The Sims competitor Life by You abruptly canceled, exec admits it's "a clear failure on Paradox’s part"
Jun. 17, 2024After 3 delays, Life by You is no more
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Life by You, a Sims-style life simulation, has been abruptly canceled by publisher Paradox after being delayed multiple times over.
“Sadly, we’ve decided to cancel the release of our long-awaited life sim Life by You,” deputy CEO Mattias Lilja says in theannouncement. “This was an incredibly difficult call to make and is a clear failure on Paradox’s part to meet both our own and the community’s expectations.”
“A few weeks back, we decided to hold off on an Early Access release in order to re-evaluate Life by You, as we still felt that the game was lacking in some key areas,” Lilja says. “Though a time extension was an option, once we took that pause to get a wider view of the game, it became clear to us that the road leading to a release that we felt confident about was far too long and uncertain. This is not to say the game has not shown any promising qualities; Life by You had a number of strengths and the hard work of a dedicated team that went into realizing them.”
Lilja stops short of identifying the specific problems that led to the cancelation of Life by You, instead noting simply that it was a mistake to let the game get this far along before pulling the plug. “Games are difficult to get right,” Lilja says, “and we’ll definitely make mistakes, which, as these things go, always become painfully apparent in hindsight, but still shouldn’t reach this kind of magnitude regardless.”
Life by You was in development at an internal studio called Paradox Tectonic, and was being led by Sims veteran Rod Humble. In a genre that had been historically dominated by a single franchise, it seemed to poised to deliver a proper alternative to The Sims, offering afar more open and customizable experience.
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