According to an investigation into what went wrong during the development stage of Lord of the Rings: Gollum, there are claims that Daedalic’s apology, which went public just days after the game’s disastrous launch, was written by ChatGPT.
To recap, shortly after the game was released, Daedalic posted an apology to social media, describing Lord of the Rings: Gollum as an underwhelming experience. However, the apology never made much of an impact, with many pointing out that the game’s name in the apology was spelt wrong.
Later, it emerged that the apology wasn’t written by Daedalic at all but rather by Daedalic’s new owner, Nacon. But now, thanks to the investigation, two different anonymous sources have claimed that no one wrote the apology, but rather, it was created by ChatGPT.
Believe it or not, this is only one of the alleged issues that the investigation has uncovered, and it joins a laundry list of problems, including terrible work conditions, poorly managed crunch and appalling pay.
It seems that most of the problems plaguing the game can come down to Daedalic shooting beyond their means.
The company made a name for itself with its generally beloved collection of point-and-click adventure games. However, when it came to Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Daedalic intended to create a full-on AAA game but with an indie point-and-click budget and team.
Even now, after a multitude of fixes and updates, Gollum is still only barely scraping a Metascore of 34, which is beyond brutal, if not deserved, which is why the investigation by Game Two has tried to get to the root of the problems by speaking to over 32 former and current Daedalic employees.
According to the employees who lent their voices to the investigation, a crunch culture became the norm at Daedalic over the last few years, resulting in most of the staff suffering from significant burnout.
To add salt to the wound, more than one of the employees stated that they were offered less than minimum wage when extending their contract.
The investigation also uncovered an email from COO Stephan Harms, claiming that Daedalic was considering no longer paying for overtime in any capacity, that overtime was a normal and common parameter in the gaming industry, and that crunch times were to be expected.
However, Daedalic has since denied that this was ever enforced.