From the headline I was hoping some execs fell on their sword but nope. Workers get the shaft and higher-ups keep their job to look after the rest of the business.
From Daedalics statement they also gained federal funding as well. So I guess the execs enriched themselves with government funding then got rid of the workers after. Thats much worse.
I think the devs just bit off more than they could chew with a game type way outside of their norm.
They’re used to making adventure and point and click games not big titles like they were trying to do for Gollum.
They were kind of sabotaged. Who thought it would be a good idea to make a game about golumn? Like why not make a game about a hobbit instead if you have to make a LOTR non-violence game?
Yes! A Hobbit farming sim. Imagine getting to design your own hobbit hole and farm? Id buy a game like that.
A 3d srardew valley style game where you play as a Hobbit would be just… Sooooo good. Nice
Rather unsurprising but of course sucks for the developers. What were the execs thinking?
They were probably thinking they could get AAA game quality and indie game budgets, just by injecting a well known license.
Stray pulled off AAA quality on a tiny budget using something loved by a lot of people (cat protagonist) but it had a number of advantages, primarily you don’t need licensing fees for cats, the dev time was deep into “purely a labor of love” length, and I don’t think it came out near any releases of a superior direct competitor. Any adventure epic right now had to contend with FF16 and people still messing around with Tears of the Kingdom.
Always sad to witness folks losing their jobs, but I guess we all saw this coming. Here’s hoping they all manage to land on their feet.
That said, I have to wonder what that second game was going to be about. Codename “It’s Magic”, probably something involving Gandalf or another Wizard? 🤔
