A now-fired Paradox developer has claimed the team behind its rival The Sims spent “a month in purgatory” before the studio shut down.
Game designer Willem Delventhal said on LinkedIn that they were “devastated” by the cancellation of Life by You, calling the recent events “a real sh** show.” Paradox declined to comment when contacted by IGN.
Swedish game company Paradox, best known for Crusader Kings, Cities Skylines and Stellaris, has shuttered Berkeley, California-based Tectonic just hours after canceling Life by You in a move that affected 24 studio employees.
“This is difficult and drastic news for our colleagues at Tectonic who have been working hard on Life by You’s Early Access release,” said Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive.
“Unfortunately, with the cancellation of their only project, we have to make the difficult decision to close the studio. We are deeply grateful for their hard work in bringing Paradox to a new genre.”
Life by You, which Tectonic has been working on since 2019, was originally set for a September 2023 Early Access release date, but was pushed back to May 2024 before Paradox announced another delay to June 4th. Two weeks before June 4th, Paradox shelved the game indefinitely.
Delventhal reportedly told Paradox that Tectonic Life by You would not launch just two weeks before its June 4 release date, and employees found themselves out of a job when the studio’s 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 a while that we might be closed,” Delventhal said. “We’ve been actively working on a hyper-moddable life sim called Life By You. An indie answer to the aging IP that is The Sims, but with a heavy focus on UGC instead.
“And as far as that goes, we did very well.
“I can’t give specific numbers, but I can say that we had an internal metric that we focused on that was approved and we exceeded that number by a significant amount. We also got a thumbs up a few weeks before launch.
“Then two weeks before the start we were told that we would not start. And right now, when we’ve all lost our jobs. We were informed about it only through a public announcement.
“We weren’t told why. Instead, we spent a month in purgatory doing everything we could to prove to them that we were worth bringing to market, including things like finding potential buyers or suggesting we cut ties and enter the independent world. We heard back practically nothing.
“I was warned not to write anything about the experience. That it could damage my future career or even that legal action could be taken against me. I chose to ignore these warnings.
“To be honest, I have an idea what happened. And while I can’t guess, I’m sure you have guesses too. As a business owner, some of these are understandable, but many are not. We were a strong team on a strong project ready to tackle a strong audience.
“I really want to be a lot more fire and brimstone in this. I’m pretty pissed off, not gonna lie. But I try to stay kind and respectful. So instead I’ll say: the industry has become a place where you can deliver more than expected, have AA money behind you and still have a carpet two weeks before launch.”
When Paradox announced the cancellation of Life by You, Wester released the statement below insisting that the game “failed to live up to our expectations”.
“We’ve had high hopes for Life by You and the potential we saw in it for a long time, but it’s now clear that the game won’t be able to live up to our expectations,” Wester said. “The version we would be happy with is too far away, so we are making the difficult decision to cancel the release.”
Hard times have come for Paradox after a series of significant setbacks. In a statement, Wester admitted that “we have underperformed in recent releases,” while insisting that “we have a very solid financial position and a strong portfolio of core games, which keeps us confident about our future.”
Last year’s disastrous release Panorama of cities 2, which developer Colossal Order is still working on, was just one title that hit Paradox’s bottom line and reputation. In October 2023 Paradox calls The Lamplighters League a “huge disappointment” as it was forced to record a $22 million write-down. Paradox also postponed the Sim jail Prison architect 2 several times, most recently this September after discovering “unexpected problems that occur too often”. Posted in Paradox Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has also gone through troubled development, though a release date is now in sight.
Tectonic’s closure is the latest in a series of shutdowns and studio layoffs that have hit the video game industry hard in recent years. Thousands of workers have been hit by cuts across the industry, with layoffs at companies like 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. Wesley can be contacted at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.