I was really looking forward to playing Life by You, because I love “Sims” style gaming, and I’m a big fan of Paradox games. They’re a great developer that’s never afraid to tackle complex gaming ideas. However, this time, they seem to have bitten off more than they can chew.
The game was surprisingly far into development too, and very nearly made it into early access a few times, but just as progress to early access dates happened, the game was delayed, and delayed again, and then again. Now, it seems they’ve weighed up their options, and the game is being canned permanently.
Given the game was meant to launch in September 2023, Life By You has suffered three major delays, and it just can’t seem to cross the finish line. Sunk cost fallacy springs to mind, they’re delaying, spending, delaying, spending, always close to the final product, but it’s just not where it needs to be, and it’s time to move on.
Paradox Interactive released a statement about the cancellation, which says “Sadly, we’ve decided to cancel the release of our long-awaited life sim Life by You,” said Deputy CEO of Paradox Interactive Mattias Lilja. “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.” And that “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. 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.”
That’s a real shame, as the game had potential, and while The Sims has a lot of fans, it’s got no real big competition in the market, and it would be nice to have something to knock it down a few pegs.
RIP Life by You.
