Potentially bad news for Daedalic (LotR Gollum)

[Com_Raven]

Bastei Lübbe (a German media publisher that owns 51% of Daedalic) just issued an ad hoc release to shareholders in which they say that they do not deem Daedalic's business model future proof, and are lowering their valuation of the studio by 12-14 Million euro.

As a result, they are looking in restructuring measures, and a realignment of their business strategy.

Just last week, Daedalic announced that they are ending development of their Steam Early Access title A Year if Rain after it sold less than 5.000 copies since November.

This is all very troubling news. Daedalic is one of the most critically beloved German game developers (especially their classic point and click adventures), but they Had several seemingly underperforming games in recent years.

i wonder how this will affect development and especially marketing for Lord of the Rings Gollum on Next gen consoles.

Source: Ad Hoc

 

[Dio]

oh no :(

 

[Jarod McChicken]

Looks like there is a report in english : https://www.luebbe.com/en/news/2020...ructuring/id_f99b86a1b5ef9f27e34782af99b10c56

 

[Com_Raven]

Looks like there is a report in english : https://www.luebbe.com/en/news/2020...ructuring/id_f99b86a1b5ef9f27e34782af99b10c56

Click to shrink...

Thanks, will add it to the OP!

 

[JustJavi]

Oh crap :-(

 

[Futterish]

There are a couple of different things that might happen.

Daedalic's parent is likely to put more pressure on the studio wrt this title, making this the make-or-break moment for the team. Big license. Interesting premise. Built-in audience. If this fails, the studio is in a LOT of trouble (regardless of WHY this might have happened)... and here's where paths branch.

A) Bastel Lubbe may be willing to go all-in. If so, they are going to expect big returns on this game. This would require not just investment in the development process, but ensuring that the studio has the time it needs. It will also necessitate a big marketing blitz.

B) They cut their losses. They hold the purse strings tight and maybe even trim the budget so that the Gollum game isn't everything it *could* be, but comes out well enough in a shorter amount of time. They marketing isn't huge, but they'll do press junkets and focus on media and influencer coverage in a quieter way.

Either way, Daedalic is going to be under a lot of scrutiny. I hope they nail it.

 

[FloatingDivider]

I can't lie their recent output has inspired 0 interest in me but I also understand the desire to get out of that point and click niche - that being said I enjoy most of their point and click stuff and actually really liked the Deponia series so hopefully they can atleast fall back to that rather than outright close.

 

[Chivalry]

That's bad. Daedalic are aweosme.

 

[Com_Raven]

Here's the relevant part from last week's announcement that they are stopping development of "A Year of Rain" after only three months in early access (also, that is a horrible name that certainly didn't help their sales):

We have had tournaments with RTS veterans giving us their opinions and praise and we have had great, honest talks with our community on Discord, Steam and at conventions like Gamescom, PAX South/West, Wacken Open Air, Igromir, Dreamhack and others. Unfortunately, even when this was more than we ever could have asked for on the emotional, personal side – the low player base that you have witnessed yourselves hurts us substantially - We reached no more than 5000 players worldwide until today. We are deeply sorry for everyone who felt, or will feel, let down by us and the path we had to choose, considering we are an independent studio with limited resources.

Click to shrink...

 

[Jasper]

I hope they can have a big success soon. I really liked State of Mind, but to get a commercial hit with a story-driven game seems to be quite hard.

 

[Glasgow Mega-Snake]

Only read about this now. Made me realize how long it's been since a Daedalic game that was really successful. Must have been Deponia Doomsday in 2016. The Pillars of the Earth didn't get a lot of attention.

I love their classic adventures, but it seems like they've tried to branch out in new directions and it hasn't really worked. They tried the Telltale formula with Silence, a space sim, an RTS... often with average reviews.

If LotR: Gollum fails (and Poki's unannounced next game) they might be in real trouble.

 

[Eggiem]

There are a couple of different things that might happen.

Daedalic's parent is likely to put more pressure on the studio wrt this title, making this the make-or-break moment for the team. Big license. Interesting premise. Built-in audience. If this fails, the studio is in a LOT of trouble (regardless of WHY this might have happened)... and here's where paths branch.

A) Bastel Lubbe may be willing to go all-in. If so, they are going to expect big returns on this game. This would require not just investment in the development process, but ensuring that the studio has the time it needs. It will also necessitate a big marketing blitz.

B) They cut their losses. They hold the purse strings tight and maybe even trim the budget so that the Gollum game isn't everything it *could* be, but comes out well enough in a shorter amount of time. They marketing isn't huge, but they'll do press junkets and focus on media and influencer coverage in a quieter way.

Either way, Daedalic is going to be under a lot of scrutiny. I hope they nail it.

Click to shrink...

After all these troublesome Glassdoor posts and the negative press in the past, I dont think they will survive this.

 

[Wouwie]

Daedalic decided to stop doing traditional adventures to grow and become more successful. Which is understandable because the traditional adventure genre is pretty much dead. However, it seems to have had the opposite result. The episodic adventure format became unpopular sooner than expected (see also Telltale and Dontnod) and a lot of other games they publlished were smaller indie games which all released mostly unnoticed.

 

[Oinone]

Aww, man. :(
I really love Deadalic's own PnCs, so I want them to do well. But on the other hand, while I appriciate their work as a publisher and what sort of projects they support, those games are mostly a miss instead of a hit for me. :/ (The most recent example would be The Suicide of Rachel Foster. After checking some reviews I think, I'll purge it from my wishlist.)

 

[Dogui]

Aside Daedalic, we only have Wedjet Eye as a front of PnC's, of course aside the eventual indie stuff. The genre isn't exactly in a good place right now.