The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Was In Development For Five Years

The Lords of the Rings: Gollum has become infamous for its poor release. Following a plethora of negative reviews, the game ended up claiming the title of the worst-reviewed game in 2023.

While it was released unfinished and came with a number of bugs, this cannot be attributed to a lack of development time. According to a new report, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum had been in development for nearly five years.

Why it matters: AAA games are becoming harder to develop, taking more time with each new release. This can often cause developers to push out unfinished products to meet deadlines, but this may not have been the case for Daedalic Entertainment’s game.

Nothing surprising but The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was in development for 5 years pic.twitter.com/e7ajgc39eZ

— Timur222 (@bogorad222) June 15, 2023

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum received criticism for its core mechanics. While a few have pointed out that the game brings unique ideas, it never realizes its potential.

Additionally, the title is plagued with bugs. Many users have claimed that Daedalic Entertainment’s latest release can exhibit game-breaking bugs, preventing users from completing the story.

As such, many users may find it surprising that The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was created in five years. It is possible that the project faced difficulties in development, but not much is known about the game’s development.

Games can often go through multiple shifts in direction. This causes problems when a game is rebooted, leaving the developers to start from the beginning after a long time during a project.

Following the poor reception, Daedalic Entertainment issued an apology, promising to fix the game through future updates. However, this was not enough to convince the players, as The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has lost nearly all of its players on Steam.

Recently, Matt Booty from Xbox also acknowledged the increasing development times. With a game like The Lord of the Rings: Gollum taking half a decade, AAA games cannot be released in a timely manner.

According to the Xbox Game Studios head, AAA will take 4-6 years for future releases.

Daedalic Entertainment has already begun work on a new game in the Lord of the Rings universe. While expectations for the upcoming release will understandably be low, the studio could use recent criticism to make an impressive comeback to the gaming industry.