Paradox Interactive will close its Tectonic studio following the cancellation of Life By You

On Monday, Paradox Interactive announced the cancellation of development of its people simulation game. Life through you. Today, the publisher confirmed that it would also be shutting down its in-house development studio, Paradox Tectonic, created specifically to create the game.

In a press release, the publisher said Paradox Tectonic, launched in 2019 in Berkeley, California, employed 24 team members. They will all now look for other jobs. The press release included a statement from Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive:

This is difficult and radical news for our colleagues at Tectonic, who have worked hard on the Early Access version of Life by You. Unfortunately, with the cancellation of their only project, we have to make the difficult decision to close the studio. We are deeply grateful for their hard work in trying to bring Paradox into a new genre,

Paradox announced its competitor to Electronic Arts” The Sims, Life through youwith great fanfare in March 2023. This even allowed Rod Humble, who previously led the development of The Simsto be in charge of the game and the Tectonic studio.

However, Paradox has continued to push back the game’s release, even in early access, over the past year and a half. On Monday, the publisher decided to cancel the game completely. In its statement, Paradox said it reviewed the game’s development and decided that adding more time “would not bring us close enough to a release that we would be satisfied.”

This has definitely not been a good year for Paradox. In fall 2023, turn-based tactical game launches The League of Lamplighters was a major commercial failure and led the publisher to sever ties with its former studio Hairbrained Schemes. Additionally, the PC launch of Cities: Skylines II was full of technical problems. Paradox still hasn’t announced when the promised console versions of the game will be released.

In their announcement of cancellation of Life through you, Paradox admitted that the mistakes that led to the decision to stop its development “should not reach this magnitude.” He added that he would now “take a long, hard look at what got us here and see what changes we need to make to become better.”