In what some will call a shock move and others will call a relief, games publisher Paradox Interactive have cancelled the release of Life by You, a game touted to rival EA Games' The Sims 4.
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Paradox Interactive's deputy Chief Executive Officer Mattias Lilja released a statement this morning (AEST) confirming the cancellation of the game which was meant to enter early access on June 4, but was pushed back indefinitely at the end of May.
"Sadly, we've decided to cancel the release of our long-awaited life sim Life by You," Mr Lilja said in the statement.
"This was an incredibly difficult call to make and is a clear failure on Paradox's part to meet both our own and the community's expectations.
"We realize this raises some large questions; here we hope to shed at least some light on why we opted to cancel, rather than delay as we communicated earlier.
"Life by You has been in the works for a long time and we've been very excited about the promise and the potential of this game.
"Our hope was always that it would be able to leave a mark in this exciting and new genre for us.
"That's why we've opted to delay it twice, to give the studio and the game a fair shot at realizing the potential we saw."
Life by You had been widely criticised online, with keen gamers noting what they described as sub-par graphics.
The Sims 4 streamer Kayla Sims, who streams and posts under Lilsimsie, addressed the announcement live during her Twitch stream this morning (AEST).
Ms Sims said the announcement "almost" made her feel bad for criticising the game in the past, but said she stood by her previous thoughts.
"The news broke just as I went live and someone came in and told me and I thought they were lying," she said.
"They weren't lying, I'm quite sad."
Ms Sims said the announcement was a surprise, and said many in the gaming community who were looking forward to an alternative life sim game to The Sims would be disappointed.
The Sims 4 has been heavily criticised by players recently, with game bugs and constant small releases of new paid content wearing thin on the heavily invested (the entire Sims 4 game with all expansion packs would set Australian players back more than $700) player base.
EA Games recently announced a dedicated team to address bugs and glitches in The Sims 4.
Mr Lilja started at Paradox Interactive in 2009 and has held many roles, including executive producer and chief operating officer.
Kelly Butterworth
Kelly is the Agricultural Digital Editor for ACM Agri, covering Queensland Country Life, The Land, Farmonline, Stock Journal, Stock & Land, Farm Weekly and the North Queensland Register.
Kelly is the Agricultural Digital Editor for ACM Agri, covering Queensland Country Life, The Land, Farmonline, Stock Journal, Stock & Land, Farm Weekly and the North Queensland Register.
