Paradox Interactive has shut down its internal studio, Paradox Tectonic, which was working on Life by You, which was recently canceled for being a "failure" on the company's part.
The parent studio is best known for its games such as Crusader Kings, Cities Skylines franchise, and Stellaris. The Swedish games company said that it decided to cease further operations in Berkeley, California-based Paradox Tectonic.
Life by You Developer Closed Down
(Photo : Paradox Interactive / Screenshot taken from official website)
This is a move that reportedly affects the studio's 24-member workforce and is said to be "difficult and drastic news" for these employees. Paradox Interactive CEO Fredrik Wester said that their colleagues worked hard on life sim Life by You towards its early access version that was delayed multiple times.
He added that the cancellation of the studio's sole project meant that they had to make a tough call moving forward. Wester also expressed their gratitude to the workers for their contribution to the development process of the game that was taking the studio to a new genre, according to IGN.
Paradox Tectonic's closure comes as it has spent its time since 2019 working on Life by You and is the latest to be affected by a string of failures by the parent studio.
Wester said that this will spark an evaluation of how the company manages its projects. However, he insisted that the studio has a "very solid financial position and a strong core game portfolio."
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The cancellation of Life by You and Paradox Tectonic's subsequent closure comes on the heels of a string of unfortunate developments for Paradox Interactive. The most controversial of these is its difficulty in meeting the demands of players with Cities Skylines 2.
In this particular scenario, the developer, Colossal Order, is hard at work trying to address the plethora of bugs and complaints that are coming their way. Another project that faced issues is Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2.
Paradox Interactive's String of Failures
The latter was actually bad enough that it forced the studio to hand the project over to a new developer. Paradox Interactive also booted Double Eleven off of working on Prison Architect 2 and has decided to take over development itself, said PCGamer.
The original launch date of Life by You's early access was scheduled for Sept. 12, 2023, but was then delayed to Mar. 5, 2024, and then later to June 4, 2024.
Shortly after the latter, Paradox Interactive delayed the game once more but this time setting an indefinite time frame before being canceled altogether.
Deputy CEO Mattias Lilja previously said that they decided to hold off on an early access release of Life by You in order to re-evaluate the game. He noted that the team felt it was still lacking in some key areas and they wanted to fix it.
He argued that while extension was always an option, it became clear to them after taking a pause to get a wider view that the road leading to a release was too long and uncertain. This is despite the game showing promising qualities and a lot of strengths to work with, according to GamesRadar.
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