Summary
Upcoming life simulatorLife By Youhasofficially been cancelledby Paradox Interactive. Originally announced in March 2023, the game was being developed by an internal studio, Paradox Tectonic. Its early access release was delayed three times, before the final shot was fired this week, less than a fortnight after the third delay.
Rod Humble, Studio Head of Paradox Tectonic, is best known for his extensive work on bothThe Simsand Second Life, and seemed like a strong candidate to field such a title. Paradox itself also has a solid history with strategy simulation games. It seemed like a dream come true, until it became a nightmare.
So, where did it all go wrong? While we’ll likely never know the true reason behind the cancellation, it could well be down to the fact that the life sim genre has been so firmly dominated by The Sims for so long that potential competitors find themselves trying to meet unrealistic expectations.
Since its launch in 2000, The Sims has grown to a worldwide phenomenon encompassing four mainline games, each with ever-increasing amounts of DLC, as well as several spin-offs. Over this period of almost 25 years, the game has been developed by a dedicated team at Maxis, and published by Triple-A titan, Electronic Arts.
During this time, many other games have incorporated life simulation elements, including visual novels, RPGs, and a multitude of farming titles. However, the focus has always been split between life simulation and other elements such as crafting, fighting, exploring, or, well, farming. The only title that remains primarily a simulation of life is still The Sims, especially as Second Life does not consider itself to be a game but instead an online world. This has now potentially become a barrier for would-be competitors.
As soon as a game announces that they are looking to focus on replicating the human experience as a primary focus the comparisons begin. Both Life By You and in-development life sim Paralives,have been declared ‘Sims competitors’ from the second they were announced. While many agree that we’d love to see another game like The Sims, a large number also seem reluctant to let it be anything other than an exact clone - notably InZoi has escaped comparisons to The Sims specifically by focussing on gameplay beyond the life sim element.
While every game has its critics, disgruntled Sims fans have been getting more and more vocal in recent years.Many of them will simply never be happy, and every new release of Sims 4 DLC reminds us of this anew as social media, alongside the chat in any livestreams, is filled with complaints and demands.
The problem with this is that not only are rational opinions being shot down, but a target of ‘must-haves’ has also been established. The list of must-haves is now so extensive that no one is likely to ever satisfy every demand.
When Life By You was announced, the features on show in its teaser trailerread like a laundry list of things most wanted by Sims players. An open-world, usable cars, a colour wheel for decorating homes, and interactive life events - it ticked many boxes on the ever-expanding list of demands for new features in The Sims 4.
This laundry list of wanted features, combined with the knowledge that the studio was led by Humble (a man so synonymous with the early Sims games that he appears in one of them), meant expectations were high from the start.
Life by You leaned into these comparisons, leading with the phrase, “Life doesn’t have any loading screens”. Many interpreted this as a dig at The Sims 4 - which requires a loading screen when you visit a neighbour, or get into an elevator, or do any assortment of tasks. Life By You arguably positioned itself as a polished and improved version of The Sims, drawing heavy inspiration from the earlier titles many still prefer over the newest instalment. Paradox also placed an emphasis on early access being its way of listening to players and giving them all their hearts desired.
The biggest problem with this is that The Sims 4 is the result of decades of work. It’s even older than a good chunk of its playerbase at this point and, while it still gets grief, what game doesn’t? Gamers love to complain and big studios and series are often seen as an easy target. However, that doesn’t mean the complaints are true.
The Sims 4 is an incredibly in depth life simulator, arguably the only one of its kind, but it became this through years of hard work by a large team, funded by a triple-A studio. How can anything compete with that?
While there are likely several reasons for Life By You’s cancellation, I can’t help but think at least one of them is the fact any new life sim dealing with the human experience does not only need to compete with The Sims 4, but also better it.
Sadly, The Sims is often viewed through rose-tinted glasses. Despite people praising early Sims titles to this day, if a competitor put together a new game on the same level as the original game, it would likely be viewed as inferior and lacking in content. People forget just how badly tuned The Sims actually was before years of updates, patches, and DLC improved each base game. The perfect life sim doesn’t exist, and it looks increasingly unlikely that more life sims of any kind will even get out of the door.
Inzoi is the forerunner currently, and is a heady combination of laundry list features and unique ideas. However, likely somewhat wisely, developers Krafton, most famous for PUBG, have not given any details at all regarding a potential time scale, so we have no idea at what point this project is.
All hope for many Sims fans is now pinned to Paralives, which has seemingly similar lofty goals. But can it achieve them, or will it also falter under the pre-release pressure of bettering the genre’s biggest hitter?
