How many more "bad" games have to come out before developers and publishers realize audiences will no longer stay silent? At least Warner Bros. Discovery realized it had to delay Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League after getting feedback from gamers. Maybe Daedalic Entertainment should've paid attention to what Warner Bros. Discovery did. Instead, it now finds itself having to apologize for releasing The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.

Since its official release earlier this week, critics and audiences alike have made their distaste for the game, which stars the titular character from the legendary J.R.R. Tolkien franchise, known.

The internet hasn't minced words ridiculing The Lord of the Rings: Gollum due to several things, including its appearance, a litany of bugs, poor user interface, and more.

Now, Daedalic Entertainment has issued a response and it's basically saying that it can't do anything but apologize for failing to meet expectations.

Set between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Gollum failed to leave a positive impression on critics and gamers alike. From unsolvable puzzles to unsalvageable enemy AI to non-responsive button presses, the game had plenty of things go wrong for it. As a result, it now has one of the lowest scores on Metacritic ever, which is surprising considering that Redfall only came out last month.

Daedalic is aware of the scathing criticism of the game and it wants audiences to know that it's working to fix the game's many performance problems. It reassures fans that it will make improvements and plan to release patches to make it easier for gamers to enjoy the game as intended.

Of course, fixing a game is one thing. But, you can't exactly make a "bad" game objectively better.

As more and more studios release games that aren't up to par with the industry's standards, we can't help but wonder why this is happening.

Are developers and publishers cutting costs by not holding QA testing of their games? Or do they just think that gamers will freely throw money at subpar titles?

These are questions that we might never get an answer to but at least we're hoping that this worrying trend to end sooner rather than later.

If it's any consolation, some games are proving that not all developers and publishers are content with pushing out subpar products. Diablo 4, for example, was delayed for a long time and had to go through multiple open beta tests for Blizzard Entertainment to feel confident in its quality on June 6. The release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was also pushed back for further polishing and it's safe to say that it was worth it for Nintendo. Finally, the lengthy development process of Final Fantasy 16 is due to Square Enix's commitment to quality, which has now resulted in a game that will come out without a Day One patch.

As a bonus, Take-Two Interactive revealed that Rockstar Games is settling for nothing short of perfection for Grand Theft Auto 6.