this launch I can’t picture anything pretty, which is not what I want to say.
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