Gollum Publisher Used ChatGPT To Apologize For Awful Launch … – TheGamer
Gollum publisher Nacon allegedly used ChatGPT to apologize for the game’s launch – and didn’t notice that it had misspelt the title.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was a mess, as I'm sure many of you remember. It was hard to avoid all of the posts making fun of the game's performance, dodgy UI, and overall lack of polish. Unsurprisingly, the launch was rough enough to warrant a JPEG apology from the developer – only now, it turns out that even this was a mess behind the scenes.
For starters, developers at Daedalic Entertainment claim that the apology didn't even come from them, and was instead issued by publisher Nacon through its account without prior warning. Better yet, two anonymous sources say that Nacon didn't even pen the apology itself, and instead generated one through the AI tool, ChatGPT – a service notorious for its unreliability, frequently turning out errors when dealing with a topic from 2023.
This claim comes from a German documentary into the mess behind the scenes at Daedalic, shared by journalist Knoebel on Twitter (via VGC). If true, it's just another embarrassment to come from Gollum's launch, after already holding the unfortunate title of the worst-reviewed game of the year so far.
The apology possibly being generated through ChatGPT isn't the only reason it has faced ridicule. As was quickly spotted when the apology was shared, it misspells the name of the game in its first paragraph, calling it, "The Lord of Ring: Gollum". At the time the apology would have been generated, ChatGPT struggled to handle any topic that came after 2021, so getting the title wrong isn't too surprising.
The full documentary is out now, giving us some insight into the messy development cycle of what is likely to be one of the worst-received games of 2023. Patches weren't enough to salvage the game's reputation after launch, and as a result of the controversy, Daedalic has shut down its development wing, now solely focused on publishing. Other games in The Lord of the Rings series were planned by Daedalic, but it's safe to say that these won't see the light of day anymore.
It remains to be seen what Daedalic gets up to next, but as for other Tolkien games, we have a fair idea of what we're in store for. Amazon is trying to make a Lord of the Rings MMO again, something that hasn't thrilled fans so far, although we're yet to see any gameplay or even screenshots from the project. It didn't help that an Amazon boss said that he wants fans to "move on" from The Lord of the Rings Online to play the new MMO.
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Rhiannon is the Deputy News Lead and Chief Reporter at TheGamer. Affectionately nicknamed “Sonic Freak” by colleagues. Probably thinking about her Dragon Age: Origins character.
