A now laid-off developer at Paradox has alleged the team behind its The Sims competitor spent “a month in purgatory” before the studio closed down.
Game designer Willem Delventhal took to LinkedIn to say they were “devastated” at the cancellation of Life by You, calling recent events “a real s**t show.” Paradox declined to comment when contacted by IGN.
Swedish games company Paradox, best known for Crusader Kings, Cities Skylines, and Stellaris, shut down Berkeley, California-based Tectonic just hours after canceling Life by You in a move that affected the studio’s 24 staff.
“This is difficult and drastic news for our colleagues at Tectonic, who’ve worked hard on Life by You’s Early Access release,” Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive, said.
“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.”
Life by You, which Tectonic had worked on since 2019, initially set an early access release date for September 2023, but it was delayed to May 2024 before Paradox announced an additional delay to June 4. Two weeks before June 4, Paradox delayed the game indefinitely.
Delventhal alleged Paradox told Tectonic Life by You wouldn’t launch just two weeks before the June 4 release date, and staff only found out they’d lost their jobs when the studio closure was publicly announced this week. Delventhal said Tectonic tried to save Life by You by finding potential buyers or even going indie, but to no avail.
“I’ve known for some time that we might be getting shut down,” Delventhal said. “We were actively working on a hyper-moddable life sim called Life By You. An indie answer to the aging IP that is the Sims but instead focussed heavily on UGC.
“And as far as it goes, we were doing extremely well.
“I cannot share specific numbers, but I can say that we had an internal metric we were aiming for that had been approved, and that we exceeded that number by a significant portion. We also got a thumbs up a few weeks before launch.
“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.
“We were not told why. Instead we spent a month in purgatory, and did everything we could to prove to them we were worth launching, including things like finding potential buyers or suggesting cutting ties and going indie. We heard virtually nothing back.
“I was warned against writing anything about this experience. That it may hurt my future career or even that legal action could be taken against me. I have chosen to ignore these warnings.
“To be honest, I have guesses about what happened. And while I can’t conjecture, I’m sure you have guesses too. As a business owner, some of them are understandable, but many of them are not. We were a strong team on a strong project ready to launch to a strong audience.
“Really I’d like to be much more fire and brimstone about it. I’m pretty pissed, not gonna lie. But I’m trying to stay kind and respectful. So instead I’ll say: this industry has become a place in which you can deliver more than expected, have AA money behind you, and still have the rug pulled two weeks before launch.”
When Paradox announced the cancelation of Life by You, Wester issued a statement, below, insisting the game would not “meet our expectations.”
“For a long time, we’ve held hopes for Life by You and the potential we saw in it, but it is now clear that the game will not be able to meet our expectations,” Wester said. “A version that we’d be satisfied with is too far away, and therefore we are taking the difficult decision to cancel the release.”
It’s tough times for Paradox after a string of high-profile failures. Wester admitted “we’ve performed poorly in recent releases” in his statement, while insisting “we have a very solid financial position and a strong core game portfolio, which keeps us confident about our future.”
Last year’s disastrous release of Cities Skylines 2, which developer Colossal Order is still working to address, was just one title that hit Paradox’s bottom line as well as its reputation. In October 2023, Paradox called The Lamplighters League a “big disappointment” as it was forced to record a $22 million write-down. Paradox has also delayed jail sim Prison Architect 2 a number of times, the latest to this September after the discovery of “unexpected issues occurring too often.” The Paradox-published Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has endured a troubled development too, although a release date now looks in sight.
The closure of Tectonic is the latest in a string of studio shutdowns and layoffs that have hit the video game industry hard in recent years. Thousands of staff have been impacted by cuts right across the industry, with layoffs at the likes of Microsoft, Sony, and Embracer, to name a few. Just this week Embracer shut down Pieces Interactive after Alone in the Dark failed to meet sales expectations.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.