‘The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum’ apology was allegedly written with AI

9 October, 2023

Daedalic Entertainment‘s apology for the state of The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum on its launch was allegedly the product of an AI prompt.

In May, the stealth adventure game launched with an array of technical issues that irritated reviewers and made it a subject of ridicule on social media.

As a result, Daedalic Entertainment chose to cancel another Lord of the Rings game that was in development and close the German studio that worked on The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum. 

It also offered an apology for the “underwhelming” quality of the game, adding that The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum “did not meet the expectations we set for ourselves or for our dedicated community”.

Yet, in a report from German gaming outlet GameTwo, anonymous ex Daedalic Entertainment staff stated that the apology was apparently AI generated.

Specifically, it was claimed that ChatGPT was used by publisher Nacon to produce an apology to give to players.

Consequently, Daedalic Entertainment supposedly did not know anything about an apology before it was sent out on social media.

‘The Lord of the Rings: Gollum’ Credit: Nacon

While neither Daedalic Entertainment or Nacon have acknowledged what has been said in GameTwo‘s report, fans instantly identified an error in the apology when it was released.

In it, the game is referred to “The Lord Of The Ring: Gollum” rather than “The Lord Of The Rings: Gollum“.

GameTwo also spoke to technical director and senior developer Paul Schulze who alleged that the game’s budget was too modest at about £13million (€15million).

“There were people working on the game that have been developers for 10, 15, 20 years, and they’re good, but they can’t do magic because they weren’t given the funds,” he said.

‘The Lord of the Rings: Gollum’ Credit: Nacon

“You can’t just throw more money at something like that, hang on for another year and then everything will be fine. That’s unrealistic because the game underneath it doesn’t support it.”

NME has reached out to Daedalic Entertainment and Nacon for comment.

In other gaming news, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3‘s Zombies will see several squads take on the largest threat that the cherished series has ever come up with.

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