The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Developer Hit With Toxic Workplace Allegations

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum developer Daedalic Entertainment has been hit with several accusations of a toxic workplace.

Per IGN, a new report makes several claims against Daedalic Entertainment, including attempts to pay employees less than minimum wage, abusive leadership, and uncompensated overtime. The developer allegedly abused and exploited young employees, reportedly taking advantage of their lack of experience. Game Two, a German gaming news show, posted a 40-minute breakdown of its investigation on YouTube.

Accusations against The Lord of the Rings: Gollum’s Daedalic and Nacom

Game Two claims it spoke with 32 people connected with Daedalic Entertainment and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum publisher Nacon. According to one anonymous source, the treatment of employees created “an atmosphere of fear.” At time of publishing, neither Daedalic Entertainment nor Nacon responded to the allegations when contacted by IGN. However, Game Two released denial statements it received in its video.

According to Game Two, Gollum only had a budget of $15.9 million — a paltry sum for most AAA games made today. This directly tied into the game’s poor quality, which had it lambasted as one of the worst games of the year and one of 2023’s biggest flops. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum issued an apology on Twitter after its poor reception. However, Game Two claims Nacon used ChatGPT to write it. (Evidence of the statement’s AI origins includes the misspelling of the game’s title.) Furthermore, Nacon reportedly released the statement without informing Daedalic.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum launched in May 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PC. Its critical failure led Daedalic to cancel a planned Lord of the Rings game codenamed “It’s Magic.” It also shut down its internal development wing and laid off 25 employees. A Nintendo Switch edition is set for release in December.