Life by You Developer Paradox Tectonic is Shutting Down

Following its cancellation of Life by You, Paradox Interactive has announced the closure of its developer, Paradox Tectonic. It was established in 2019 to work on the life sim title and comprised 24 employees.

Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester stated, “This is difficult and drastic news for our colleagues at Tectonic, who worked hard on Life by You’s Early Access release. Sadly, with the 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.”

Announced in March 2023, Life by You would have been a competitor to EA’s The Sims, especially with Rod Humble, former head of The Sims label, leading development. Some noteworthy features included an open world with no loading screens with real-language conversations, Creator Tools to make content, direct control of humans in third-person and much more.

It was slated to launch into early access for PC in September 2023 but faced several delays. On its most recent, Paradox announced an indefinite delay to take a “wider view” of the project, which led to its recent cancellation.

Though it could have offered more time to improve the title, Paradox deputy CEO Mattias Lilja said that “when we come to a point where we believe that more time will not get us close enough to a version we would be satisfied with, then we believe it is better to stop.” Lilja acknowledged the title’s strengths and praised “the hard work of a dedicated team that went into realizing them.”