Life by You's demise is because of Paradox. Their management is infamous for being horrible. Their most anticipated game, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2, has been in development for almost a decade, and has switched development teams, directions, and lost its lead writers several times. It's coming out later this year and everyone is expecting it to flop based on everything they've shown and former staff speaking out, but it's a profitable IP, which is why it's going to get shipped instead of cancelled.
Yeah this is what I first thought of when I heard life by you got cancelled. it's not the first time a nearly completed game got cancelled and the studio shut down just for.... seemingly no reason
Life by You getting canned hurt so much. In my opinion it was the closest spiritual successor to the Sims 3, even more so with Rod Humble leading it. I do agree that visually the game looked dated, but with some time that would've been remedied. Once again were left with only Paralives to look forward to. Oh, and EA's attempt to copy Paralives.
LBY actually had pretty major hardware requirements that were upped just before release. It was gonna be no gentle beast able to coast on Potatoe machines either. The maps actually looked like they had potential, but it was also showing lag all the time even in the developer videos.
@@TheDawnofVanlife They specified the increase of specs by pointing to future expansion and modding. They expected people to run pretty advanced mods since this is a super moddable game. It was futureproofing. I didn't see it as unexpected at all, it's a game focused on deep simulation. This is where all games are going to land in the future, they were just thinking ahead - assuming their game would stick around for a long time.
Interesting theories, but I'm firmly believe that the cancelation of Life by You is internal rather than external. The quality isn't what was expected, the publisher is mismanaging the development team, so it's a recipe of disaster.
I don't know how anyone can look at the quality of the absolute crap EA has been putting out for 10 years and then have the audacity to say that the quality wasn't there in another game. Some of us are looking for more than just lipstick on a pig. Maybe Paradox shutting down the game had nothing to do with people complaining about the 'quality' but I will never not largely blame shallow Sims 4 players for this mess. I'm also irritated that I defended paradox repeatedly over the last couple of years. They can bite it. Sincerely, ~Bitter old lady
This is exactly how I feel, but I never post bout it cause ik how offended and angry ppl get over this topic lol. It’s upsetting to see how the life sim genre is going. EA already ruined The Sims brand, and now other companies are making a fool out of the life sim genre. Meanwhile, some players are making it worse and we’re just going to be stuck with a game that’s constantly trying to sell us something, whilst giving us nothing. I guess I’ll just have to keep going back to the sims 2, to reminisce bout when the sims genre actually had some love poured into it; instead of greed.
EA paid them off, period. This is exactly why I'm literally planning a life sim that I'm making myself, and NO ONE will pay me to not release it. I have already designed the UI, interaction system, and have a prototype for my "Tomos" as they will be called. I am in my 3rd semester at Full Sail, and this is going to be my life's goal until it is released.
Exactly, it's so unfair and weird that people are being so tolerant and forgiving towards EA, even after decade of abuse, yet being so hypercritical and negative towards other companies that are actually listening and trying to make a quality life-sim games
@@NotMalcolm I feel touched by Jesus lol. But seriously, I know about them because I also play Path of Exile, and they've been bought by Tencent a couple of years ago. It's a well established fact that they're the baddest of all corporate bitches in the gaming world, EA and Ubisoft are kids compared to them. Much love, it's still unusual to see your face, after watching your videos with just voiceover for so long, but not unpleasant🤭 Keep on being awesome ♥
The Tencent conspiracy is honestly plausible. They also have a stake in Epic, which could explain why LBY had all those preorder bonuses on the Epic Store! Paradox was always cagey about a Steam release. And why would they want to fund two of the same type of competing game? I mean Tencent has a stake in EVERYTHING so I'm sure they must fund competing games pretty often! But yeah I could see them going "this one looks more polished, and this one looks rough" and deciding Inzoi is the better investment. I don't think Paradox did a good job of selling us on the gameplay--- until Fakegamergirl actually released her previews, I didn't even know it HAD gameplay! They were marketing it as a pure sandbox where we make our own fun--- but I don't believe for a second it deserved to be cancelled
The Tenecet theory makes sense because LBY was heavily focused on user generated content and giving players the ability to basically make their own packs and CC using in game tools. If I had to choose between it and InZoi which hasn't released its monetization plan and will probably be equal to the Sims 4 or worse with micro transactions, I'd put all my money into inZoi as well.
They also just dropped a pretty major HUGE economy patch/fix for Cities 2. I think they are 100% monitoring that situation before they take any bold risk again.
Me too. InZoi was pretty (I would buy InZoi too if it is sold as a standard one player game - we don't know what the monetisation for InZoi will be yet - standard single player/MMO/Online microtransation - the latter is sadly the most probable because that's what Krafton mostly does, then we'll be back to square one, stuck with refusing to play The Sims 4 garbage (playing The Sims 3 instead) and waiting for Paralives, unless you're incredibly stupid enough to be ripped off with microtransations), but they were completely different markets in my opinion. InZoi is very teenager, and while I believe it will have modding, the modding will be nothing like LBY would have been. LBY was a real gamers' modding game, more for adults. I would have bought them both because they would have been two completely different games with very different gameplay and from different aspects. And I suspect, so would most lovers of life sim, regardless of what they say on official forums, because we've been stuck with ONE incredibly sh**y game for so long. It's a shame! There are thousands of shooters, war games, fantasy fight games etc, and they all play together in the market - people buy multiple games. Why can't two life sims also be in the same market and not necessarily be directly competing? It's a silly perspective to think that they can't. All the other genres do: city builders, farming games etc. Why would anyone think that people wouldn't buy both? The only people who would think that way are Simmers because they've only ever had one game, and forget that most people don't just play one game and that all other genres have options. The general gaming community doesn't think like that at all. They look at the perspective games coming out and generally choose multiple of the massive list of games available. The Chinese investor thing is a something I didn't know. It's not an impossibility that a large investor didn't want to fund two games in the same tiny genre, but in reality he's probably funding hundreds of games in the same genre with shooters and action games and war games. Life Sim is just a very tiny market that's never had competition, that's the only real difference. It would be pretty short-sighted because it's largely still an untapped market in so many ways, although untapped market also means a gamble. Removing one competitor might make the gamble slightly more favourable, but barely - it wouldn't remove the gamble...
@@fransmith3255 I still have my eyes on the moddability. I don't think there is a game as moddable as LBY out there - and there probably never will be from a publisher. My reasoning: If the modding is too powerful, then why should we buy DLC at all? If we compare DLC from S4, the community could whip that stuff up in a few days, a week tops, with the LBY modding tools. Just a little cooperation goes a long way. If 12 people make models and 5 people write code, I'm guessing we're already closing in on the team size that designs DLC for sims.
Just sad seeing this happen because nothing will ever change in the life simulation space, the company will continue doing what they’ve been doing and people will keep buying into it. Wouldn’t be surprised to see a 100th DLC pack with two chairs and a door, and people will just buy it because as player we haven’t allowed others to join. There should be an MVP launch and start building from it, it’s something new and hard to get right at first but there would be options. And I think we can agree that issues would be accepted on a new game built by a small group than having tons of issues from a company that has made this for 20+ years with a bigger team and cash flow, but have no real incentive on getting things right. Sorry for the rant, just sick and tired of the same old same old *rolls eyes and not in the good way*
Interesting observations. I am kinda over Life By You; something about it was always off. I'm also very skeptical of InZoi. Fingers crossed for Paralives
I really feel for the devs. I don’t see how this is much different to the huge layoffs we’ve seen from big companies lately. Once again, companies are perfectly fine but the little guys have their jobs stripped away. All that hard work and time put in just gone.
completely agree. i find it disturbing that so many automatically blamed the dev team for the cancellation and even said the dev who spoke out was lying?? it’s giving crazed 🤷♂️
the linkedin post that was read out during this video genuinely broke my heart. the devs were so passionate and it was clear they held so much love for the game they were working on
I've found out about LBY cancellation right after watching your last video about upcoming lifesim updates where you said you were looking forward to it 😭😭 literally went to the YT homepage and bam. there it is
This feels like Paradox wanted to take this as a tax write off to cover their other failures. I was ready to buy life by you, it’s a huge disappointment.
13:42 not only is krafton a much bigger company with way more funding, but every single asset in the game is computer scans of real things or just straight up AI generated. the character models, the city, objects, everything. that's why the graphics are so ""beautiful"" and ""realistic"". the developers openly admitted this themselves in one of their own videos and even tout this like it's a good thing or something to be proud of. like good on you for not paying real life human beings to create assets for you, i guess. and people are eating this shit up
In general, it's a good idea to be on the side of the developers instead of the publishers. The people trashing developers usually have no idea how much exploitation goes on, for example: finding out you're unemployed through a public announcement that the entire project was cancelled. While in general I think Paradox is incompetent, like look at the CIties Skylines 2 release, it's kind of scary to know how much Tencent has their hands in things and I wouldn't put this past them. Wonder how the Paralives team feels about all this, I feel like there's going to be more pressure on them now.
thank you and i completely agree! i really feel for the developers and what they experienced; 5 years of work just for it to be scrapped at the last minute. It’s not to say they are completely without fault, but I think it was a decision that was mostly out of their hands. And for sure i hope the people making paralives will pull through; sometimes I worry tho with the (unfairly) high expectations many life sim players have…
@@NotMalcolm Yeah I'm praying for them. Sims fans are almost as bad as Drag Race fans when it comes to being ridiculous, present company excluded of course!
from what i'm hearing. Mr Humble's work on stuff after the sims wasn't too well-received (secondlife, Cults & Daggers ) and has been described as "Great idea, not enough polish". and even while on the sims he had interesting takes
It’s a real shame, regardless of what happened or who’s most responsible. I think a new era of life sims is what we need, and I was looking forward to LBY being apart of that but oh well I guess. On a different note, I like that you added some new thoughts to the discourse rather than just reading the PR statement or something lol. Interesting about Tencent.
I was _really_ looking forward to LBY. I know many thought it looked messy, but I thought it had what looked like a very strong base for customization and sharing. Really hoping Paralives and/or InZOI can deliver.
I feel as the entire existence of Sims 4 proves that if LBY was made by EA, they would've released it in the current state without worrying about anything. Fr tho it's a big shame that all of that work went into dirt
When mentioning their games that have had troubled development cycles under Paradox, you forgot to mention possibly the biggest one, which is Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. The game suffered multiple delays, was supposed to be released back in 2019 or something (it's still not out), Paradox then announced the original development studio (which they partially owned) would no longer be developing the game, and they would essentially be outsourcing development to another dev studio to finish the game for them. They said they thought about canceling the game, but ultimately decided against it.
I'm still not interested in InZoi at this time. It just doesn't look like the gameplay for me is there. I guess all my hopes are in Paralives because I got none for "Project Rene"
Trust me, its paradox. They own several IPs that are more successful, hearts of iron, stellaris, crusader kings, to name a few, and their main motto is 'how many DLC can we crank out of a game" They probably didnt want to make another sims 4 with $50000 worth of DLC after a few of their blunders, communities from even their successful games are kinda fed up with them already Meanwhile, eyes are on Paralives
I totally think your theories are valid, especially regarding Tencent. So many triple A companies fall in line when it comes to their shareholders. The bottom line of $$ is going to the shareholders, CEOs and marketing management. That 20 million $ budget is mostly a payout to shareholders and CEOs, a just breadcrumbs are given to their employees. By cancelling the game, they lose no money, and their shareholders have already been compensated. Plus, it is not just that 20 million that is a tax write-off, but the potential loss of sales, tacked on, which all flows back to the CEOs and shareholders. Triple A game studios continue to scrap games, even purchasing successful indie companies (here's looking at the original Maxis team...RIP), consolodating and firing employees, requiring large-scale crunch time, outsourcing, etc. It is not the quality of the games, it is the potential for quick releases, loaded with microtransations, etc. I wish Rod Humble had learned his lessen from working for EA, because LbY would have been far better as an indie project, instead of just thrown into the dumpster. Inzoi does look pretty, but it does not offer the modability that LbY was showing us (giving me a sense they are hiding something, perhaps microtransactions?). I am disappointed, but not shocked that the game was cancelled. So sad that it was at such a late stage in the development, especially for the 24 employees that did not deserve to lose their jobs! One last thing, people kept comparing LbY with TS, not knowing what the TS games all looked like in the alpha and beta stages. With the exception of TS4 (it still is dog $hit!), all the mainline games were not even as polished as LbY was at pre-early access stage.
And Malcom strikes again like always But honestly what that worker said on their linkedin really worried me, I ve heard many rumors of Paradox treating their employees like shit and it basically means that it got shut down by no reason? Atp both Paradox and EA are the same horrible companies This video slayed tho and theories are wild
Soooo life by you can get cancelled for quality but the sims 4 got released with no toddlers,pools,ghosts,cars,dishwashers and other shit I can’t even think of right... so that’s fine
@@NotMalcolmThat comment was weak. Not everyone plays with toddlers in their game...so.its not a deal breaker either way. EA had balls to still release...where as Paradox gave up...cause their game looked like decedent shit...and they knew it.
What annoys me, is I wanted them all to be different! I don't want another sims .... I want them all to be different and Paradox was on track for me. I also feel it was a good base game to start with. People complain about Life By You as Sims 4 is literally ALWAYS BROKEN! I knew you were going to say INZOI! LOL
I intended, and perhaps still do, to make a video about my take on the matter. In truth, I don't think LBY ever got to a point where it was a threat to inzoi. The latter is a doll house, the former is more of a "build your own game" platform, and the market is plenty big enough to house LBY, inzoi, paralives, vivaland and TS5 combined. So I don't buy into the theory that LBY got nixed to remove it as inzoi's competition. As a developer myself, starting in game development before moving into web development, however, I saw far too many red flags over the last year. The employee claimed they hit the needed metrix, but I've got to ask... Which ones? Because if the videos they showed us were representative of the state of the game, they were still at least two full years away, of not more, from full release. That's another six to eight million USD paradox currently probably cannot afford. Add the fact that LBYs marketing was abysmal and the community was nowhere near as large as it should have been... Do I need to say more?
I was trying to offer an alternative theory instead of just making a video regurgitating the same thing that everyone else has said. I don’t see any reason not to believe the developer who spoke out. It was a AA game with a small budget, yet people had extremely high expectations for it. Sadly, we may never know the full story.
@NotMalcolm While it is true there is no shortage of games, 20mil is by no means a 'small' budget, nor does it explain the state of the game we saw near the end of it. It's okay if you don't want to "regurgitate" what the community has been saying, but voicing a conspiracy as "alternative" without any proof is irresponsible, and dismissing what the community has been saying for over a year because they've been saying it for over a year, aka, regurgitating, is disrespectful and a slap in the face of reality. It's insane to me that people were called 'haters' for voicing honest and fair critique, and now the game has tanked, rather than admitting those critiques were spot on, it has now become an story of "your expectations where too high, and here's some outlandish theory without proof instead, because heaven forbid we accept the devs are human and can make mistakes". Again, its disrespectful.
the “proof” (if it’s even important) is the common denominator between the two companies, but more importantly I don’t need you to agree with my silly video at all; if you’re taking it that seriously then you’re missing the point entirely…. I don’t even take it that seriously. Yes, i think people were too hard on LBY; life sim players are toxic af. Yes, $20 million over 5 years is a small budget for a California studio. No, i don’t care if you agree with me but please make your own basic af video about what you think happened; I’m sure it will be riveting.
The state of the gaming industry is so fucked up people are willing to put developers through mud while the CEOs continue to get off scot-free and make that bank. At this point, I wouldn't be at all surprised if your conspiracy turned out to be true.
I was cautiously optimistic about life by you and I'm sad to see it go. To me it could have been a great alternative and I had the most faith in it compared to the other games coming out. THe only thing I didn't love is that there seemed to be a lot of different ideas but they weren't necessarily connected together very well. I could see the game being improved on but it wasn't something I would have bought day one (But most games aren't that for me)
Hmmmm, didn’t know about the Tencent connection, that’s interesting. I personally didn’t need or want LBY characters to look like InZoi characters but the comparison is totally valid. Most customers aren’t gonna decide on buying a game based on how big the team is developing it is, most people aren’t gonna even look it up. Every potential customer is gonna buy what suits their taste and plenty of indies far smaller than Paradox Tectonic have had to deal with their game being compared to those made by larger teams because they share a genre and the same/similar customer base.
@@NotMalcolm Well their outputs are very different in general. inZoi (while not 100% clear) doesn’t feel like a builders game at all. You straight up can’t build community lots …seems like you can build ‘your house’ (maybe) and decorate to your hearts content in an apartment or a house. I also haven’t seen any evidence you can swap characters in a save as the ‘story’ of the game seems to be the cat is your boss and pulls you (your Zoi) into the “world” of InZoi and that is the story you “play” from there and the one you stick with. Its avatars seem highly detailed also because you seem to make a single character whose story you are playing out. You can marry and have kids, but its very unclear if those kids and spouse become optional playables when you do so. LBY had a focus on world customization over character detail so the imbalance was more there then based on team size or money or any of those factors. Paradox is also as famous for piling on DLC as EA so I do think a smaller scope could have helped the game get started and reasonable DLC they took time to make worth the price would have been better. The scope was bigger than the funding. And they could have satisfied a ton of frustrated players by adjusting scope quite a bit. But look at something like Manor Lords. It was made by one guy as his passion project. He managed expectations before launch to his loyal followers and along the way of development subcontracted out some of the larger work. He project managed the work and delivered a medieval city builder tons of people have had fun with at this point. You as a dev behind the scenes manage for your team size, not what your team size isn’t.
If that is true, then they are idiots. They could have made money off of both games. And didn't Rob Humble create Second Life? I think Rob Humble should start his own business and create a new game or get the rights to Life By You and launch it himself. I don't know how the backing/money works with that, but I am still interested in this game. And if not, then I hope Rob Humble can go with someone else/company and create another Life Game.
Wow, as usual, it was worth it to wait for one of your videos. It's a shame the game got cancelled. I'm pretty cool with The Sims 3, I intend to get back to it, but I was interested in Life By You. Great theories. I hope you'll be ok, I'll miss listening to your videos EDIT: I forgot to mention. Spice Girls? I love your sims, your voice, your sense of humor and now one of my favorite bands
The gaming industry ( sans indie developers) have been laying people off by the thousands for over a year now. Instead of fixing any internal problems, it has become easier to shut studios down as a means of appeasing these companies' Wall Street overlords as I like to call them. Stock prices / share values increase, so the overlords are happy, until they see the previously mentioned number decrease again. Rinse, wash, repeat. I don't know if Krafton has anything to do with the death of LBY, but you are on to something in regards to Krafton having their sticky fingers in things. The new studio called Midsummer Games who hired Grant Rodiek, a former TS4 producer is partially funded by Krafton. Just sayin'....
I thought LBY had a lot of potential, but it very clearly lacked direction, was trying to be a "make your own game" almost and trying to please everyone while also looking like hot garbage with no visual direction or merit. It's very unfortunate, because I liked the idea of highly customizable life sim, but it was too all over the place.
Life by you was DOA tbh, I think they hopped on the life simulation wagon when multiple projects were announced, and they thought it would made them fortune. The game visuals are lacklustre and barely performed well in the previews, and I’m honestly not surprised at all, CSII bombed as well the game was “too ambitious” and “rushed”. As for the INZOI conspiracy I actually believe they had something to do with it.
What I feel happened was it was getting to ambitious and maybe wouldn’t have ran well. Rumors said that the game would have required 32gb of ram. Very few games require that. So even if the gameplay and ideas was there, maybe it was running like a potato. There was also the fact they hadn’t even shown the other life stages. I had a lot of doubt about that dialogue system also. Things were getting way too detailed. You could play games on your lby humans phone. You could drive the cars. There were a lot of things while cool - I could see maybe have complicated things instead of reaching the big picture of what a life sims should be. Also there was something really weird about that team. Their live streams seemed very amateurish. No one owned decent mic or even a nice camera. I’ve seen simmers have better setups.
Paradox was murdered by a EA sniper who wanted to steal their ideas for sims 5 didn't like their theme and motive because sims 5 didn't have one and the sims community bashing LBY so much the shareholders didn't want to see it as the simskiller it had potential to be...it's giving cold blooded STAGED SETUP MURRDDDAAAA! I bet we will see TS5 have some of the LBY features suddenly, if not INZOI will. from shareholders suggestions...it's kdramas about shady business like this from the exec pov. It's not good enough to be profitable but good enough to pick out the good parts for another project and discard it. I hope LBY rebirths with a rebranding better than ever in the future hopefully Rob will get his phone back and send you that long awaited text
That was a really interesting theory, I had no idea the people behind Inzoi were that powerful. That gives me hope that maybe the game really will be as good as it seems, cause so far I felt like the project is way too ambitious and too good to be true
Honestly, pass. I think it's unlikely that an investor would sabotage a product that is close to launching, especially if said launch looks like it will be successful. It's more likely for them to support the launch of both products, even if they are supposed competitors, since they would've both been successful and earned revenue. It's like how Hoyoverse owns Genshin Impact but they still released Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero. They're all popular gacha games but all the revenue is Hoyoverse's in the end. Many such cases. There is definitely something weird about the situation but this explanation seems incredibly unlikely, along with any EA sabotage theories. I would assume the issue boils down to mismanagement.
It was a silly thing for Paradox to do. It's not like the game still had years before it was releasable. It had weeks. Even if it didn't sell well the game would've earned some of the investment back, but now they ensured they'd get none of it back. I also think the game would've had fairly good sales on launch.. even more after launch when influencers started playing it for their viewers. Tencent own some of most game companies (and many other types of companies) The reason for this is because in order to sell and market a product inside China, you need to make a deal with a company already strong in China. It's just how it works, and why these companies offer deals in the form of stock. Even if Tencent cared about these games which I don't think they really do, they could care less which game sells more so long as both sell. It benefits them regardless of who wins. It benefits them more to have two than one. Unless ( a stretch) one game would be easier to market in China than the other. But that wouldn't result in an entire studio being dissolved, just them being put on another game. I'd say money, management drama, or EA lawyer threats.
it's paradox.. they are running franchises into the ground. look at what has happened to vampire bloodlines 2. the tencent thing is silly... they own shares in damn near every game industry company that they can.
I mean the game looked very bad for something that was about to be released into early access. I think it's far more likely Paradox was being honest about cancelling it due to the low quality and polish.
this is much more subdued than your comment on Reddit calling me “delusional” simply for having an opinion about a game and making a half-serious video about it i was actually subscribed to you for over a year lol but anyway good luck with your channel 💞
i'm sorry that you were expecting an extremely polished, beautiful game with no flaws from a development team of 24 people. i seriously hope you learn to temper your expectations because holy shit LOL
So gutted it was cancelled, only cared about life by you as I wanted paradox to do to sims 4 what they did to simcity with city skylines. And knowing they brought on my man humble who helped make sims 2 the most iconic in-depth game with 2004 tech made me so excited and hopeful for life by you 😢
What did they 'do' to Sim City, exactly??? I see that old urban legend is still circling 'round. IF they actually did 'do' something to Sim City, it should have been a piece of cake to 'do' it to The Sims4. ..but they didn't. They never did anything to Sim City. Please do your research and learn the truth instead of believing lies. Or better yet, ask Rod Humble what did they 'do' to Sim City. He'll graciously tell you: 'nothing'.
To this day I still believe half of the negativity surrounding LBY was pointless criticism on how it wasn't simply Sims 4 with an open world 🙄 Sorry Sims 4 stans but you are never getting your fetish of a Sims 4 game with (insert missing mainline features here from previous iterations)
@@NotMalcolmWasn't that Rod Humble's selling point? It would be like Sims3, but better than 4? If you're gonna blame someone for arrogantly boasting this, blame him..and not the 'simmers'.
If your theory holds true, I have heard that games made with Unreal Engine are difficult to mod. High freedom games are definitely less profitable than low freedom games. InZoi's freedom is certainly much lower than Life by You's. I am always most looking forward to LBY, although the graphics are not good, it has the greatest potential.
@@Ca11MeMayb3 Since it's a high profile game, it's not at all unrealistic that it could get leaked and get a very prosperous life in the hands of the community, instead of being tossed. It's almost like it was designed to be set free rather than managed by some multinational corporation. Modding just isn't a profitable niche.
I think they realised that by the time they'd get get game good enogh to release, Inzoy and Paralives would have already been available and, since their game would have had the weakest graphics, which seams to be the most important thing for most people, they thought they wouldn't have been able to make as much money in sells as they expected so they decided to cut their losses and kill the game
Love your conspiracy theory. It sounds like you really did your homework. Personally, I think the LBY team are very talented, and I have all the confidence in the world that Rod Humble knew what he was doing and the game this complex and deep was advancing at a pace that was needed to make sure it was enjoyable and playable. I think the Paradox corporate publisher is inept and making bad decisions, which is causing the failure of so many of its games. Whether that is due to pressure from impatient shareholders or something else is anybody's guess. I really wish the team was able to cut ties with the publisher and go the indie route. Personally I feel Paradox threw the baby out with the bathwater. I know that I would have gladly paid $20 - $40 for the game in its current state even if it was unsupported abandoned-ware just to have the opportunity to see what it was capable of becoming, learn to use the tools, and see what modders would do with it.
If he knew what he was doing, Paradox wouldn't have cancelled it. Did EA cancel Sims2 when he was there? Hell naw. Cause Rod was not alone in his creavity there. There were many more, including Mr. Will Wright himself still there. Rod was pretty much alone on this project...and it showed.
I never commented on any of your videos I think, but I need to say that I really like your videos: the editing + infos + humour (the clips from Jennifer Coolidge, Cole Escola...) = chef's kiss! You're looking good btw ...if I may add this remark (μ_μ)
Y'all need to seriously stop. All this conspiracy theorizing bs. That game looked absolutely horrendous...and being in 'early access' is no excuse for them to to sell junk. Y'all get on The Sims for doing it, but were completely cool with buying another crap game with issues. They all will have issues that you agreed to buy...'early'. There are many other life simulation games to be played right now. Problem is, y'all want something just like The Sims, but not be THE Sims. This is why you all are only looking forward to those games that are most similar to The Sims....and then have nerve to say: ' we don't want another Sims'. Hypocrites.
@SimlikeitHot Actually, people are saying they want another life simulation game, EA does not own the life simulation genre. EA having competition is in no way bad. By the way, no upcoming life simulation game "looks like The Sims". Life Simulation games simulate life. EA doesn't own houses, families, cars, crafts, cooking, food, working out, buildings, etc. They also don't own the concept of people being social. The Sims was originally based on the Hierarchy of Needs, another concept EA doesn't own. So when you say "they look like The Sims" you should realize EA doesn't have a copyright on living.
and one other thing if youre okay with ea taking youre money and giving you content that is broken, be my guest, but leave others alone, cause this isn,t the first channel where you have commented so stop
@@thesimslover82884 EA owns The Sims...a game every new life sim is copying. Tell me these new games ain't looking just like The Sims. Even that weirdo Rod Humble bragged about his failed project mimicked The Sims3...a game he DiD NOT create. So let's cut through the bull... Not everyone lives life the same way either, IF you wanna go THERE. The Sims simulate one of many ways of living real life...even including fantasy. But why are all these new life sims games showing us the exact same way as The Sims? Why not a whole new way? Only new life sim game that will have a chance at success is the one that is heavily similar to The Sims and they know this. And I hope EA sues the living shit out of each one of them. I hate copycats...even more, thieves.
@@savagepixel4154 So, a stand alone modder deserves praise, for what...exactly? Because they mod in a 1,000 different ways your Sim can have sex?? Is that what makes them special in your eyes? Or, is it because those same sex positions are free of charge to you? Is this why you defend them to the death, but you shit all over a successful company, simply because they have a millions of dollars? What the hell kind of argument is that? Is success a bad thing? Modders imo, are no different than that million dollar company. They are in this for the money as well..trust. You may not be paying them directly for their work, but you better believe someone is. Ain't no way in hell they're putting up with all y'alls bs for free..ain't no way. They are no more special then the developers who keep up the very game they insert their mods in. Mods need the basegame, the basegame doesn't need the mods...remember that. Respect all..or respect none.
Its a shame more people arent talking about this. This is yet another move by Paradox to put money above values, even when more money would obviously flow if they didnt take the easy way out. Happy to say I will not be giving Paradox any more money for any of their titles or DLC.
As a game designer, I can assure you the Dev Team (Tectonic Games) was the reason this game was cancelled. Paradox was very patient with them, allowing to push back the early access date many, many times. The game didn't improve much since it was revealed. They wasted a year adding depth to certain systems such as gardening, but they didn't focus on major elements such as interactions, animations and graphics. They wasted resources and didn't respond well to feedback. This was 100% a self-inflicted wound. Paradox didn't want the bad publicity of another messy release so they decided to pull the plug and it was the right choice.
respect your opinion but disagree. I saw plenty of improvements over time. The budget was small ($20 million over 5 years) especially for a studio in California and I think paradox wasn’t interested in funding the game further and was worried about bad press. I never really cared about the graphics much but i know that irked a lot of people. Still I think there was a market for this game and I see no reason not to believe the dev who spoke out.
EA is one of the most sleazy companies on the planet. Many companies play dirty and there is a huge chance they are scared of what will be next with the sims since several competitors appeared overnight. It feels like they undervalue the title, but there must be people shaking in their boots when it comes to customer feedback and true value of ts4 compared to older installments no matter how much money they make off of the 500 DLC packs. Project Renee or whatever already has fans nervous and they know this, which is why they feel like they have to keep simmers in the loop with direct feedback as they make the game (just like the indy competition has done). It could have been multiple people across the industry as there has never been more than one life sim (in comparison to the sims) being created until this period of time. Business can only get dirty from here. This is way too much comp for the first time ever and it seems like someone had to get taken out. It was most likely a hit job.
I may be on the minority here, but LbY seemed to have the best potential out of the big 3 life sims coming up (Life by You, Para Life and Inzoi), it wasn't the best looking, but it looked like they were aiming to make a good life sim gameplay wise and were listening to the players (refreshing!) + it didn't seem we would need the most powerful/expensive pc out there.
I think that Paradox took a massive hit with CS2 (this is still going btw). I'm not saying that was the main reason but I believe that if CS2 was a massive success, they wouldn't cancel LBY. Btw, love your videos, editing and sense of humor. Keep it up.
If it was actually cancelled 2 weeks before launch then Paradox are dumb as fuck. People are looking for a new life sim, and I keep hearing that people want another sims 3, LBY could of netted them a lot of money.
Ea always waits until the project is solid to offer to buy. A lot of the sims "copies" are a "scam" in the sense that it’s never meant to actually succeed, just enough to get ea’s attention so they can be bought. I’ve seen this happen since the sims 2.
Uhhhh blaming Tencent is kind of a stretch I think... As you said in your video they own 13% of Inzoi developers Krafton, which is most famous for creating PUBG. What is PUBG's biggest competitor? Fortnite, which was developed by Epic games, which is 40% owned by Tencent. Sure, the life sim genre is more niche than battle royale, but taking into account how much money Sims 4 makes on DLC a lot of people would have bought both Inzoi and LBY.
oh interesting! I don’t really see Fortnite and pubg as competitors but i see what you mean 😊 i wasn’t so much “blaming” Tencent as i was pointing out a connection between Krafton and Paradox which *may* have played a role in the cancellation
That post, "Multiple years developing a game that is still in early development..." Hi, let me introduce you to 7 Days to Die. 😂 For those that don't know, that game was in Alpha for 10 or more years. At least people get to play it though. I'd have bought LBY and tried it.
inzoi is not open world, is open neighbourhood. i want inzoi coming soon, just for the people that have so many critiques for lby realize that they will not play inzoi because the pc machine of these legends will not run.
@@nattmelankoli yes hahahha. these people never see the games that krafton create? they like make money! inzoi will have more dlc than the sims 4 and will be more bug than the sims 3.
Life by You's demise is because of Paradox. Their management is infamous for being horrible. Their most anticipated game, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2, has been in development for almost a decade, and has switched development teams, directions, and lost its lead writers several times. It's coming out later this year and everyone is expecting it to flop based on everything they've shown and former staff speaking out, but it's a profitable IP, which is why it's going to get shipped instead of cancelled.
dang i didn’t realize it had been almost a decade… thanks for pointing that out tho it’s another good example of Paradox’s shabby track record
@@NotMalcolmYou're a hypocrite...
Yeah this is what I first thought of when I heard life by you got cancelled. it's not the first time a nearly completed game got cancelled and the studio shut down just for.... seemingly no reason
If Not Malcolm goes missing, we know who to suspect.
thank you pls keep me in your prayers
The INZOI maniacs are on the hunt already 😂
*whispers* Deligracy?
OH NAUR 😭
His Twitter has been gone since 07/03/2024; self-deletion idk
Life by You getting canned hurt so much. In my opinion it was the closest spiritual successor to the Sims 3, even more so with Rod Humble leading it. I do agree that visually the game looked dated, but with some time that would've been remedied. Once again were left with only Paralives to look forward to. Oh, and EA's attempt to copy Paralives.
yes sir i agree it had so much potential 🥲 i hope Paralives pulls through and in the meantime ig we still have the sims 3 haha
Not Malcolm Tried to Investigate the Death of 'Life by You' Himself- "I Looked for Evidence".
I was definitely more hyped for LBY than Inzio. My graphics card will blow up if I were to try to launch Inzio 😂
LBY actually had pretty major hardware requirements that were upped just before release. It was gonna be no gentle beast able to coast on Potatoe machines either. The maps actually looked like they had potential, but it was also showing lag all the time even in the developer videos.
@@TheDawnofVanlife They specified the increase of specs by pointing to future expansion and modding. They expected people to run pretty advanced mods since this is a super moddable game. It was futureproofing. I didn't see it as unexpected at all, it's a game focused on deep simulation. This is where all games are going to land in the future, they were just thinking ahead - assuming their game would stick around for a long time.
Interesting theories, but I'm firmly believe that the cancelation of Life by You is internal rather than external. The quality isn't what was expected, the publisher is mismanaging the development team, so it's a recipe of disaster.
That would still be internal if LBY shareholder pulled funding.. so I think you meant due to Paradox itself
I don't know how anyone can look at the quality of the absolute crap EA has been putting out for 10 years and then have the audacity to say that the quality wasn't there in another game. Some of us are looking for more than just lipstick on a pig.
Maybe Paradox shutting down the game had nothing to do with people complaining about the 'quality' but I will never not largely blame shallow Sims 4 players for this mess.
I'm also irritated that I defended paradox repeatedly over the last couple of years. They can bite it.
Sincerely,
~Bitter old lady
This is exactly how I feel, but I never post bout it cause ik how offended and angry ppl get over this topic lol. It’s upsetting to see how the life sim genre is going. EA already ruined The Sims brand, and now other companies are making a fool out of the life sim genre. Meanwhile, some players are making it worse and we’re just going to be stuck with a game that’s constantly trying to sell us something, whilst giving us nothing. I guess I’ll just have to keep going back to the sims 2, to reminisce bout when the sims genre actually had some love poured into it; instead of greed.
EA paid them off, period. This is exactly why I'm literally planning a life sim that I'm making myself, and NO ONE will pay me to not release it. I have already designed the UI, interaction system, and have a prototype for my "Tomos" as they will be called. I am in my 3rd semester at Full Sail, and this is going to be my life's goal until it is released.
@@JessiTheBestiGamingThis is also the reason I’m waiting for paralives. As far as I know, there’s no way Alex would sell out to EA.
Exactly, it's so unfair and weird that people are being so tolerant and forgiving towards EA, even after decade of abuse, yet being so hypercritical and negative towards other companies that are actually listening and trying to make a quality life-sim games
@@andpegThis is why I’ve always supported Alex and Paralives, his determination to stay indie and not be controlled by shareholders and publishers.
NotMaclcolm, I think you're onto something here. Tencent is notorious for having extremely shady business practices.
thank you 🙏 i researched really hard on Wikipedia
@@NotMalcolm I feel touched by Jesus lol.
But seriously, I know about them because I also play Path of Exile, and they've been bought by Tencent a couple of years ago. It's a well established fact that they're the baddest of all corporate bitches in the gaming world, EA and Ubisoft are kids compared to them.
Much love, it's still unusual to see your face, after watching your videos with just voiceover for so long, but not unpleasant🤭 Keep on being awesome ♥
@@Nnaiiro It feels a shame he was hiding such a handsome mug for so long, but yah I just feel blessed he let us in behind the scenes ^^
The Tencent conspiracy is honestly plausible. They also have a stake in Epic, which could explain why LBY had all those preorder bonuses on the Epic Store! Paradox was always cagey about a Steam release. And why would they want to fund two of the same type of competing game? I mean Tencent has a stake in EVERYTHING so I'm sure they must fund competing games pretty often! But yeah I could see them going "this one looks more polished, and this one looks rough" and deciding Inzoi is the better investment.
I don't think Paradox did a good job of selling us on the gameplay--- until Fakegamergirl actually released her previews, I didn't even know it HAD gameplay! They were marketing it as a pure sandbox where we make our own fun--- but I don't believe for a second it deserved to be cancelled
opening with the spice girls gave me goosepimples
added that just for you
As someone who's not paying attention to any news of life sim games, this video came out of left field for me.
The Tenecet theory makes sense because LBY was heavily focused on user generated content and giving players the ability to basically make their own packs and CC using in game tools. If I had to choose between it and InZoi which hasn't released its monetization plan and will probably be equal to the Sims 4 or worse with micro transactions, I'd put all my money into inZoi as well.
what i get from the whole situation is Paradox panicked and didn't want to go through yet another Cities Skylines 2 situation
They also just dropped a pretty major HUGE economy patch/fix for Cities 2. I think they are 100% monitoring that situation before they take any bold risk again.
All I'm saying is, I would have bought it at launch. 💰I guess paradox doesn't want my money.
honestly i would’ve bought it too
same I even preorder it twice =_=
can't they just send us the demo at least? I don't care it's not polish
Me too. InZoi was pretty (I would buy InZoi too if it is sold as a standard one player game - we don't know what the monetisation for InZoi will be yet - standard single player/MMO/Online microtransation - the latter is sadly the most probable because that's what Krafton mostly does, then we'll be back to square one, stuck with refusing to play The Sims 4 garbage (playing The Sims 3 instead) and waiting for Paralives, unless you're incredibly stupid enough to be ripped off with microtransations), but they were completely different markets in my opinion. InZoi is very teenager, and while I believe it will have modding, the modding will be nothing like LBY would have been. LBY was a real gamers' modding game, more for adults. I would have bought them both because they would have been two completely different games with very different gameplay and from different aspects. And I suspect, so would most lovers of life sim, regardless of what they say on official forums, because we've been stuck with ONE incredibly sh**y game for so long. It's a shame!
There are thousands of shooters, war games, fantasy fight games etc, and they all play together in the market - people buy multiple games. Why can't two life sims also be in the same market and not necessarily be directly competing? It's a silly perspective to think that they can't. All the other genres do: city builders, farming games etc. Why would anyone think that people wouldn't buy both? The only people who would think that way are Simmers because they've only ever had one game, and forget that most people don't just play one game and that all other genres have options. The general gaming community doesn't think like that at all. They look at the perspective games coming out and generally choose multiple of the massive list of games available.
The Chinese investor thing is a something I didn't know. It's not an impossibility that a large investor didn't want to fund two games in the same tiny genre, but in reality he's probably funding hundreds of games in the same genre with shooters and action games and war games. Life Sim is just a very tiny market that's never had competition, that's the only real difference. It would be pretty short-sighted because it's largely still an untapped market in so many ways, although untapped market also means a gamble. Removing one competitor might make the gamble slightly more favourable, but barely - it wouldn't remove the gamble...
@@fransmith3255 I still have my eyes on the moddability. I don't think there is a game as moddable as LBY out there - and there probably never will be from a publisher. My reasoning: If the modding is too powerful, then why should we buy DLC at all? If we compare DLC from S4, the community could whip that stuff up in a few days, a week tops, with the LBY modding tools. Just a little cooperation goes a long way. If 12 people make models and 5 people write code, I'm guessing we're already closing in on the team size that designs DLC for sims.
@@98Zai The community already builds features better than The Sims 4 developers do...by quite some margin...
Just sad seeing this happen because nothing will ever change in the life simulation space, the company will continue doing what they’ve been doing and people will keep buying into it. Wouldn’t be surprised to see a 100th DLC pack with two chairs and a door, and people will just buy it because as player we haven’t allowed others to join. There should be an MVP launch and start building from it, it’s something new and hard to get right at first but there would be options. And I think we can agree that issues would be accepted on a new game built by a small group than having tons of issues from a company that has made this for 20+ years with a bigger team and cash flow, but have no real incentive on getting things right. Sorry for the rant, just sick and tired of the same old same old *rolls eyes and not in the good way*
Interesting observations. I am kinda over Life By You; something about it was always off. I'm also very skeptical of InZoi. Fingers crossed for Paralives
paralives and honestly Vivaland is a sleeper hit ?
@@NotMalcolm vivaland was not on my radar. It looks good though. Let's hope for the best
I just found out about InZoi, gimme the deets....
I really feel for the devs. I don’t see how this is much different to the huge layoffs we’ve seen from big companies lately. Once again, companies are perfectly fine but the little guys have their jobs stripped away. All that hard work and time put in just gone.
completely agree. i find it disturbing that so many automatically blamed the dev team for the cancellation and even said the dev who spoke out was lying?? it’s giving crazed 🤷♂️
the linkedin post that was read out during this video genuinely broke my heart. the devs were so passionate and it was clear they held so much love for the game they were working on
"Her arms was sorta weird" 🤣🤣😭💀
I've found out about LBY cancellation right after watching your last video about upcoming lifesim updates where you said you were looking forward to it 😭😭 literally went to the YT homepage and bam. there it is
honestlyy the algorithm works in mysterious ways haha
This feels like Paradox wanted to take this as a tax write off to cover their other failures. I was ready to buy life by you, it’s a huge disappointment.
13:42 not only is krafton a much bigger company with way more funding, but every single asset in the game is computer scans of real things or just straight up AI generated. the character models, the city, objects, everything. that's why the graphics are so ""beautiful"" and ""realistic"". the developers openly admitted this themselves in one of their own videos and even tout this like it's a good thing or something to be proud of. like good on you for not paying real life human beings to create assets for you, i guess. and people are eating this shit up
That's the reason I already decided I will not be buying Inzoi. As an artist, I just can't support the use of AI
In general, it's a good idea to be on the side of the developers instead of the publishers. The people trashing developers usually have no idea how much exploitation goes on, for example: finding out you're unemployed through a public announcement that the entire project was cancelled.
While in general I think Paradox is incompetent, like look at the CIties Skylines 2 release, it's kind of scary to know how much Tencent has their hands in things and I wouldn't put this past them.
Wonder how the Paralives team feels about all this, I feel like there's going to be more pressure on them now.
thank you and i completely agree! i really feel for the developers and what they experienced; 5 years of work just for it to be scrapped at the last minute. It’s not to say they are completely without fault, but I think it was a decision that was mostly out of their hands.
And for sure i hope the people making paralives will pull through; sometimes I worry tho with the (unfairly) high expectations many life sim players have…
@@NotMalcolm Yeah I'm praying for them. Sims fans are almost as bad as Drag Race fans when it comes to being ridiculous, present company excluded of course!
from what i'm hearing. Mr Humble's work on stuff after the sims wasn't too well-received (secondlife, Cults & Daggers ) and has been described as "Great idea, not enough polish".
and even while on the sims he had interesting takes
It’s a real shame, regardless of what happened or who’s most responsible. I think a new era of life sims is what we need, and I was looking forward to LBY being apart of that but oh well I guess. On a different note, I like that you added some new thoughts to the discourse rather than just reading the PR statement or something lol. Interesting about Tencent.
I was _really_ looking forward to LBY. I know many thought it looked messy, but I thought it had what looked like a very strong base for customization and sharing. Really hoping Paralives and/or InZOI can deliver.
I feel as the entire existence of Sims 4 proves that if LBY was made by EA, they would've released it in the current state without worrying about anything.
Fr tho it's a big shame that all of that work went into dirt
When mentioning their games that have had troubled development cycles under Paradox, you forgot to mention possibly the biggest one, which is Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. The game suffered multiple delays, was supposed to be released back in 2019 or something (it's still not out), Paradox then announced the original development studio (which they partially owned) would no longer be developing the game, and they would essentially be outsourcing development to another dev studio to finish the game for them. They said they thought about canceling the game, but ultimately decided against it.
can’t believe i missed that! thanks for bringing it to my attention - perfect example of yet another paradox game with a troubled development cycle 🥲
I'm still not interested in InZoi at this time. It just doesn't look like the gameplay for me is there. I guess all my hopes are in Paralives because I got none for "Project Rene"
malcolm you're an icon
do you think i should enroll in detective school or is growing a mustache enough?
@@NotMalcolm stache would be enough🥸
Oh shit, my Saturday just leveled up
Trust me, its paradox.
They own several IPs that are more successful, hearts of iron, stellaris, crusader kings, to name a few, and their main motto is 'how many DLC can we crank out of a game"
They probably didnt want to make another sims 4 with $50000 worth of DLC after a few of their blunders, communities from even their successful games are kinda fed up with them already
Meanwhile, eyes are on Paralives
feeling a little crazy but ur making sense....
honestly same lol
I totally think your theories are valid, especially regarding Tencent. So many triple A companies fall in line when it comes to their shareholders. The bottom line of $$ is going to the shareholders, CEOs and marketing management. That 20 million $ budget is mostly a payout to shareholders and CEOs, a just breadcrumbs are given to their employees. By cancelling the game, they lose no money, and their shareholders have already been compensated. Plus, it is not just that 20 million that is a tax write-off, but the potential loss of sales, tacked on, which all flows back to the CEOs and shareholders.
Triple A game studios continue to scrap games, even purchasing successful indie companies (here's looking at the original Maxis team...RIP), consolodating and firing employees, requiring large-scale crunch time, outsourcing, etc. It is not the quality of the games, it is the potential for quick releases, loaded with microtransations, etc. I wish Rod Humble had learned his lessen from working for EA, because LbY would have been far better as an indie project, instead of just thrown into the dumpster.
Inzoi does look pretty, but it does not offer the modability that LbY was showing us (giving me a sense they are hiding something, perhaps microtransactions?).
I am disappointed, but not shocked that the game was cancelled. So sad that it was at such a late stage in the development, especially for the 24 employees that did not deserve to lose their jobs!
One last thing, people kept comparing LbY with TS, not knowing what the TS games all looked like in the alpha and beta stages. With the exception of TS4 (it still is dog $hit!), all the mainline games were not even as polished as LbY was at pre-early access stage.
completely agree! also a really good point about comparisons between LBY and the sims… sad we never got to experience LBY’s potential
No worries guys, there's a new sims 4 expansion coming! Aren't you excited?!
yes i heard it was very ‘saucy’
omg are we breaking the 80th DLC already??
And Malcom strikes again like always
But honestly what that worker said on their linkedin really worried me, I ve heard many rumors of Paradox treating their employees like shit and it basically means that it got shut down by no reason? Atp both Paradox and EA are the same horrible companies
This video slayed tho and theories are wild
Soooo life by you can get cancelled for quality but the sims 4 got released with no toddlers,pools,ghosts,cars,dishwashers and other shit I can’t even think of right... so that’s fine
honestly you ate with this comment
@@NotMalcolmThat comment was weak. Not everyone plays with toddlers in their game...so.its not a deal breaker either way.
EA had balls to still release...where as Paradox gave up...cause their game looked like decedent shit...and they knew it.
What annoys me, is I wanted them all to be different! I don't want another sims .... I want them all to be different and Paradox was on track for me. I also feel it was a good base game to start with. People complain about Life By You as Sims 4 is literally ALWAYS BROKEN!
I knew you were going to say INZOI! LOL
Sims is 'always broken'...but Life by You was never born....
I intended, and perhaps still do, to make a video about my take on the matter. In truth, I don't think LBY ever got to a point where it was a threat to inzoi. The latter is a doll house, the former is more of a "build your own game" platform, and the market is plenty big enough to house LBY, inzoi, paralives, vivaland and TS5 combined. So I don't buy into the theory that LBY got nixed to remove it as inzoi's competition. As a developer myself, starting in game development before moving into web development, however, I saw far too many red flags over the last year. The employee claimed they hit the needed metrix, but I've got to ask... Which ones? Because if the videos they showed us were representative of the state of the game, they were still at least two full years away, of not more, from full release. That's another six to eight million USD paradox currently probably cannot afford. Add the fact that LBYs marketing was abysmal and the community was nowhere near as large as it should have been... Do I need to say more?
I was trying to offer an alternative theory instead of just making a video regurgitating the same thing that everyone else has said. I don’t see any reason not to believe the developer who spoke out. It was a AA game with a small budget, yet people had extremely high expectations for it. Sadly, we may never know the full story.
@NotMalcolm While it is true there is no shortage of games, 20mil is by no means a 'small' budget, nor does it explain the state of the game we saw near the end of it. It's okay if you don't want to "regurgitate" what the community has been saying, but voicing a conspiracy as "alternative" without any proof is irresponsible, and dismissing what the community has been saying for over a year because they've been saying it for over a year, aka, regurgitating, is disrespectful and a slap in the face of reality. It's insane to me that people were called 'haters' for voicing honest and fair critique, and now the game has tanked, rather than admitting those critiques were spot on, it has now become an story of "your expectations where too high, and here's some outlandish theory without proof instead, because heaven forbid we accept the devs are human and can make mistakes". Again, its disrespectful.
the “proof” (if it’s even important) is the common denominator between the two companies, but more importantly I don’t need you to agree with my silly video at all; if you’re taking it that seriously then you’re missing the point entirely…. I don’t even take it that seriously.
Yes, i think people were too hard on LBY; life sim players are toxic af. Yes, $20 million over 5 years is a small budget for a California studio.
No, i don’t care if you agree with me but please make your own basic af video about what you think happened; I’m sure it will be riveting.
@@NotMalcolmTemper temper....
The state of the gaming industry is so fucked up people are willing to put developers through mud while the CEOs continue to get off scot-free and make that bank. At this point, I wouldn't be at all surprised if your conspiracy turned out to be true.
I was cautiously optimistic about life by you and I'm sad to see it go. To me it could have been a great alternative and I had the most faith in it compared to the other games coming out. THe only thing I didn't love is that there seemed to be a lot of different ideas but they weren't necessarily connected together very well. I could see the game being improved on but it wasn't something I would have bought day one (But most games aren't that for me)
I love that Inzoi seems to be like malcom's nemesis at this point.
honestly i’m giving her more press than krafton is at this point 😭
@@NotMalcolm 🤣
@NotMalcolm if you go missing we know who to blame.
Hmmmm, didn’t know about the Tencent connection, that’s interesting.
I personally didn’t need or want LBY characters to look like InZoi characters but the comparison is totally valid. Most customers aren’t gonna decide on buying a game based on how big the team is developing it is, most people aren’t gonna even look it up. Every potential customer is gonna buy what suits their taste and plenty of indies far smaller than Paradox Tectonic have had to deal with their game being compared to those made by larger teams because they share a genre and the same/similar customer base.
oh i feel you! Comparisons are fine and natural, but to hold these games to the same standard or expect a similar level of output is unrealistic imo
@@NotMalcolm Well their outputs are very different in general. inZoi (while not 100% clear) doesn’t feel like a builders game at all. You straight up can’t build community lots …seems like you can build ‘your house’ (maybe) and decorate to your hearts content in an apartment or a house. I also haven’t seen any evidence you can swap characters in a save as the ‘story’ of the game seems to be the cat is your boss and pulls you (your Zoi) into the “world” of InZoi and that is the story you “play” from there and the one you stick with.
Its avatars seem highly detailed also because you seem to make a single character whose story you are playing out. You can marry and have kids, but its very unclear if those kids and spouse become optional playables when you do so.
LBY had a focus on world customization over character detail so the imbalance was more there then based on team size or money or any of those factors. Paradox is also as famous for piling on DLC as EA so I do think a smaller scope could have helped the game get started and reasonable DLC they took time to make worth the price would have been better. The scope was bigger than the funding. And they could have satisfied a ton of frustrated players by adjusting scope quite a bit.
But look at something like Manor Lords. It was made by one guy as his passion project. He managed expectations before launch to his loyal followers and along the way of development subcontracted out some of the larger work. He project managed the work and delivered a medieval city builder tons of people have had fun with at this point. You as a dev behind the scenes manage for your team size, not what your team size isn’t.
If that is true, then they are idiots. They could have made money off of both games. And didn't Rob Humble create Second Life? I think Rob Humble should start his own business and create a new game or get the rights to Life By You and launch it himself. I don't know how the backing/money works with that, but I am still interested in this game. And if not, then I hope Rob Humble can go with someone else/company and create another Life Game.
Wow, as usual, it was worth it to wait for one of your videos.
It's a shame the game got cancelled. I'm pretty cool with The Sims 3, I intend to get back to it, but I was interested in Life By You. Great theories. I hope you'll be ok, I'll miss listening to your videos
EDIT: I forgot to mention. Spice Girls? I love your sims, your voice, your sense of humor and now one of my favorite bands
The gaming industry ( sans indie developers) have been laying people off by the thousands for over a year now. Instead of fixing any internal problems, it has become easier to shut studios down as a means of appeasing these companies' Wall Street overlords as I like to call them. Stock prices / share values increase, so the overlords are happy, until they see the previously mentioned number decrease again. Rinse, wash, repeat. I don't know if Krafton has anything to do with the death of LBY, but you are on to something in regards to Krafton having their sticky fingers in things. The new studio called Midsummer Games who hired Grant Rodiek, a former TS4 producer is partially funded by Krafton. Just sayin'....
I thought LBY had a lot of potential, but it very clearly lacked direction, was trying to be a "make your own game" almost and trying to please everyone while also looking like hot garbage with no visual direction or merit. It's very unfortunate, because I liked the idea of highly customizable life sim, but it was too all over the place.
Life by you was DOA tbh, I think they hopped on the life simulation wagon when multiple projects were announced, and they thought it would made them fortune.
The game visuals are lacklustre and barely performed well in the previews, and I’m honestly not surprised at all, CSII bombed as well the game was “too ambitious” and “rushed”.
As for the INZOI conspiracy I actually believe they had something to do with it.
Man, this is Game of Thro--... of Simulation games. I wonder who will win.
What I feel happened was it was getting to ambitious and maybe wouldn’t have ran well.
Rumors said that the game would have required 32gb of ram. Very few games require that.
So even if the gameplay and ideas was there, maybe it was running like a potato. There was also the fact they hadn’t even shown the other life stages.
I had a lot of doubt about that dialogue system also.
Things were getting way too detailed. You could play games on your lby humans phone. You could drive the cars. There were a lot of things while cool - I could see maybe have complicated things instead of reaching the big picture of what a life sims should be.
Also there was something really weird about that team. Their live streams seemed very amateurish. No one owned decent mic or even a nice camera. I’ve seen simmers have better setups.
I'm still in mourning.
Here's a tissue....get over it.
@SimlikeitHot Says the person who feels they have to defend The Sims, lol.
@@thesimslover82884 he's a troll, we've learned to ignore him, apparently he likes to pick on people In NM's comments
@@thesimslover82884 Yeah, I said it. And? I love The Sim4...all day, everyday. If you do not, you know how to uninstall, if you haven't already....
I can’t… who is editing these videos I adore them. 😭
I'm convinced ea paid off paradox and nothing will change my mind ever
Paradox was murdered by a EA sniper who wanted to steal their ideas for sims 5 didn't like their theme and motive because sims 5 didn't have one and the sims community bashing LBY so much the shareholders didn't want to see it as the simskiller it had potential to be...it's giving cold blooded STAGED SETUP MURRDDDAAAA! I bet we will see TS5 have some of the LBY features suddenly, if not INZOI will. from shareholders suggestions...it's kdramas about shady business like this from the exec pov. It's not good enough to be profitable but good enough to pick out the good parts for another project and discard it. I hope LBY rebirths with a rebranding better than ever in the future hopefully Rob will get his phone back and send you that long awaited text
That was a really interesting theory, I had no idea the people behind Inzoi were that powerful. That gives me hope that maybe the game really will be as good as it seems, cause so far I felt like the project is way too ambitious and too good to be true
nancy drew?? don't know her...
Bruh, all they had to do was release it and the modders would’ve taken care of the rest.
Good thoughts…but if true, they’re very short sighted. I would have bought both games. The shareholders would have had double their money. 🤷♀️
Honestly, pass. I think it's unlikely that an investor would sabotage a product that is close to launching, especially if said launch looks like it will be successful. It's more likely for them to support the launch of both products, even if they are supposed competitors, since they would've both been successful and earned revenue.
It's like how Hoyoverse owns Genshin Impact but they still released Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero. They're all popular gacha games but all the revenue is Hoyoverse's in the end. Many such cases.
There is definitely something weird about the situation but this explanation seems incredibly unlikely, along with any EA sabotage theories. I would assume the issue boils down to mismanagement.
It was a silly thing for Paradox to do. It's not like the game still had years before it was releasable. It had weeks. Even if it didn't sell well the game would've earned some of the investment back, but now they ensured they'd get none of it back. I also think the game would've had fairly good sales on launch.. even more after launch when influencers started playing it for their viewers.
Tencent own some of most game companies (and many other types of companies) The reason for this is because in order to sell and market a product inside China, you need to make a deal with a company already strong in China. It's just how it works, and why these companies offer deals in the form of stock.
Even if Tencent cared about these games which I don't think they really do, they could care less which game sells more so long as both sell. It benefits them regardless of who wins. It benefits them more to have two than one. Unless ( a stretch) one game would be easier to market in China than the other. But that wouldn't result in an entire studio being dissolved, just them being put on another game.
I'd say money, management drama, or EA lawyer threats.
it's paradox.. they are running franchises into the ground. look at what has happened to vampire bloodlines 2. the tencent thing is silly... they own shares in damn near every game industry company that they can.
I mean the game looked very bad for something that was about to be released into early access. I think it's far more likely Paradox was being honest about cancelling it due to the low quality and polish.
this is much more subdued than your comment on Reddit calling me “delusional” simply for having an opinion about a game and making a half-serious video about it
i was actually subscribed to you for over a year lol but anyway good luck with your channel 💞
i'm sorry that you were expecting an extremely polished, beautiful game with no flaws from a development team of 24 people. i seriously hope you learn to temper your expectations because holy shit LOL
So gutted it was cancelled, only cared about life by you as I wanted paradox to do to sims 4 what they did to simcity with city skylines. And knowing they brought on my man humble who helped make sims 2 the most iconic in-depth game with 2004 tech made me so excited and hopeful for life by you 😢
What did they 'do' to Sim City, exactly??? I see that old urban legend is still circling 'round.
IF they actually did 'do' something to Sim City, it should have been a piece of cake to 'do' it to The Sims4. ..but they didn't.
They never did anything to Sim City. Please do your research and learn the truth instead of believing lies.
Or better yet, ask Rod Humble what did they 'do' to Sim City. He'll graciously tell you: 'nothing'.
And to say you only cared about Life by You to to end Sims4 is pretty effed up tbh.......
To this day I still believe half of the negativity surrounding LBY was pointless criticism on how it wasn't simply Sims 4 with an open world 🙄
Sorry Sims 4 stans but you are never getting your fetish of a Sims 4 game with (insert missing mainline features here from previous iterations)
completely agree haha i swear sims players expecting every life sim to be like the sims is so cringe!
That game was ugly as shit. Sims4 looked way better...period.
@@NotMalcolmWasn't that Rod Humble's selling point? It would be like Sims3, but better than 4?
If you're gonna blame someone for arrogantly boasting this, blame him..and not the 'simmers'.
If your theory holds true,
I have heard that games made with Unreal Engine are difficult to mod.
High freedom games are definitely less profitable than low freedom games.
InZoi's freedom is certainly much lower than Life by You's.
I am always most looking forward to LBY, although the graphics are not good, it has the greatest potential.
Looking forward to LBY? There is no game anymore, what potential is there?(Unless I'm misunderstanding you)
@@Ca11MeMayb3 I mean I was most looking forward to LBY.
Sorry, not saying that clear enough.
I am not good at english😂😂
@@Ca11MeMayb3 Since it's a high profile game, it's not at all unrealistic that it could get leaked and get a very prosperous life in the hands of the community, instead of being tossed. It's almost like it was designed to be set free rather than managed by some multinational corporation. Modding just isn't a profitable niche.
I think they realised that by the time they'd get get game good enogh to release, Inzoy and Paralives would have already been available and, since their game would have had the weakest graphics, which seams to be the most important thing for most people, they thought they wouldn't have been able to make as much money in sells as they expected so they decided to cut their losses and kill the game
Love your conspiracy theory. It sounds like you really did your homework. Personally, I think the LBY team are very talented, and I have all the confidence in the world that Rod Humble knew what he was doing and the game this complex and deep was advancing at a pace that was needed to make sure it was enjoyable and playable. I think the Paradox corporate publisher is inept and making bad decisions, which is causing the failure of so many of its games. Whether that is due to pressure from impatient shareholders or something else is anybody's guess. I really wish the team was able to cut ties with the publisher and go the indie route. Personally I feel Paradox threw the baby out with the bathwater. I know that I would have gladly paid $20 - $40 for the game in its current state even if it was unsupported abandoned-ware just to have the opportunity to see what it was capable of becoming, learn to use the tools, and see what modders would do with it.
If he knew what he was doing, Paradox wouldn't have cancelled it.
Did EA cancel Sims2 when he was there? Hell naw. Cause Rod was not alone in his creavity there. There were many more, including Mr. Will Wright himself still there.
Rod was pretty much alone on this project...and it showed.
Always relying on mods...
Tecent has shares in almost every video game companies on this planet at this moment.
The game didn't look good! Danggggg but hey its crazy how all this is happening around the time of inzoi
I never commented on any of your videos I think, but I need to say that I really like your videos: the editing + infos + humour (the clips from Jennifer Coolidge, Cole Escola...) = chef's kiss! You're looking good btw ...if I may add this remark (μ_μ)
hey i appreciate it! i thought i was the only one laughing at my videos haha
Y'all need to seriously stop. All this conspiracy theorizing bs. That game looked absolutely horrendous...and being in 'early access' is no excuse for them to to sell junk.
Y'all get on The Sims for doing it, but were completely cool with buying another crap game with issues. They all will have issues that you agreed to buy...'early'.
There are many other life simulation games to be played right now. Problem is, y'all want something just like The Sims, but not be THE Sims.
This is why you all are only looking forward to those games that are most similar to The Sims....and then have nerve to say: ' we don't want another Sims'.
Hypocrites.
@SimlikeitHot Actually, people are saying they want another life simulation game, EA does not own the life simulation genre. EA having competition is in no way bad. By the way, no upcoming life simulation game "looks like The Sims". Life Simulation games simulate life. EA doesn't own houses, families, cars, crafts, cooking, food, working out, buildings, etc. They also don't own the concept of people being social. The Sims was originally based on the Hierarchy of Needs, another concept EA doesn't own. So when you say "they look like The Sims" you should realize EA doesn't have a copyright on living.
SO youre saying that being critical of a milion dollar company with hired programmers is the same as being critcal over a stand alone modder ? okay
and one other thing if youre okay with ea taking youre money and giving you content that is broken, be my guest, but leave others alone, cause this isn,t the first channel where you have commented so stop
@@thesimslover82884 EA owns The Sims...a game every new life sim is copying. Tell me these new games ain't looking just like The Sims. Even that weirdo Rod Humble bragged about his failed project mimicked The Sims3...a game he DiD NOT create. So let's cut through the bull...
Not everyone lives life the same way either, IF you wanna go THERE. The Sims simulate one of many ways of living real life...even including fantasy.
But why are all these new life sims games showing us the exact same way as The Sims? Why not a whole new way?
Only new life sim game that will have a chance at success is the one that is heavily similar to The Sims and they know this. And I hope EA sues the living shit out of each one of them.
I hate copycats...even more, thieves.
@@savagepixel4154 So, a stand alone modder deserves praise, for what...exactly? Because they mod in a 1,000 different ways your Sim can have sex?? Is that what makes them special in your eyes? Or, is it because those same sex positions are free of charge to you?
Is this why you defend them to the death, but you shit all over a successful company, simply because they have a millions of dollars? What the hell kind of argument is that? Is success a bad thing?
Modders imo, are no different than that million dollar company. They are in this for the money as well..trust. You may not be paying them directly for their work, but you better believe someone is. Ain't no way in hell they're putting up with all y'alls bs for free..ain't no way.
They are no more special then the developers who keep up the very game they insert their mods in. Mods need the basegame, the basegame doesn't need the mods...remember that.
Respect all..or respect none.
Malcolm voodoo
Its a shame more people arent talking about this. This is yet another move by Paradox to put money above values, even when more money would obviously flow if they didnt take the easy way out. Happy to say I will not be giving Paradox any more money for any of their titles or DLC.
they need to run these new life sims by you because at this point we aint getting shiot😪
Oh, I have been WAITING for your take on this. I'm just starting the vid now but I'm EXCITED
As a game designer, I can assure you the Dev Team (Tectonic Games) was the reason this game was cancelled. Paradox was very patient with them, allowing to push back the early access date many, many times. The game didn't improve much since it was revealed. They wasted a year adding depth to certain systems such as gardening, but they didn't focus on major elements such as interactions, animations and graphics. They wasted resources and didn't respond well to feedback. This was 100% a self-inflicted wound. Paradox didn't want the bad publicity of another messy release so they decided to pull the plug and it was the right choice.
respect your opinion but disagree. I saw plenty of improvements over time. The budget was small ($20 million over 5 years) especially for a studio in California and I think paradox wasn’t interested in funding the game further and was worried about bad press. I never really cared about the graphics much but i know that irked a lot of people. Still I think there was a market for this game and I see no reason not to believe the dev who spoke out.
people who said it’s the devs or Rod’s fault need to check their brains
Who's fault was it then? The tiny munchkins working under the table?
@@Sim-dil-e-icious Paradox.
EA is one of the most sleazy companies on the planet. Many companies play dirty and there is a huge chance they are scared of what will be next with the sims since several competitors appeared overnight. It feels like they undervalue the title, but there must be people shaking in their boots when it comes to customer feedback and true value of ts4 compared to older installments no matter how much money they make off of the 500 DLC packs. Project Renee or whatever already has fans nervous and they know this, which is why they feel like they have to keep simmers in the loop with direct feedback as they make the game (just like the indy competition has done). It could have been multiple people across the industry as there has never been more than one life sim (in comparison to the sims) being created until this period of time. Business can only get dirty from here. This is way too much comp for the first time ever and it seems like someone had to get taken out. It was most likely a hit job.
7:41 - I'm famous, mom!
an icon!! thank you for the inspo ❤️
the end era of lby rest in peace
RIP 🥲
I may be on the minority here, but LbY seemed to have the best potential out of the big 3 life sims coming up (Life by You, Para Life and Inzoi), it wasn't the best looking, but it looked like they were aiming to make a good life sim gameplay wise and were listening to the players (refreshing!) + it didn't seem we would need the most powerful/expensive pc out there.
I think that Paradox took a massive hit with CS2 (this is still going btw). I'm not saying that was the main reason but I believe that if CS2 was a massive success, they wouldn't cancel LBY. Btw, love your videos, editing and sense of humor. Keep it up.
thank you mate! 😊 and i agree CS2 definitely played a role in all this
Inzoi waited for their chance to drop the demos wow
I just wanted to say that I’m loving the new video format and seeing your face! you’re doing amazing sweetie xoxo
thank you!! 🥲🥹
You forgot one of the rockiest. VTMB2.
ahh you’re right, that one too!
If it was actually cancelled 2 weeks before launch then Paradox are dumb as fuck. People are looking for a new life sim, and I keep hearing that people want another sims 3, LBY could of netted them a lot of money.
I was so looking forward to it coming out.
I was so angry at people who accused the devs. commenting so more people can see this video
That intro, fa- oops I mean queen
wdym do i look fat
Can't link it but I'm referring to an old video, not commenting on your appearance at all ❤
a video by the iconic T.S Madison
@@RainyDayGamer_ my bad i missed the reference haha i need to check that out!❤️
paradox is pissing me off lately
honestly they need to get it together!
My crush on you will never be cancelled 🥰
hahah whattt
Ea always waits until the project is solid to offer to buy. A lot of the sims "copies" are a "scam" in the sense that it’s never meant to actually succeed, just enough to get ea’s attention so they can be bought. I’ve seen this happen since the sims 2.
A 5 year, 20 mil scam..just to be sold????
Uhhhh blaming Tencent is kind of a stretch I think... As you said in your video they own 13% of Inzoi developers Krafton, which is most famous for creating PUBG. What is PUBG's biggest competitor? Fortnite, which was developed by Epic games, which is 40% owned by Tencent.
Sure, the life sim genre is more niche than battle royale, but taking into account how much money Sims 4 makes on DLC a lot of people would have bought both Inzoi and LBY.
oh interesting! I don’t really see Fortnite and pubg as competitors but i see what you mean 😊 i wasn’t so much “blaming” Tencent as i was pointing out a connection between Krafton and Paradox which *may* have played a role in the cancellation
Wow a new video! 🎉❤
Malcolm why are you making RUclips videos and not solving crimes?? I swear you’re a detective 😂
honestly give me a pipe and a top hat!!
Although I knew I could never play it on my 13 year old laptop I was still excited to see where this could take us. So sad.😢
SPICE GIRLS INTRO 😍
I could have sworn i was looking at the Steam page for this a few days ago...
you really are the Nancy Drew of life simulation games huh?
Lol maybe i prefer Malcolm Holmes🕵🏻♂️
That post, "Multiple years developing a game that is still in early development..." Hi, let me introduce you to 7 Days to Die. 😂 For those that don't know, that game was in Alpha for 10 or more years. At least people get to play it though. I'd have bought LBY and tried it.
inzoi is not open world, is open neighbourhood. i want inzoi coming soon, just for the people that have so many critiques for lby realize that they will not play inzoi because the pc machine of these legends will not run.
ikr, people say inzoi is "the death of the sims" but in reality it's the death of pcs
@@nattmelankoli yes hahahha. these people never see the games that krafton create? they like make money! inzoi will have more dlc than the sims 4 and will be more bug than the sims 3.