Today’s the launch of Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game, a promising looking cozy game set in the world of J. R. R. Tolkien. Unfortunately, things aren’t likely to pan out as Weta Workshop’s project is plagued with inexperience, mismanagement, layoffs, deadlines, and communication issues between studios.
A report from The Verge claimed management viewed game development as no different than filmmaking, which Weta has experience in. Outside of filmmaking, though, it also had experience crafting augmented reality experiences as a partner of tech startup, Magic Leap. The team, more likely management, was obsessed with hitting development milestones, which led to what we’re expecting to be a coder’s nightmare, with an employee calling its code base “a pile of dogshit.”
Naturally, there was also crunch, which for games of its type — a AA game with a studio that bit off more than it could chew — is not too surprising.
It’s not all doom and gloom, as many former and current staff have a fondness for the world they created. It’s also all-too-possible that the studio could’ve done better and would be more likely to succeed.
“I genuinely think that if Weta Workshop nurtured the brilliance in the studio, they could just sit back and profit.”
