Lord of the Rings: Gollum has been delayed into next year

Developer Daedalic Entertainment's Lord of the Rings: Gollum will no longer release this year, as originally announced, and is now due to arrive on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC in 2022.

Specifics regarding Lords of the Rings: Gollum have been limited since the action-adventure was announced back in March 2019, but we finally got a clearer idea of how things might play out last August, when Daedalic released the very first trailer and gameplay breakdown.

While the cinematic trailer wasn't giving much away, Daedalic did confirm it's shooting for "subtle tactical stealth", environmental puzzling, climbing challenges, and "fast-paced parkour action", all playing out across a mixture of open levels and more linear missions.

More intriguingly, there's a branching narrative element, dictated through story decisions and dialogue choices. Here, players can influence Gollum's inner conflict, giving prominence to either the Sméagol or Gollum side of his personality, which will affect certain gameplay situations, dialogue, even animations and sound.

At the time of its August update, Daedalic said to expect the game on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Switch, and PC in "late 2021". However, a new press release announcing a publishing and distribution deal between Daedalic and NACON has confirmed those initial release plans have changed, with Lord of the Rings: Gollum now set to launch "in 2022".

There's no explanation for the delay at present, but hopefully Daedalic will share more soon.