Sims competitor Life by You suddenly canceled after several delays

Publisher Paradox Interactive has canceled the life simulation game Life by You after three early access delays.

Developer Paradox Tectonic originally unveiled the Sims-like life sim Life by You in March 2023. Former Sims executive Rod Humble led development on the project, which promised a level of depth the genre has not yet seen.

Players were supposed to be able to go hands-on with Life by You in September 2023 via early access. However, the developer delayed this version of the simulation experience on three separate occasions.

Paradox Interactive announced the third delay on May 20, 2024, with the news conspicuously lacking an updated launch window. The public learned why on June 17, when the publisher confirmed in a Twitter/X post that Life by You had been canceled.

In a statement shared on Paradox Forum, the publisher’s Deputy CEO, Mattias Lilja, said the “incredibly difficult decision” represents a “clear failure on Paradox’s part to meet both our own and the community’s expectations.”

Lilja went on to note that Life by You’s multiple delays were the company’s way of giving developers a chance to realize their full vision, saying, “For each delay we made, we’ve seen incremental improvements, which in hindsight may well have led us to focus on details rather than the whole picture.”

The executive attributed the third early access delay to a desire to reexamine Life by You as a whole. Upon closer inspection, however, the team realized the road to releasing a product they were proud of would be “far too long and uncertain.”

News of Life by You’s cancellation comes just over five years after Paradox Tectonic opened its doors in 2019. What the studio will work on next is not yet known.