Paralives, the highly anticipated life simulation game similar to The Sims, has been pushed back from its initial early access release date of December 8 to May 25, 2026.
According to lead developer Alex Massé, the team expanded their playtests in the lead-up to the early access period and found that the game wasn't meeting the standard they wanted it to. Despite having a solid character creator and home builder modes, the live mode was marred by "impactful bugs" and not enough content for players to engage with.
The Paralives team acknowledges their small development team size – growing from just two or three people in its early days to an average of 10 – led to alternating long stretches of development between different parts of the game. This resulted in a patchwork approach, but Massé assures fans that this delay will allow them to "polish the simulation part of the game" and deliver a great first experience.
To give fans a glimpse into the current state of the game, Paralives Studio has announced a 45-minute gameplay stream on its YouTube channel at noon ET on November 25. The team will provide more details on the improvements they plan to make before the early access release, with expectations that Paralives will remain in early access for two years.
While other life sim games are already or soon to be released, such as Pokémon Pokopia and Animal Crossing New Horizons' major update and Switch 2 version in January, Paralives remains an exciting indie alternative to The Sims and InZOI. Fans can look forward to more updates and content from the team, including free updates and expansions after launch.
According to lead developer Alex Massé, the team expanded their playtests in the lead-up to the early access period and found that the game wasn't meeting the standard they wanted it to. Despite having a solid character creator and home builder modes, the live mode was marred by "impactful bugs" and not enough content for players to engage with.
The Paralives team acknowledges their small development team size – growing from just two or three people in its early days to an average of 10 – led to alternating long stretches of development between different parts of the game. This resulted in a patchwork approach, but Massé assures fans that this delay will allow them to "polish the simulation part of the game" and deliver a great first experience.
To give fans a glimpse into the current state of the game, Paralives Studio has announced a 45-minute gameplay stream on its YouTube channel at noon ET on November 25. The team will provide more details on the improvements they plan to make before the early access release, with expectations that Paralives will remain in early access for two years.
While other life sim games are already or soon to be released, such as Pokémon Pokopia and Animal Crossing New Horizons' major update and Switch 2 version in January, Paralives remains an exciting indie alternative to The Sims and InZOI. Fans can look forward to more updates and content from the team, including free updates and expansions after launch.
, game dev is hard work! 
but now that it's been pushed back i'm kinda relieved lol they gotta get it right, can't have a game with impactful bugs 
especially since they're trying to compete with the sims 
the 45min gameplay stream sounds like a good way to give us an update tho, fingers crossed they polish that simulation part 
and deliver something awesome
I get it tho, like I would wanna delay a game if I knew it wasn't up to par 
10 people can only do so much, especially when they're spreading themselves too thin across the game. I'm actually kinda excited for this extra time tho, maybe means we'll get even more awesome stuff down the line 
But at the same time, I get why they're pushing it back - 2 years is still a looong time to spend playing beta game 
. The fact that they're gonna polish the simulation part of the game tho is kinda exciting 
. And yay for a gameplay stream on Nov 25! 
...
! like, i know it's gonna be a while but trust me when i say it'll be worth it 
. those devs have been doing some intense bug-squashing and game-overhauling and i'm sure it's gonna pay off in a big way 
. can't wait to see that gameplay stream on nov 25! 
. at least they're being real about the game not being where they want it to be yet. it's better to delay than to rush out a subpar experience, right? 
... i know we were all hyped for dec 8th but trust me, alex massé's got this 
... those "impactful bugs" gotta get squashed & more content is coming! 
two years in early access might seem long but think of all the polishing that can happen 
... and omg, 45-minute gameplay stream on nov 25th? i'm def tuning in to see what they're working on 
. I mean, 8 months is a pretty long delay for a game that's supposed to be an early access thingy. What's the point of even calling it early access if it's just gonna get delayed like this? 
. We'll see about that...