Would-be The Sims competitor Life By You was canceled because publisher Paradox realized "everything will be worse if we keep going, so we have to stop"
Oct. 8, 2024The life sim had one too many “flaws”
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Delayed without a new release datejust weeks before its cancellation, it seems thatLife By Youstood no chance - and publisherParadox Interactiveexplains why.
Speaking in a recent interview withEurogamer, chief creative officer Henrik Fåhraeus and deputy CEO Mattias Lilja discuss how sometimes “you go on too far and hope that you fix it, or steer it in another direction than we thought originally.” According to the publishing leads, Life By You is an example of both scenarios - there was simply too much wrong with the potentialSims 4competitor to fix it.
“We trusted the devs quite a lot,” describes Lilja. “We thought maybe another extension will get us where we’re going and then finally realized everything will be worse if we keep going, so we have to stop.” As noted by Fåhraeus, “A lot of the flaws were super clear and we saw the flaws individually.” There just wasn’t enough time to address them in the end, however - especially after so much had already been spent on mending the game’s issues.
“We got closer and closer to early access,” the CCO continues, “trying to focus on fixing each individual problem.” Eventually, Paradox realized that “it’s too late, we’ve not been seeing the forest here.” The team couldn’t find a “single thing here that can actually compete viably in terms of gameplay. While early access can indeed be “very” useful, “you have to have something that is super tight already” - and Life By You, sadly, just wasn’t.
While there’s no Life By You, here are10 games like The Sims 4to check out instead.
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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she’s not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she’s probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she’s spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur’s Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you’ll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.
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