Category: Video Games

Paradox Interactive announced that its long-delayed The Sims-style life sim Life by You is officially canceled in a post on their website today.

Life by You was initially announced in May of 2023. At the time, an early access release was planned for September of that year. It was initially delayed to May of 2024, then in February, Paradox announced an additional delay, pushing Life by You’s Early Access release to June 4th. Two weeks before the June 4 release, it was delayed again, this time without a release date, because, in the words of Paradox Deputy CEO Mattias Lilja, “additional time [was] needed.”

Paradox Interactive released a statement from CEO Fredrik Wester explaining the decision on its website. The full statement is as follows:

Paradox Interactive (Paradox) has today decided to cancel the release of the game Life by You. This means that the second quarter of 2024 will be impacted negatively by MSEK 208 from the write-down of the game’s total capitalized development costs.

For a long time, we’ve held hopes for Life by You and the potential we saw in it, but it is now clear that the game will not be able to meet our expectations. A version that we’d be satisfied with is too far away, and therefore we are taking the difficult decision to cancel the release. Moving forward, we should perform at a much higher level, and it’s obvious that we have work ahead of us, said Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive.

We’ve performed poorly in recent releases, continued Wester. Even though we now start new projects in a different manner, it is clear that we must make further changes so that quality is more consistent and the promises we make to our players are met. We have to evaluate how we manage projects and how we organize, for we will and must get better. We have a very solid financial position and a strong core game portfolio, which keeps us confident about our future.

This disclosure contains information that Paradox Interactive AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU nr 596/2014). The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person, on 17-06-2024 21:45 CET.

Bethesda Softworks head Todd Howard knows fans are looking forward to Fallout 5, especially in the wake of the Prime Video show’s success, but he isn’t interested in rushing it out the door.

Howard opened up about the future of the hit post-apocalyptic RPG series during an interview with YouTube content creator MrMattyPlays. He says Bethesda spends a lot of time plotting out how to handle the direction of its franchises.

“For other Fallout games in the future, you know, obviously I can’t talk about those right now, but I would say, sort of rushing through them, or we kind of need to get stuff out that is different than the work we’re doing in 76…we don’t feel like we need to rush any of that,” he said. “The Fallout TV show fills a certain niche in terms of the franchise and storytelling.”

Blizzard Entertainment is teasing an Overwatch 2 Transformers crossover when Season 11 arrives in just a few days.

The quick tease arrives at the tail end of a new Season 11 trailer that premiered earlier today. It takes up so little space in the video that there’s a good chance many may have missed it, but those who stuck around to the end will catch the familiar Autobot logo and its iconic transformation sound effect.

That’s all we can see from what will inevitably become a full-fledged collaboration between Overwatch 2 and Transformers for now. Thankfully, this is far from the first time Blizzard has tied its hero shooter in with another property, so we at least have a few guesses about how the Autobot and Decepticon content will eventually roll out.

One of the earliest collabs saw One Punch Man skins making their way into the game, giving characters like Doomfist, Genji, Soldier 76, and Kiriko outfits themed after characters like Saitama, Genos, Mumen Rider, and Terrible Tornado. This same crossover event introduced additional anime-themed challenges, poses, voice lines, and more. Other crossovers brought IP like Cowboy Bebop, Diablo, and even Porsche into the fold, with each giving at least one character special skins for players to purchase and wear into battle.

While the Cowboy Bebop event saw Overwatch 2’s resident cowboy, Cole Cassidy, getting a Spike Spiegel skin, we can probably guess that some of Blizzard’s many robotic characters will be the ones gifted Transformers skins this time around. Our eyes are on heroes like Bastion, Orisa, Zenyatta, Ramattra, and Echo.

Overwatch 2 Season 11 drops June 20. While it’s unclear how and when the Transformers content will appear, today’s trailer gives players a look at a lot of the other highlights the forthcoming additions will bring. This season’s battle pass is Ultrawatch superhero-themed, introducing a long list of very ’90s, Power Rangers-like cosmetics to suit up with. Ashe gets the Mythic skin this time around, meaning her robot counterpart, B.O.B., gets some powerful new threads, too. Other promising additions include items that celebrate Overwatch 2 reaching the 100 million-player milestone, a new Push map called Runasapi, a Mythic weapon for Reinhardt, and a rework for the Colosseo map.

For more on how Blizzard is keeping Overwatch 2 up to date, you can read up on why the studio chose to remove its Hero Mastery Gauntlet PvE mode last month. Then be sure to check out our 8/10 Overwatch 2 review, where we said, “Overwatch 2’s switch to a 5v5 format breathes new life into what was once the sharpest shooter around. It just hasn’t quite recaptured all of that glory – yet.”

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.