Paradox CEO admits it “made the wrong calls in several projects”, following cancellation of Life By You

CEO of Paradox Fredrik Wester has admitted the publisher “made the wrong calls in several projects”, following the cancellation of its The Sims competitor Life By You.

The game was cancelled back in June, and the internal studio behind the project, Paradox Tectonic, was closed.

Wester commented on Life By You as part of Paradox’s latest financial earnings report, stating the cancellation was a “difficult decision… as the game would not be able to meet our expectations.”

He continued: “It is clear that we have made the wrong calls in several projects, especially outside of our core, and this must change.

“We have areas here where we need to improve, for example in production, quality and risk assessment. In 2021, we made major changes to how we invest in riskier projects, which means that we have not started new projects with the same combination of high risk and high costs as Life by You.”

Along with the cancellation of Life by You, Paradox previously received criticism for the launch of Cities: Skylines 2 due to its poor performance. A disappointing DLC was rushed out and subsequently refunded.

That followed the troubled development of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, the commercial failure of 2023’s The Lamplighters’ League, and repeated delays of Prison Architect 2 that led to Paradox parting ways with developer Double Eleven.

“Despite great annoyance at our own mistakes, we have faith. Paradox’s future is bright, but we need to roll up our sleeves and work hard to fully realise the potential,” concluded Wester.

The cancellation of Life by You has resulted in a 90 percent decrease in operating profit for its latest quarter, while revenue decreased by 22 percent year-on-year.

Still, Wester believes Paradox’s “core business has performed very well” due to ongoing efforts to update Cities: Skylines 2 and the release of Victoria 3’s Sphere of Influence expansion among others.