The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, the action-adventure game is not able to catch a break. After the disastrous launch and a public apology, a new report suggests that the AI tool ChatGPT was used for the apology letter. Gollum developer Daedalic had high expectations from the game but it was all debunked when the game was released.
The game was full of bugs and technical issues, poor animation and lousy writing only made the matter worse for the Lord of the Rings adventure. The game was heavily criticized for failing to properly understand the concept, its impossible puzzles, and repetitive gameplay.
ChatGPT Was Used to Write The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Apology
New reports have surfaced on the internet claiming that the apology issued for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum after its disastrous launch was generated using the AI text tool ChatGPT. As shared by Knoebel, a few former Daedalic employees shared what went wrong with the game with the German gaming outlet GameTwo in an interview.
Also Read: Second Lord of the Rings Game by Daedalic Is No More – Gollum Killed Off the Developer Completely
The former developers of Daedalic Entertainment have claimed that the apology did not come from them. They added that it was issued by Gollum publisher Nacon and the developers weren’t even given any notice that an apology was going to be issued. Two other sources speaking to GameTwo also claimed Nacon did not even write the apology themselves and AI software ChatGPT was used. The apology read,
“We would like to sincerely apologize for the underwhelming experience many of you have had with The Lord of Ring: Gollum upon its release. We acknowledge and deeply regret that the game did not meet the expectations we set for ourselves or for our dedicated community.”
The claim regarding the use of ChatGPT doesn’t seem to be completely wrong too as soon as the apology was issued, the misspelled name of the game was spotted in the first paragraph, and it called the game, “The Lord of Ring: Gollum.” ChatGPT hasn’t been able to handle things that came in 2023 and that often results in errors and hence the claim.
The statement concluded,
“We will continue to keep you updated on our progress and provide transparent communication regarding the upcoming patches and improvements. Your passion and dedication as players have been the driving force behind our determination to make things right.”
Although the interview is in German, those looking to see the claims themselves can use the auto-translate tool of YouTube and go at the 35:46 mark.
Was The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Developer Short On Funds?
Paul Schulze, a former Daedalic senior developer, and technical director also claimed that the developers weren’t given enough funds and therefore it resulted in the game being plagued with issues. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum budget is reported around 15 million Euros which is a small amount for an AAA game based on such a popular franchise.
It was also claimed in the interview that many cutscenes and characters were hidden from the players as it wasn’t able to complete them before the scheduled release date. He said,
“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. 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.”
Also Read: The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Review – A Waste of Your Precious Time (PS5)
Gollum is the lowest-rated game of the year on both OpenCritic and Metacritic with a Metascore of 36. There were several patch updates launched but to no avail and the company had to shut down its development arm and will now only focus on publishing. There were also reports that Daedalic was developing other games in the LOTR series but they obviously would have been scrapped.
What are your thoughts about the reports of Gollum developers using ChatGPT for the apology? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Source: X/Twitter
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