ChatGPT was allegedly used to generate The Lord of the Rings: Gollum apology statement

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum key art
(Image credit: Nacon)

It’s been alleged that the apology statement which was published following the release of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum earlier this year was generated by the AI program ChatGPT, and posted without approval from developer Daedalic Entertainment.

As spotted by VGC, in a new video report from German outlet Game Two, it’s alleged that the statement was not written by Daedalic. Game Two states that the claims about the apology being written by ChatGPT come from two anonymous sources. 

Back when the original apology was posted, it was quickly noted that the statement included a glaring issue, and referred to the title as “The Lord of the Ring: Gollum” right at the start.

The statement reads: “We would like to sincerely apologize for the underwhelming experience many of you have had with The Lord of the Ring [sic]: Gollum upon its release. We acknowledge and deeply regret that the game did not meet the expectations we set for ourselves or for our dedicated community. Please accept our sincere apologies for any disappointment this may have caused.

"Our goal as a studio, and as passionate The Lord of the Rings fans, has always been to tell a compelling and immersive story-driven adventure," it continues. "Crafting a story with Middle-earth as our playground has been the greatest honor - and the biggest challenge we have faced so far.

“At Daedalic, we understand that a game’s success relies on the enjoyment and satisfaction of its players. We genuinely value your feedback and have been actively listening to your voices, reading your comments, and analyzing the constructive criticism and suggestions you have provided.”

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum released to overwhelmingly negative reviews back in May. Over on Metacritic, the PS5 version of the title currently has an average critic score of 34, while the average user score is even lower at 1.2. Despite the poor reception, a Nintendo Switch version of the title is still available to pre-order, although it’s not clear when it’s going to be released.

Needless to say, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is certainly not one of the best PC games available to play right now. If you want some recommendations, be sure to check out our list of the best single-player games.

Catherine Lewis
News Writer, TechRadar Gaming

Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles. 

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