The Lord of the Rings: Gollumgets yet another delay as the co-developer and publisher Daedalic Entertainment announces a new release window. The third-person action-adventure game will give players the chance to control the belovedThe Lord of the Ringscharacter Gollum in a story that takes place betweenThe HobbitandThe Fellowship of the Ring. This isThe Lord of the Rings: Gollum’s fourth announced delay.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollumwas first announced in March 2019 with a slated release sometime in 2021. In January 2021, a press release was sent out announcing a new co-publisher, Nacon, a unique company that designs and manufactures gaming accessories like gaming headsets and third-party Xbox controllers but also publishes games likeSteelrisingandBlood Bowl 3,an American-style football gameset within a world of Tolkien-esque medical fantasy. Snuck into the press release was another release date move, this time pushing the window into 2022, with no specific month or quarter given. On May 24th, 2022, the game’s official Twitter account announced a set-in-stone release date of September 1st, 2022, with the Nintendo Switch release hitting stores on November 30th.
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As September approached, the official Twitter account again tweeted news of a delay, this timepushingGollumback “a few months.”A vague release window to be sure, especially considering the more concrete day-and-date of the previous announcement. A few months came and went. Now, instead of an announcement of an imminent release, Daedalic has announced another delay, this time promising the game will launch sometime in the first half of fiscal year 2023-2024. That sets the window between April and September of 2023. That is, yet again, another vague release window, this time spanning five months. The announcement came tucked away in Nacon’s third quarter 2022/23 sales report, released on January 23rd.
While neither Nacon or Daedalic has cited a specific reason for the delays, the pandemic is surely to blame for at least one or two. A number of games of all sizes, from AAA to smaller indie titles, were delayed as the pandemic left publishers and developers scrambling to complete their projects while keeping employees safe. This has led to several games being pushed into 2023. For instance,The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomwas pushed back to July 15, 2025, after initially slated for a 2022 release. Bethesda Game Studio’sStarfield, its first single-player game since 2015’sFallout 4and its first original IP in 25 years, was announced at E3 2018 with a release date of July 13, 2025. Pandemic delays pushedStarfieldback into 2023 with no firm release date established yet.
The game’s official marketing classifiesThe Lord of the Rings: Gollumas a third-person action-adventure RPG. Trailers depict very little in the way of combat, instead focusing heavily on stealth mechanics. Gollum sneaks around orcs by sticking close to shadows, occasionally ducking into bushes for cover, reminiscent ofAssassin’s CreedorHorizon Forbidden West. Daedalic has alsopreviously promotedGollum’s deep dialogue system. Developers say the game will take players through various lands in Middle-earth, including Mirkwood, the Mines of Moria, and Mordor as Gollum searches for his precious ring.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollumis in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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