The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, currently in development by German studio Daedalic Entertainment, has had its release date pushed back a year to 2022.
The delay was shared alongside the announcement that The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will be published by Nacon. It’s planned for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, and PC.
As the name suggests, the upcoming game puts players in the stained loincloth of Lord of the Rings antagonist Gollum, a once-Hobbit creature warped both physically and mentally by his devotion to The One Ring. Daedalic describes Gollum as a “story-driven action adventure” game with stealth elements.
“We’re concentrating on the character of Gollum, and we’re telling his story before we learn about what happens to him in the books,” Daedalic CEO Carsten Fichtelmann told PC Gamer in 2019. “We’re looking for ways to tell stories that haven’t been shown in the movies. We’ll tell the story of a character we’re familiar with, but not repeating what you already know.”
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum joins a growing number of high-profile games that have had their 2021 release dates extended. Kerbal Space Program 2 was pushed back to 2022 last November after missing its original fall 2020 release window. More recently, Hogwarts Legacy and Riders Republic also received substantial delays.
No specific reasons were provided for any of these setbacks, but after the hell year that was 2020, it’s understandable that game development might be in a precarious position industry-wide.