The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
DeveloperDaedalic Entertainment
Publishers
  • Daedalic Entertainment
  • Nacon
ProducerHarald Riegler
ArtistMathias Fischer
Writers
  • Tilman Schanen
  • Damiri Knapheide
ComposerJun Broome
SeriesMiddle-earth
EngineUnreal Engine 4
Platforms
Release
  • 25 May 2023
GenreAction-adventure
ModeSingle-player

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is an action-adventure game developed by Daedalic Entertainment. The game, set in the fictional world of Middle-earth created by J. R. R. Tolkien, takes place in between the events of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. The player controls Gollum through a series of locations, such as Cirith Ungol, Barad-dûr, and Mirkwood, as he attempts to find Bilbo Baggins and retake the One Ring whilst battling and avoiding Sauron. It was announced in March 2019 and delayed from its September 2021 launch window.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum released on 25 May 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The game was a commercial failure and received negative reviews from critics. It was ranked by Metacritic as the worst game of 2023.

Its poor reception and sales caused Daedalic Entertainment to cancel plans for a second Lord of the Rings game and close their development division, laying off their staff and moving to a publishing-only model. It was later reported that they had imposed poor working conditions, which had affected development of Gollum.