Life By You: Release date, gameplay, trailers, platforms & more

The Sims has basically had a monopoly on life simulation games for two decades now, but Paradox Interactive and its new development studio Paradox Tectonic are creating a direct competitor called Life by You.

Life simulation games often focus on individuals and their relationships in a simulated ecosystem, often giving you control over the characters themselves and their direct environment, letting you build and design their house for example.

Life by You looks to follow this method to the letter based on what we've seen so far. So, if you're looking for a new life sim game to get engrossed in, check out everything we know about Life by You, including the release window, gameplay trailers, and more.

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Life by You release date

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In exciting news, the Life by You release date has finally been announced, with the game releasing in early access on September 12, 2023. This gives you long enough to get excited but not too long for it to be a painful wait which is always nice.

As mentioned, it is releasing into early access, so there will be consistent updates to the game in the period after release. We currently don't have any indication about how long the early access period will be, but at least we will be able to enjoy the game as it progresses.

You'll be able to pick it up on the Epic Games Store for $39.99/£34.99/€39.99 at release.

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Life by You trailers

There are currently two trailers available for Life by You, giving you a decent glimpse of what is to come in the life management and simulation game.

The first was a short 52-second trailer that showed off some in-engine scenes and a bit of gameplay, before revealing that the game would receive a full announcement at a later date.

The most recent trailer however highlights the new release date, while giving players a deeper look at some of the game's systems and graphics.

Life by You gameplay

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The most recent trailer for Life by You has given us a fair amount of gameplay details to look over and get excited about. Immediately one of the most appealing features is the direct control you have over your humans. Not only can you drag and drop them wherever, but you can control them directly in third-person mode too.

Furthermore, Life by You gives players a seamless open world with no loading screens, giving you a huge sandbox to play within. You're not limited to the confines of your own home and can explore as far as the map can take you.

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There is of course the plethora of design and customisation features too that you'd expect from a game like this. You can build your dream homes from scratch and design your ideal characters too.

What's even better is the flexibility and integration of mods. They're both easy to make and easy to install into your game, expanding the realms of the game to an incredible degree.

It's also worth noting that the General Manager of the studio behind this game and the lead developer is Rod Humble, who was previously head of The Sims for EA.

Life by You platforms

Currently, the only announced platform for Life by You is PC via the Epic Game Store, but we could see it come to Steam in the future as other Paradox games have.

There is also no announced console release for Life by You yet, but this will likely be saved until the early access period is over. Due to the relationship between Paradox and Microsoft, it could also see a release on the Xbox Series X|S.

We'll make sure to update this once we know which platforms the game will be launching on.