Paradox Interactive has closed down their studio, Paradox Tectonic, following the cancellation of their title Life By You.
Life By You was originally announced in March 2023, and was marketed as a competitor to EA Maxis’ The Sims. While the previews were promising, we didn’t really get to see all that much of the title, as Paradox proceeded to announce subsequent delays.
Yesterday, Paradox Interactive announced that they were can cancelling Life By You, citing uncertainties in game development. Today, as reported by Insider Gaming, they made this announcement on their website:
‘Paradox Interactive has decided to cease further operations in the wholly owned studio Paradox Tectonic (Tectonic) in Berkeley, California. The studio has since 2019 led the development of the game Life by You, whose release is cancelled, and employs 24 people.
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 (the) 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.’
This wasn’t necessarily surprising news, but that makes it no less disappointing. While it was easy to go after bigger companies like Microsoft and Sony for their layoffs, and Embracer in particular is nearly universally reviled for their poor planning leading to many layoffs and studio closures, Paradox’s case is different and requires introspection on our part.
While Paradox has no doubt been a successful developer, we need to remember that they are specialists in a particular niche, strategy games. While there is a dedicated audience for the genre, they are hardly at the same scale as live service or mobile free to play games.
Paradox’s strategy for long term survival and growth has been developing a long tail for their successful titles, with DLC plans that goes on for years. But even with all of this taken into account, it can take only a few bad decisions for the company to put itself in huge financial trouble.
So Paradox, like Embracer, made a bet on making risks with a new project, before the game industry faced financial difficulties that made it unfeasible to continue. Paradox’s misstep may not have been at the same scale as Embracer, but the consequences are the same closure of a studio, and layoffs of several game developers.
As its happened to Paradox, it is unfortunately likely to keep happening to other developers, while the industry continues to face its struggles. Their example makes it clear it’s not as simple as a few greedy wealthy CEOs being unwilling to lose money. GameRanx wishes the best for the people at Paradox Tectonic, and we hope they can find placement back in the video game industry.
