Mistakes were made in the cancellation of Life by You, publisher Paradox admits.
The Sims has been the undisputed autocrat in its own genre niche for a long time. With the announcement of several top-class life simulations such as Paralives and Inzoi, the balance of power should change. However, Life by You, one of the most promising competitors, was discontinued out of the blue a few months ago and the responsible studio Tectonic was dissolved.
In an interview with GameStar, publisher Paradox now admits that they handled the project incorrectly.
Paradox in crisis
Falling share prices, botched releases, angry fans: strategy game publisher Paradox has had to struggle with serious problems in recent months. As part of our Plus report, we spoke to Deputy CEO Mattias Lilja and Chief Creative Officer Henrik Fåhraeus about the causes and solutions for the company’s situation:
This is our fault
After the cancellation, Paradox wrote off the project in the economic report for the second quarter of 2024 for around 20 million dollars, which left a significant dent in profits.
There were also angry statements from the developers who could not understand the end of the project and also criticized the communication from Paradox Interactive. Because Life by You was only weeks before the early access release and, according to the developers, was said to be in good condition. When asked about both, Lilja tries to explain:
We had problems with the game quite early on, for various reasons. But we looked at each aspect individually and basically couldn’t see the forest for the trees. That’s why we came to our decision very late, much later than we should have. We have to take this on board as publishers.
If you [mit so einem großen Team, Anm. d. Red.] If you go in the wrong direction and keep going, you will only drift further away. Therefore, we found no other way than to pause, evaluate and then stop development. It shouldn’t have happened this way, especially not so late, and that’s our fault as publishers.
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This is what the discontinued Sims rival Life by You would have looked like
According to Paradox, profound difficulties with the game became apparent early on. The publisher sees the problem as not having recognized the general and ultimately irreversible negative development of the project early on. From the publisher’s point of view, the logical and correct decision came much too late, as Lilja admits.
Our interview partners did not want to go into the developers’ statements any further: it was a matter for the people concerned and they could not comment on it.
The future of life simulations remains exciting despite the discontinuation of Life by You. After all, Inzoi is still a promising Sims competitor waiting for us, which shows off impressive graphics.
However, things are looking less rosy for Project Rene, the Sims developers’ big project. Recently published photos from the game angered many fans.
