Daedalic closes game development after Gollum flop

Daedalic Entertainment, formerly a developer of point-and-click adventure games and most recently The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, is shutting down internal game development at its Hamburg-based studio and apparently laying off 25 of its employees. Instead, it’s reportedly pivoting to pure publishing, with eight games on its slate for the next fiscal year. It’s also canceled development on another Lord of the Rings game.

According to a report by GamesWirtschaf (translated from German), Daedalic has reached a “difficult turning point” following the critical disappointment of Gollum. Now it’s restructuring to begin a new chapter in the company’s history, which includes shuttering its internal development. The company said in a statement that it will “support our former employees in finding new opportunities within our network.”