Paradox Interactive closed its in-house development studio, Paradox Tectonic, after canceling its life simulation game, Life By You. This officially happened because the game faced many delays, but there could be internal strife we don’t know about.
Paradox Tectonic is a group of 24 people directed by industry expert Rod Humble. They started in 2019 to make a game called Life By You. This game was meant to be like a rival to The Sims, giving you a big world to play in and lots of ways to make it your own. It also lets you talk in regular words, just like in real life. These were obviously ambitious goals.
The game was supposed to be available for early access in September 2023, but it was delayed several times. In March 2024, they said they didn’t know when it would be ready, and then they decided to stop working on it altogether. It’s not hard to see why, that last “talk in regular words” promise seems like a lofty goal for any studio.
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Mattias Lilja, Paradox Interactive’s second in command, explained why they decided to cancel the game. He admitted that the game took a long time to make and was delayed many times. Even though the game seemed like it would be good, it didn’t meet their hopes in some important ways. They decided to cancel the game because they realized that working on it more wouldn’t make it good enough in a reasonable amount of time.
This is difficult and drastic news for our colleagues at Tectonic, who’ve worked hard on Life by You’s Early Access release. Sadly, with cancellation of their sole project we have to take the tough decision to close down the studio. We are deeply grateful for their hard work in trying to take Paradox into a new genre
Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive.
Paradox Tectonic had to close down since there were no other projects at the studio. Sadly, this means that 24 people lost their jobs. The video game industry has had a lot of people lose their jobs in 2024, but it’s never okay to hear. We wish those who were at the former studio luck in the future.
