Paradox Interactive closes down Paradox Tectonic, the studio behind 'The Sims' competitor 'Life by You'
The employees were blindsided, as they found out about the closure the same time the public did. Is there any hope for a 'The Sims' competitor? Vivaland, InZoi, and Paralives may be the answer.
It was announced on Life by You’s website on June 2 that the game was going to be released through Steam’s Early Access on June 4. This decision was made to refine and improve the game, as well as to receive player feedback. But it was never released that day.
But on June 17, Paradox Interactive, Paradox Tectonics’ publishers, announced that Life by You was canceled.
“Life by You had a number of strengths and the hard work of a dedicated team that went into realizing them.” Said Deputy CEO of Paradox Interactive Mattias Lilja in the statement called, “Life by You Is Cancelled. “However, 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.”
During that same day, a press release was published where Fredrik Wester, Paradox Interactive’s CEO, reiterated what Lilja said, but also said that their games have been performing poorly recently and that the company has been losing enough money to make them reconsider their current and future projects carefully.
Life by You seemed like a promising and ambitious life sim with monthly updates that can be seen on their YouTube channel, which covered the different perspectives available, characters having natural chemistry based on traits, customizable furniture, quest creator, region creator, and much more.
But on the following day, June 18, Paradox Interactive posted on their website the closure of Paradox Tectonic.
“This is difficult and drastic news for our colleagues at Tectonic, who’ve worked hard on Life by You’s Early Access release,” said Paradox Interactive’s CEO, Fredrik Wester in the press release. “Sadly, with the cancellation of their sole project, we have to take the tough decision to close down the studio.”
This surprised everyone, including the 24 employees who had been working on Life by You since 2019. A game designer who worked on Paradox Tectonic, Willem Delventhal, posted on LinkedIn his response to the closure of the studio that raised questions and surprised people, some of which do not match the Deputy CEO’s statements.
“I cannot share specific numbers, but I can say that we had an internal metric we were aiming for that had been approved,” Wrote Delventhal in his post, “and that we exceeded that number by a significant portion. We also got a thumbs up a few weeks before launch.”
But Lilja had stated, “For each delay we made, we’ve seen incremental improvements, which in hindsight may well have led us to focus on details rather than the whole picture,” and, “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.”
Were the requirements raised more and more to meet their expectations, but as they kept getting raised, did Paradox Interactive realize that they could not be satisfied? The Sims has been the only ongoing series in the genre and other competitors have been announced.
Maybe Paradox Interactive had been losing too much money and they didn’t want to risk it, even if it was developing well, maybe it wasn’t developing well enough for them.
Though Lilja made it seem like the cancellation had been on their mind for a while, the closure of the company was a surprise as Delventhal wrote, “Then two weeks before launch we were told we wouldn’t be launching. And just now that we’ve all lost our jobs. We were only informed of this via a public announcement.”
The last statement to consider made by Delventhal was, “As a business owner, some of them are understandable, but many of them are not.” Which correlates with the recent failures Paradox Interactive has produced.
A lot can be assumed through cross-referencing, though it seems that there were disagreements between the developers and the publishers regarding the quality of the product and profitability, but overall, there was poor communication.
It’s clear to see that Paradox Tectonic supported each other, as can be seen as various workers giving each other support through their posts, as well as Paradox Tectonics’ COO, Amanda Heaton, vouching for all her co-workers and recommending them to other studios.
Though we may never know why the studio was shut down, many people have their theories, such as not being able to follow the Game As A Service model, as many Paradox Interactive games have plenty of DLC, and Life by You wouldn’t be able to support that model. But as far as we know, Paradox Interactive just didn’t find it viable.
Well, am I stuck with The Sims?
The Life Sim community has been starving for a worthy competitor to The Sims ever since Sims 4 came out. Surprisingly, there aren’t more games like The Sims in the market, just like how Dark Souls and Vampire Survivors inspired many games, it’s weird to see that it’s not the same case here. But three upcoming games have been gaining traction:
Paralives
Developer: Alex Massé and team
Publisher: Paralives Studio
In Paralives, players become Parafolks in a cartoony and cozy-looking world. What started as a solo project in 2019 is now a studio consisting of 12 employees, with a release date of early 2025 on Steam’s Early Access.
The game will allow you to customize your Parafolk’s home, appearance, and personality, get a job, and upgrade your abilities in that job. When you play, you will be able to level up and upgrade your personality, allowing you to choose and upgrade which will have its benefits.
The player can conduct group activities by using ‘Together Cards’ that are influenced by the context of the conversation and much more, allowing you to go to the gym or play music. And through the connections you make, you can even unlock job opportunities. There are constant updates uploaded on their Patreon, and their YouTube channel.
Vivaland
Developer: Hive5 Interactive
Publisher: HypeTrain Digital
Vivaland is being created by a team of 14 members, including the creator of the Sims 4 Multiplayer mod, and allows up to 8 players to play in a small town, where they’ll be able to create their homes and live their lives as Vivas, online or offline. As a Vivas, form relationships, one-sided or not, and a start career, whether culinary, farming, engineering, or more.
As more Vivas move into your Vivaland Town, different businesses, careers, skills, and needs surge, so the player has an impact by what they can provide. They also promise that multiplayer events will occur, prompting players to collaborate and play together.
A demo is available that allows you and your friends to create your own home, which is still being updated thanks to players feedback, and the developers have said that another free demo will be released before the game is released in Early Access. Be sure to follow their Patreon for more updates, and their YouTube Channel. It’s also of note that Vivaland’s publisher showed interest on the LBY employees.
InZoi
Developer: Krafton
Publisher: Krafton
The publishing company behind big names, such as PUBG: Battlegrounds, is getting its hands on the Life Sim space through InZoi, a realistic-looking Life Sim that allows the player to become a Zoi in what seems a big city in South Korea, working for an AR company.
The developers have a Wishlist section in their Discord server where people have created threads requesting features they hope to see in the game, such as drivable cars and group activities, which were confirmed to be in the game. However, we can’t be sure it was implemented because of player feedback.
There are many interesting features confirmed in the game, such as the ability to modify the city animals, seasons, crime rate, and other factors; Zoi’s having a reputation that affects people's perception of you, as well as karma allowing how you treat people to affect how your children are treated in the future. Many features have been confirmed and can be seen here.
It is important to remember that Paralives and Vivaland are still being developed and will be released in Steam’s Early Access. This means that they’re not fully polished, will have bugs, and lacks some features, but they should be playable and should be regularly updated.