20 Disappointing Video Games That Didn't Fulfil Their Potential

17. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
Daedalic Entertainment

Let’s be honest with ourselves here, nobody was really asking for a Lord of the Rings game centred around everyone’s favourite little grey goblin man, Gollum. But that didn’t stop Daedalic Entertainment from releasing this travesty in 2023. Now, the question I want to bring forward is, could this game have fared better if it weren’t so full to the brim of game-breaking bugs that made the game completely unplayable? Probably not, but I would’ve liked to have seen it anyway. 

The game was so poorly received that Daedalic Entertainment closed its gaming division, cancelled all plans for future The Lord of the Rings projects and issued an apology that suspiciously, read a lot like AI had written it. 

Daedalic released a few patches in an attempt to fix some of the many issues found in the game, but it wasn’t enough. Maybe if the game had been released in a better state, bug-free, people wouldn’t have lost their jobs and could continue working on the next project. Not saying that The Lord of the Rings: Gollum would’ve been a fantastic game, but it could’ve at least been passable enough that the fallout was minimal. Especially when most of the issues were reportedly from upper management, imposing unpaid overtime, an attempt to pay staff lower salaries than the minimum wage, toxic working environments and abusive leadership.

 
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Hey, I’m Matt. I work full-time at WhatCulture's neighbours, MyVoucherCodes. I first joined MyVoucherCodes as a Deals Expert, scouring the internet, leaving no stone unturned in finding the best discount codes, sales and offers for our customers. Moving into my first home during the worst possible time (during lockdown), I understand the necessity of saving money when the purse strings are tight. Outside of saving money, I’m into video games, movies, books and music. I host and edit a video game podcast called The Retry Hard Podcast, where my friend and I go through news, reviews and video games in general. I love movies and watching how they’re made, and I’ve worked as a set decorator for a few months on His Dark Materials season 3, which gave me a massive insight into how it all comes together. I also put out music as a solo artist named Matt Kiano, where I won the award for Best Male Artist of 2025 for Radio Wigwam and have been nomiated for Best Live Act at the 2026 Radio Wigwam Awards.