The life sim revolution may not be over but it will have to wait until 2026, because Paralives is delayed

(Image credit: Paralives Team)

"The only thing left this year to save us from life sim malaise is Paralives, launching into early access on December 8," PC Gamer simmer-for-life Lauren Morton wrote earlier this month about the fizzled "life sim revolution" she was anticipating for 2025. And now here I am to make her year even worse: Paralives has been delayed into 2026.

"This year, we ran many playtests with friends and fans, and we were confident that we could improve the game enough in time for December," Paralives lead developer Alex Massé wrote in an apologetic missive on Steam. "In the lead-up to early access release, we broadened our playtests with a more varied playerbase, and the latest feedback we received made us realise the game isn’t up to the standard we wanted it to meet for release.

Talking about the challenges the Paralives dev team has overcome over the past six years, Massé said he's "proud of what we have built," but that the studio now needs "a bit more time to polish the simulation part of the game."

Paralives - What is Early Access? - YouTube

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The release date in this video is now a bit off the mark, but the rest is valid.

The "bit more time" is actually quite a chunk of it: Paralives is now slated to launch into early access on May 25, 2026, nearly six months later than the initial release date of December 8. The development roadmap has been updated to reflect what the studio will be working on between now and then, which will include "a focus on fixing important issues and improving the first-time user experience."

The Paralives team will also hold a 45 minute stream on YouTube of "uninterrupted live mode gameplay" at 12 pm ET on November 25 to show off the current state of the game.

"We plan on keeping you all updated with streams and videos leading up to the new release date," Massé wrote. "We remain fully committed to making a quality and innovative game with the support of the community and to updating it for years to come after release."

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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