Lord of the Rings: Gollum dev explains why Elvish DLC costs extra

Hiring consultants for fictional languages isn't cheap, it seems.

There’s been quite a bit of controversy surrounding The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, particularly regarding its Elvish language DLC costing extra – though developer Daedalic is adamant that it’s due to additional production costs.

In a statement given to Eurogamer, Daedalic explains that hired professional actors that speak Elvish (also known as ‘Sindarin’) fluently to properly train The Lord of the Rings: Gollum‘s cast.

“The Elves in the base game will speak in their tongue (Sindarin) from time to time,” Daedalic said. “On top of that, the Sindarin [voice-over] expansion adds additional Sindarin lines to some of the characters in the background. While traversing through Mirkwood and other parts of Middle-earth, Gollum will be able to listen to various dialogues between Elves. These dialogues add to the atmosphere and worldbuilding. With the Sindarin [voice-over] these dialogues will be held in Sindarin.”

It’s a bit odd, no doubt – though somewhat understandable. Elvish is far more developed than most fictional languages, so hiring that expertise doesn’t come cheap.

The Lords of the Rings: Gollum is coming out on May 25, 2023, for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. There’ll be a Nintendo Switch port as well, though that doesn’t have a release date yet. Many believe it’ll be a disaster, though there’s always a (slight) chance we’ll have another great Lord of the Rings game on our hands.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.