Just 2 weeks before its early access release, Life By You is delayed again, this time without a new date

Life By You - a character with long dark hair, glasses, and a green shirt stands on a suburban street

(Image credit: Paradox Tectonic)

In what feels a bit like a cold shower for life sim players who'd been looking forward to the first major competitor to The Sims launching this summer, Life By You has been delayed again. The life sim led by former Sims studio head Rod Humble will not be launching into early access on June 4 as planned and has not chosen a new release date.

"This was not an easy decision, especially since we understand the anticipation and excitement that many players have for the game," Paradox Interactive said in its announcement. "However, we believe that additional development time is needed.

"While we would have preferred to commit to a new release window, we believe it is more prudent to hold off while we plan ahead, rather than committing to a new date that we cannot be certain to meet."

This isn't the first time that Life By You has been delayed. It was originally expected in September 2023, but was delayed to March 2024, and then to June 4. Now, just two weeks ahead of that planned early access date, it's delayed without commitment to a new date.

It's not confidence-inspiring news, certainly. But Paradox may not be feeling particularly confident right now. Its other big simulation game Cities: Skylines 2 had a rather rough launch, ahead of which developers warned players to "manage expectations on performance," leading to subsequent patches. Its first DLC in March was also a disaster, for which Paradox apologized and offered refunds.

As it seems I'm saying on a weekly basis lately, The Sims series is really long overdue a bit of healthy competition. There are several different life sim upstarts other than Life By You in the works, though it was slated to launch first. It would be a shame for it to start off on the wrong foot, so perhaps the latest delay is still for the best.

In a recent interview with PC Gamer, creative director Rod Humble said that he believes life sims are actually "the most complex RPGs ever written."

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.