The Lord of the Rings: Gollum developers Daedalic released an apology on Twitter the day after the game’s dismal launch. It turns out the apology was as half-baked as the game.
After numerous delays, Daedalic Entertainment finally unveiled The Lord of the Rings: Gollum in May of this year. Upon its release, the game received atrocious reviews and fervent backlash from Lord of the Rings fans.
Players claimed that the Middle-earth-based stealth game had several issues, such as major glitches, mediocre visuals, and poorly developed mechanics, among other complications. Needless to say, Gollum should probably have stayed in the cave a bit longer to finish polishing that ring.
The very next day after the game launch, the German game’s developers apologized to its fans via Twitter. In the statement, they expressed their “sincere apology for the underwhelming experience,” and that they “are committed to providing [players] with patches that will allow them to enjoy the game to its fullest potential.” As it appears, this public apology was allegedly generated using ChatGPT.
According to Daedalic, 'The Lord of the Rings: Gollum' budget was around 15 million euros (around $15.9 million).
From GameTwo Episode 307: Why Gollum Failed at 32:30 (video only available in German, but you can auto-translate it)https://t.co/pneOOqME0X pic.twitter.com/bECKv0bGfa
— Knoebel (@Knoebelbroet) October 7, 2023
Former Daedalic Entertainment employees have now come forward on Game Two’s documentary on YouTube to tell their truth and express their frustration with their past employers. Among their numerous grievances, they claim that the Daedalic team was not previously notified when the apology statement was released.
Furthermore, the documentary alleges the apology was indeed generated using ChatGPT. One important detail that gave it away was the misspelling of the game title. Nacon did not even bother to spell-check their apology letter.
Since then, several Twitter accounts have published their own ChatGPT-generated apology statements. Remarkably, they all look suspiciously similar to the one released by Nacon back in May. For many fans of The Lord of the Rings franchise, this disingenuous apology only added insult to injury.
Daedalic Entertainment has, since the Gollum fiasco, given up on its game-developing endeavors per a June 30 report from German site Games Wirtschaft, and has focused its efforts on publishing and marketing only.
