Paradox cancels life sim Life by You, CEO says they gave the studio 'a fair shot' but now 'believe it is better to stop'

Less than a month after the highly anticipated life sim Life By You was delayed without a new release date, Paradox has announced that the whole project has been cancelled.

«Sadly, we’ve decided to cancel the release of our long-awaited life sim Life by You,» says a message on the Paradox forums, attributed to deputy CEO 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.»

The cancellation was also announced on Paradox's Twitter feed and website.

Life by You has regrettably been canceled. Find a full statement here. Our apologies and gratitude to our loyal community.https://t.co/6OxU8t0YRPJune 17, 2024

Lilja acknowledged that «Life by You has been in the works for a long time» and said Paradox hoped «it would be able to leave a mark in this exciting and new genre for us.» That, he explained, is why Paradox has already delayed releasing it twice: «to give the studio and the game a fair shot at realizing the potential we saw.»

We saw that potential too. In a 2023 preview we said that Life by You is like «The Sims with its brakes cut,» and that if it «doesn't shake apart it could be something very special.» 

Sadly, shaking apart appears to be exactly what happened.

«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,» Lilja wrote. «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.

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»This is not to say the game has not shown any promising qualities; Life by You had a number of strengths and the hard work of a dedicated team that went into realizing them. However, when we come to a point where we