Paradox announced that it was shuttering Paradox Tectonic, a studio that was solely responsible for the development of Sims competitor Life by You until that game was abruptly canceled yesterday. Tectonic is a 24-person studio led by former Second Life boss Rod Humble, based in Berkeley, California.

In a statement on Paradox's website, CEO Fredrik Wester called the announcement "difficult and drastic news for Tectonic colleagues," but said, "With the cancellation of their only project, we have to make a tough decision to close the studio." We are deeply grateful for their efforts to make Paradox a new genre."

The work was intended to bear fruit earlier this month, but Life by You was scheduled for an early access release on May 4 after multiple delays. But when the game was postponed again just 2 weeks before that day, it didn't work out, this time the exchange date wasn't visible.

At the time, Paradox was simply saying it needed "additional development time" to get the game into shape, but it's all now out the window. The flaws that led to these delays eventually turned out to be fatal to the game, and Paradox "after taking that pause to gain a wider view of the game, it became clear that the path leading to a release we felt confident of was too long and uncertain."

Paradox also said it delayed the game multiple times to give "a fair shot to realize the possibilities we've seen," but now I think we're running out of patience: Life by You was canceled 24 hours ago and Paradox Tectonic now works without the game. The closure of the studio itself was probably terribly inevitable.

The last few years have been a tough time for Paradox as a publisher. Not only did it run into problems around your life, but there were many published problems around the development of Vampire: The Masquerade-Bloodlines2. The company also launched Double Eleven from the work of Prison Architect2, taking over the project itself and severing ties with Harebrained Schemes following the poor performance of the Lamplighters' League.

Every bit chaotic, in other words, it leaves you wondering what's going on behind the scenes that keep throwing up these apparently existential problems across so many Paradox projects. Perhaps one day we will find out, but for now I don't want any more developers to lose their jobs.