Earlier this month, Paradox Interactive reassured players that Life by You was on track for its early access release in June 2024, with the “finishing touches” completed. Unfortunately, the publisher has now reversed course, pulling Life by You from its release schedule, with no replacement release date announced.
Life by You will no longer release in June 2024, and it’s now unclear when the game will reappear.
“After much consideration, we regret to announce that we have decided to retract Life by You’s Early Access release date, previously set for June 4th,” Mattias Lilja, Deputy CEO of Paradox Interactive said in a blog post. “This was not an easy decision, especially since we understand the anticipation and excitement that many players have for the game. However, we believe that additional development time is needed.”
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“While we would have preferred to commit to a new release window, we believe it is more prudent to hold off while we plan ahead, rather than committing to a new date that we cannot be certain to meet. We will provide more information as soon as possible, until then we want to sincerely thank you for your continued support and patience.”
This announcement is the latest in a long line of delays for Life by You, which continues to get further into the distance, despite that aforementioned anticipation.
What is Life by You?
The hype around Life by You kicked off in mid-2023, when Paradox revealed its latest project would be a life simulator rival to The Sims, with a high degree of customisation. Early footage promised a game where players could build their own houses, move in, get to know their neighbours, roam a wide suburb, and forge tangible stories.
Paradox Tectonic, the studio behind the game, is helmed by Rod Humble, who previously worked on The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. The wider Paradox team also has a pedigree in sim gaming, having been responsible for well-received SimCity rival, Cities: Skylines.
Life by You: Main features
Over the year since reveal, Paradox has teased a range of new features for Life by You, including ample mod support, the proliferation of quests and goals in daily life, dialogue based on real-world language, and other systems including: skill creators, recipe creators, outfit creators, item creators, event creators, and more.
Life by You appears to have a vast and ambitious gameplay scope – and it’s likely for this reason that the game has been constantly delayed. Paradox Tectonic is keen to get the game ‘right’ and to meet high player expectations. At this stage, that means Life by You will remain in development indefinitely, with an unclear end goal. Those looking forward to the game will need to stay patient, as work continues.
