Following three delays and an indefinite postponement for early access, Paradox Interactive announced today that it has now decided to completely scrap Life By You instead of continuing to develop this project further.
This sudden switch-up is pretty shocking considering Life By You was originally expected to enter early access on June 4 before it was postponed indefinitely on May 20. The devs cited a “failure” on their part to meet their “own and the community’s expectations” as the reason for this sudden decision.
“It became clear to us that the road leading to a release that we felt confident about was far too long and uncertain,” the deputy CEO of Paradox Interactive, Mattias Lilja, said in the statement regarding the permanent cancellation of Life By You.
Despite this, the devs are also adamant that Life By You had a lot of “promising qualities” that just couldn’t and wouldn’t be realized without massive investment and that more time just wouldn’t get them to a version they were fully satisfied with.
The life sim has been through quite a few delays, but before this, there was never any indication that the game had any possibility of never being released at all. We even got to test it out and thought Life By You was a life sim to watch that could be decent competition for The Sims 5, but today’s announcement means it’s done for good now.
The statement makes it clear this isn’t another indefinite postponement or a possible rework of the project over years to come. Instead, Life By You is officially over before it ever really began and the team is moving on to other games.
“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,” Lilja said to end the Life By You cancellation statement. “In the end, our mission remains the same, and we’ll continue to take whatever steps we need to do just that.”