Paradox Cancels Life by You and Closes Paradox Tectonic
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After numerous delays, Paradox Interactive has pulled the plug on its life simulation Life by You, writing off almost 19 million Euros and closing its internal development studio Paradox Tectonic. "We've performed poorly in recent releases," said CEO Fredrik Wester.
The life simulation Life by You, whose Early Access release was recently postponed indefinitely, will no longer be released. The Swedish publisher has announced that the second quarter of 2024 will be negatively impacted by MSEK 208 from the write-off of the game's total capitalised development costs. This is equivalent to approximately 18.5 million Euros. Already last year, Harebrained Schemes' The Lamplighters League, which cost almost 28 million Euros, was written off. Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive: "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. A version that we’d be satisfied with is too far away, and therefore we are taking the difficult decision to cancel the release. Moving forward, we should perform at a much higher level, and it's obvious that we have work ahead of us."
In addition, Paradox Interactive has decided to cease further operations at its wholly-owned studio Paradox Tectonic in Berkeley, California. The studio has been leading the development of the game Life by You since 2019 and employs 24 people. Wester: "This is difficult and drastic news for our colleagues at Tectonic, who've worked hard on Life by You's Early Access release. 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."
He continued: "We've performed poorly in recent releases." However, the CEO sees the problems as more fundamental and announces further adjustments. The 4X strategy game Millenia was not a great success, Victoria 3 is struggling with mediocre user feedback, Cities Skylines 2 is still a work in progress game and should have been released in Early Access, post-launch support for Star Trek: Infinite has been completely discontinued and the development team for Prison Architect 2 has recently been replaced. On the other hand, Age of Wonders 4 from Triumph, Crusader Kings 3 and Stellaris are all doing better - and at least the user feedback for Foundry is promising. Wester: "Even though we now start new projects in a different manner, it is clear that we must make further changes so that quality is more consistent and the promises we make to our players are met. We have to evaluate how we manage projects and how we organize, for we will and must get better. We have a very solid financial position and a strong core game portfolio, which keeps us confident about our future."
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