Earlier this week, Paradox Interactive announced it was canceling Life By You, a simulation game meant to rival Sims in development at Paradox Tectonic. With Rod Humble, a lead designer on The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, leading Tectonic, fans were hopeful about Life By You, which was set to launch into Early Access earlier this month before an indefinite delay.
That Early Access launch never happened as Life By You was subsequently canceled, and now, in the same week, Paradox Interactive has announced it is closing Tectonic, as reported by Game Developer.
“This is difficult and drastic news for our colleagues at Tectonic, who’ve worked hard on Life By You’s Early Access release,” Paradox Interactive CEO Fredrik Wester writes in a press release. “Sadly, with the cancelation 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.”
As previously noted, this studio closure is happening shortly after Paradox Interactive canceled development on Life By You. Wester said at the time, “For a long time, we’ve held hopes for Life By You and the game potential we saw it in it, but it is now clear that the game will not be able to meet our expectations. A version that we’d be satisfied with is too far away, and therefore we are taking the difficult decision to cancel the release.”
In the span of days, Life By You was canceled, and the studio behind it, Tectonic, closed. This is another blow to an industry bleeding developers and studios left and right, and Tectonic’s closure joins an ever-growing list of disheartening closures and layoffs in 2024.
Earlier this month, Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive laid off 95 employees. Fae Farm and Dauntless developer Phoenix Labs laid off the majority of its staff and canceled its in-development games back in May, and that same week, Square Enix announced it will begin layoffs as part of “structural reforms.”
In May, Xbox closed four Bethesda studios, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall studio Arkane Austin. Take-Two Interactive closed Rollerdrome studio Roll7 and Kerbal Space Program 2 studio Intercept Games alongside major layoffs to its indie-publisher Private Division label. That same week, we learned Deliver Us Mars developer Keoken Interactive had laid off nearly its entire staff.
Elsewhere in the year, EA laid off roughly 670 employees across all departments, resulting in the cancellation of Respawn’s Star Wars FPS game. PlayStation laid off 900 employees across Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, and more, closing down London Studio in the process, too. The day before, Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games announced it laid off 90 employees.
At the end of January, we learned Embracer Group had canceled a new Deus Ex game in development at Eidos-Montréal and laid off 97 employees in the process. Also in January, Destroy All Humans remake developer Black Forest Games reportedly laid off 50 employees and Microsoft announced it was laying off 1,900 employees across its Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax teams, as well. Outriders studio People Can Fly laid off more than 30 employees in January, and League of Legends company Riot Games laid off 530 employees.
Lords of the Fallen Publisher CI Games laid off 10 percent of its staff, Unity will lay off 1,800 people by the end of March, and Twitch laid off 500 employees.
We also learned that Discord had laid off 170 employees, that layoffs happened at PTW, a support studio that’s worked with companies like Blizzard and Capcom, and that SteamWorld Build company, Thunderful Group, let go of roughly 100 people. Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive also reportedly laid off 45 people, too.
The hearts of the Game Informer staff are with everyone who’s been affected by layoffs or closures.