Paradox Interactive has canceled its Sims rival, Life By You

Paradox Interactive has canceled The Sims rival Life By You weeks after delaying the game indefinitely.

The company’s deputy CEO Mattias Lilja announced the game’s cancellation on the Paradox forums on Monday.

“Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel the release of our long-awaited life sim, Life by You,” he said.

“This was an incredibly difficult decision to make and is a clear failure on Paradox’s part to meet our own and the community’s expectations. »

Life By You was to be the first title from Paradox Tectonic, a studio created in 2019 and led by Rod Humble, former boss of EA’s The Sims label and ex-CEO of Second Life creator Linden Lab.

The game was originally scheduled to launch in Early Access in September 2023, before being delayed to March 2024, then pushed back again to June.

In late April, Paradox issued a press release stating that the game was “ready for early access”, but three weeks later this delayed the game indefinitely.

“A few weeks ago, we decided to delay the Early Access release in order to re-evaluate Life by You, as we still felt the game was lacking in some key areas,” Lilja said. “Even though a deadline extension was an option, once we took that pause to get a broader view of the game, it became clear to us that the path to a release we were confident in was far too long and uncertain.

“This is obviously difficult and disappointing for everyone who has devoted their time and enthusiasm to this project, especially when our decision comes so late in the process.”

In April, Paradox announced that customers who purchased Cities Skylines 2’s first DLC would be refunded, with the content to be added to the base game for free after being “kicked out” in an unsatisfactory state.

Future paid DLC and the console version of the game have also been delayed again.