Paradox Interactive, a renowned game developer, has announced the cancellation of their much-anticipated life simulation game, 'Life By You'. In a forum post by Paradox Interactive's deputy CEO Mattias Lilja, it was revealed that the decision to cancel the game was a difficult one, acknowledging it as a failure to meet both the company's and the community's expectations.

'Life By You' was originally scheduled for an early access release on June 4th. However, Paradox Interactive had already delayed the game indefinitely on May 20th, marking the third time the release was pushed back. Initially planned for September 2023, the release was first moved to March 5th before being further postponed to June 4th.

Mattias Lilja mentioned that although the game had shown incremental improvements with each delay, the journey to reaching a satisfactory version had become excessively long and uncertain. The decision to halt the project was made after a broader evaluation of the game, which highlighted areas where it still lacked. Despite the dedicated team's hard work and the game's promising qualities, the determination was made that more time would not bring them close enough to a version they could be satisfied with.

Paradox Interactive's CEO Fredik Wester acknowledged that the version of 'Life By You' that met the company's expectations seemed too far away. Wester also recognized that the cancellation, along with recent underperforming releases, would negatively impact their second-quarter financial results due to the write-down of development costs. However, he emphasized that the company would strive to become better and make changes to ensure a more consistent quality in their future projects.

'Life By You' was developed by Paradox Tectonic, a studio established in 2019 under the leadership of Rod Humble, former lead of 'The Sims' and CEO of Linden Labs. The game was officially announced in 2023, with expectations of setting itself apart from other life simulation games with its deeper roleplaying elements.

Although the cancellation of 'Life By You' may have caused a slight reduction in the crowded life simulation genre, there are still other upcoming games to look forward to, including 'Paralives', 'inZOI', 'Project Rene' (also known as 'The Sims 5') and an unnamed life simulator from Midsummer Studios.

Paradox Interactive remains confident in their financial position and their strong core game portfolio. The company acknowledges the need to make further changes to improve project management and organizational processes to ensure consistent quality and meet player expectations. Despite this setback, Paradox Interactive is determined to continue their mission of releasing fun, interesting, and challenging games for their players.