The Lord of the Rings is one of the most popular media franchises of all time. This is a trilogy of epic fantasy adventure films based on the novel of the same name by English author JRR Tolkien. Just like any other renowned media franchise, TLOTR also boasts its dominance in the gaming arena.
There are many games based on the franchise that graced the gaming world, like Return to Moria, Journeys in Middle-earth, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, and many more. However, the recent title, Gollum, never made it to the people’s expectations and has been criticized heavily. That is why the upcoming games in this series will have a special feature that no game in this franchise ever had.
Upcoming The Lord of the Rings Games Will Have Community Players in the Game
In May this year, Lee Guinchard, the CEO of Embracer Freemode (soon to be spun off as part of a public company called Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends), talked with GamesBeat about the upcoming games in the franchise.
Guinchard is now in charge of the Tolkien franchise but not of books like The Silmarillion, which are the domain of the Tolkien Estate. This is what the CEO had to say about a unique feature in the upcoming games:
When you look at One Ring and stuff like that, these folks bring so much to this world. They’re not game creators but they know way more than we’ll ever know about all the nuances. We want to bring new people into the franchise. And authenticity is important.
One of the lessons learned is to avoid some of the mistakes made in the past, such as closing the Switch version of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum after the main release was so unsuccessful. The Lord of the Rings, a collectible card game based on Hasbro’s Magic: The Gathering, was a huge success, making over $200 million in its first month of existence. It turned out that the fans of Magic and Tolkien were the same.
Why The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Failed?
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is not only regarded as the worst game of 2023, but some even went on to put the tag of the worst game of the franchise as well. Despite the huge success of the other games and the franchise itself, why did this specific title fumble so much?
Even though Gollum had a brilliant idea, the finished product was a complete failure. Even someone as shifty as Gollum could not escape the Lord of the Rings adventure’s technical issues, clumsy animation, bad voice acting, outdated graphics, clumsy controls, and generally uninspired writing.
Gollum’s initial $60 price tag raised not only expectations but also standards, even though Daedalic Entertainment is primarily an independent publisher, and some errors are to be expected. Some of its biggest flaws might have been overlooked or, at the very least, forgiven if its cost had been much lower.
Gollum’s internal conflict is the other significant facet of his personality that The Lord of the Rings: Gollum could have handled more effectively. Although it may not have been canon, the ongoing conflict between Gollum and Sméagol could have resulted in a tale that would have captivated both newcomers and The Lord of the Rings fans.
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