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There are few games that feel as unlucky as Life by You. Paradox’s The Sims competitor was almost at launch a few times before being pushed back at the last moment. The most recent delay came around a month ago, being the third time the game nearly entered early access before hitting a roadblock and being sent to the back of the queue. Now, unfortunately, the road has run out for the game.
Originally intended to hit Steam back in September 2023, Life By You was delayed first to March of 2024, then finally to June before being postponed indefinitely. Each time Paradox took a hard look at the life game and decided that it wasn’t quite ready. That last delay felt noteworthy even at the time as there was no launch date or window for it, though no-one externally could guess that its fortunes were about to get even worse.
The answer to why there was no new launch date provided has just been made clear, as publisher Paradox Interactive has released a statement explaining that Life by You has finally been canceled. “Sadly, we’ve decided to cancel the release of our long-awaited life sim Life by You,” the statement from Deputy CEO of Paradox Interactive Mattias Lilja reads. “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.”
Paradox goes on to explain some of the reasoning behind its decision. “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 continues. “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.”
It seems that there’s a certain degree of soul-searching implicit in this decision, with Paradox intending to examine itself over this matter. “So, how do we ensure we don’t find ourselves here again? Honestly, there are no real guarantees. Games are difficult to get right, and we’ll definitely make mistakes, which, as these things go, always become painfully apparent in hindsight, but still shouldn’t reach this kind of magnitude regardless,” Lilja says. “We have to take a long and hard look at what led us here and see what changes we have to make to become better. In the end, our mission remains the same, and we’ll continue to take whatever steps we need to do just that.”
With that, we wave goodbye to Life by You for the final time. You can read the full statement over on the Paradox forum.
If you’d like to check out something similar, our guide to the best games like The Sims will keep you going for a while, or you can take a look at our recommendations for the best upcoming games you’ll be able to play soon.
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