You know you're in a tight spot when you have to break out the Twitter statement. Developer Daedalic Entertainment has issued a formal apology to those who've been playing The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, a game that has been extremely poorly received. In fact, it's considered among the worst games on PS5.
While this is unfortunate news for the studio, it seems the team is holding its collective hands up in this statement on social media:
"We would like to sincerely apologize for the underwhelming experience many of you have had with The Lord of Rings: Gollum upon its release," it reads. "We acknowledge and deeply regret that the game did not meet the expectations we set for ourselves or for our dedicated community. Please accept our sincere apologies for any disappointment this may have caused."
The statement goes on to thank players for their feedback since release, and says the team has been "actively listening to your voices, reading your comments, and analyzing the constructive criticism". Daedalic is working to address the game's bugs and other technical problems, and will be releasing these fixes in upcoming patches. It finishes by saying it'll keep players updated and provide updates on all the changes.
We can't gloss over it: the game is in rough shape, but we hope Daedalic can eliminate the most egregious issues and get The Lord of the Rings: Gollum into a better state. Have you been playing this game? What are your thoughts on it so far? Tell us in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 53
Roll it in glitter!!
Just gonna say it: Nobody should accept the apology. Games launching in crap stages is too common. And they just keep getting away with it.
There's room in this industry for bad games. Enjoy them for what they are. What if your grandma gave you this for your birthday? You better say thank-you with a frown on your face.
They probably had this written months ago.
I jest, leave ‘em alone.
Did anyone there even play the game before it launched? If so, it’d be delayed for at least another 6 months. There was little to no hype to this game anyways so they should’ve taken as much time as necessary.
All digital storefronts should pull this game until it’s worth playing.
Just a half hearted lame excuse that is all too common these days.
They knew exactly what state it was in when they released it, yet still chose to do that and take peoples money.
This industry needs regulation on releases.
Getting tired of these game companies apologizing, like they don't know if they have a bad or broken game when they release it lol
It’s crazy that games like this release broken, bugged, or just downright bad and these studios release statements apologizing for the state of the game…..
instead of ya know… not release the game in the current states that they are in KNOWING it’s going to get negative reception?
It seems like this one is worse than the other problematic games releasing recently.
Even if they fix the bugs, I am not sure that would actually make it worth playing. It seems to be a bad game at a fundamental level.
The sad part is that it will probably still sell based purely on the IP.
"However we aren't sorry for taking your money for this"
Companies shouldn’t release games in such a bad state and then offer an apology - did these guys even test the game before hand??
Props for holding your hands up but you delayed the game 8 months for polish and to 'meet played expectations' and sold a unfinshed product. Sorry is just a word after all, you need to fix this and dont dare think of DLC like Saints Row 2022 did
Does an apology mean much when they overtly state in the apology that the game didn't meet their expectations, yet they still chose to release and charge full triple A retail price for it?
not so much.....
Is it weird that I’m still kinda interested in playing it?
I’ll probably wait for a patch or two but I’ll definitely play it at some point.
please explain to me why this is a FULL priced, $60USD game? the developers/publisher knew at some point in development (or even from the get-go) that this was not going to be provide the necessary "value" (production, graphics, gametime, polish, etc) to be in the top price tier. not only does this game outright suck, but it is priced at double of what it is worth in the best of circumstances. this game will bomb and be long forgotten before we know it... but hopefully the publisher learned something here. that is, if they don't go bankrupt in the meantime.
long wet fart sound " Sorry, guys."
@rawzeku What exactly are they getting away with? The game has reviewed abysmally and will likely sell poorly, which will undoubtedly have dire consequences for the people who worked on it. I’m not a fan of bad games, but the degree of contempt directed at people who make games that miss the mark is depressing.
Not techy minded enough to do it myself, but all that's missing from their statement is the South Park BP CEO Apology video/Gif "We're Sorry!"😂
Not sorry enough to refund anyone that still bought it or have Cyberpunk 2077 type outrage that Sony yanked it off the PSN as they didn't want the fuss of bothering with refunds becoming a regular feature of the store!
Bit off topic,but recall the PS4 review of Blacksad marked it down for bugs...wonder if that ever got fixed enough to be playable?
They should rather accept refunds xD
Do developers do it on purpose so it gets praised more? It seemed to have started with no man's sky and now It's highly rated, same as cyberpunk.... It's like they want it to be bad so they can update it and be seen as "great developers that listen to fans"... Just wish GameFreak would do the same with Pokémon Violet and Scarlet....
@Amnesiac Getting away with selling a broken games..? Just like I said. And its constantly happening. Don't see whats not to understand.
Just a sad situation all around with this game. The Lord of the Rings deserves better.
It just looks like this was a truly misguided effort. Apparently, the game is not fun, doesn't excel at anything, and has a number of technical issues.
I do feel sorry for some of the individual people that worked of the game. While the overall direction is terrible, I am sure there are at least a few developers that worked hard on this game, to see the product of your work be something so underwhelming and then torn to pieces by the industry must be hard....
OMG their graphic image apology text refers to "The Lord of the Ring: Gollum(TM)"!
Lord of the RING
Their public apology for their hastily made broken game, is hastily made and broken, getting their own licensed brand trademark incorrect..... " Kinda feel bad for Embracer on this one.
There's something just sad about releasing a game knowingly broken then apologizing and promising to fix it. It's like leaving a note at the jewelry store "Sorry I smashed your counters, I promise I'll fix them after I fence these diamonds."
Who was the game for? Who bought it?
I mean its the worst character in Lord of the rings Who ends up in a lava bath. And in this game doesn't apparently do anything ... just running around for bits n bobs.
@NinjaNicky No, they just need to meet financial obligations by generating a return on investment so they ship a product, knowing it's broken, knowing it'll bring in day 1 money, and knowing consumers in the gaming market lack any and all impulse control, will buy it, and will tolerate being told they were knowingly sold a broken placeholder while they wait for the actual product to be made to bare minimum specifications.
@Hundred_Hand_Slap What kind of grandma gives their grandkid a game where you play as Gollum though?
I wanna know how they managed to get an early PS3 game running natively on the PS5.
Like the original Resistance, a PS3 launch title developed in literally 9 months, had better graphics than this turd.
"The Lord of Ring: Gollum™"
lol The apology can't even get the title right.
Polishing a turd more like. Games like this do more harm to the franchise than they're worth in my opinion.
I have read ... and believe ... that apologies are inherently self-serving. I'm sure that no CEOs, etc. take responsibility unless they know that there will be no real repercussions.
I have no interest in this game anyway, but I avoid crap games by not pre-ordering anything, and waiting for reviews.
Shao Khan to Gollum Team: "It's official! You suck!"
They been caught out on their dump and they only give an apology because they have too, if they could get away with charging £70 quid for this they would, current gen gaming is starting to be a minefield lol
Personally I was waiting until this game had at least 47 patches and was on sale in a years time.
Oh.
Hang on actually.
I just realised I’m actually still alive and not a Pushsquare robot who’s been in the cryogenics chamber for a few months.
No idea what else I could possibly say though …
I think the main question here is who the hell thought making a game about Gollum would
(1) Be any good ?
(2) Be of interest to anyone ?
This game has been in development for ages. It sounded like sh*t when it was announced and held absolutely no interest for or from anyone . if you WERE interested in this game please slap yourself hard around the face and then get a grip you chuffing loser.
So the upshot of this is crap game ends up being crap ? DUH !
@rawzeku Agreed. I'm old enough to remember when games worked on release and were tested before they were released. These days they use the internet to just patch things up later. This trend of games releasing in terrible states seems to be getting more common. Seems like they all release their games and then use those paying customers as the testers. Getting really tired of it. Whatever happened to optimization too, seems to be another lost science to modern Devs.
Anyone actually bought this game? I wonder what its total sales are.
@Ralizah even their apology needs a patch.
D'aww it's okay, we've never had any reason to have faith in you Daedalic.
@Ralizah I am dead lmao
@PsBoxSwitchOwner this is something I really agree with. I'm sick to death of subpar rubbish being sent out for people to pay their hard earned money for. Battlefield 2042 will be the last time I ever pre order a game
And this is why I almost always wait for reviews now. Also why I used to never buy games at full price.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner I think it comes down to time constraints put on by publishers that the Devs have to try and abide by, even if they are not happy with the game sometimes the publisher's are just in a hurry. I believe this to be the issue may be wrong. It's like the new tomb raider game will still have crystal dynamics as Devs but Amazon publishing who can say they want a game out in 3 years S..t bust
Can't polish a turd
I thought they were just getting some unjustified flack as a continuation of the elvish language thing. However...
How on earth did this get past user acceptance testing? Did they fire the QA team or are they running that squad on a shoe string budget?
It's objectively bad.
@Eggnosher [insert obligatory reference to Mythbusters]
Bought it - played 5 mins - uninstalled it - complained - told no refund was allowed. Been a Sony player for years, never requested a refund before. Was sorely disappointed (and yes I read their policy but still ..)
@MattBoothDev
Wow!! Googled it, apparently you can!!!!
@Eggnosher but, in the end, it's still a turd 😁
Nothing says I'm sorry like a REFUND.
Did people actually buy the game and was disappointed? I thought everyone was disappointed from the trailer haha.
Unless they are going to patch it to be BOTW3, probably not gonna work.
I never liked that fiendish Gollum to begin with.
Can those requesting a refund, explain to me why you apparently pre-ordered the game, or couldn't be bothered to read the reviews?
I'm not having a go at you by the way, because I am sure no amount of criticism from me, would come close to how disappointed you feel with yourselves.
I'm truly intrigued and keen to understand what went through your minds, and what your thought processes were when you bought it?
Not just pre-ordering it in any year mind you, but 2023, the year of steaming turds that have been so bad, there is no hope that they could even be patched into something half worth playing.
It's not like we'd just been through a year of smash hit games, where everything released worked perfectly and played awesome. We are coming off the back of Gotham and Redfall etc, the latter being just a few weeks ago.
Ideally the dev/pub should have "done a Batgirl" and just canned the entire thing, but clearly they figured they'd chuck it out because they knew they could recoup enough money from pre-orders and those who don't read reviews, to offset the loss of reputation.
We can't stop that behaviour, until we stop the pre-order frenzy. That's why I'm so keen to know why you all pre-order something that is not finite and cannot sell out? I mean if the minority who use forums like this (and are more clued up than 90% of game buyers) can't stop pre-ordering, there is no chance the average punter will stop right?
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