Maxis Finally Bringing Offline Mode to SimCity

Maxis has recently confirmed via blog post that Offline Mode for SimCity is finally on the way, in an unspecified but nearby future date.

SimCity Offline is officially coming in with Update 10 as a free download to all current players. They will be able to use all previously downloaded content with it, as a completely separate mode from the current single-player and multiplayer online modes.

They were not comfortable with sharing a date still since they’re hard at work at extensive testing, which should also come as a relief to fans who bought this game last year. They also promise Offline Mode will also finally enable modding. It’s a sensible series of choices that promises to make everyone who’s kept playing happy, although I don’t know if the majority who left it behind will want to jump back in.

Now, we don’t want to savage Maxis for the past too much, but we do need to acknowledge they said this:

@Azbiker72 The game was designed for MP, we sim the entire region on the server so this is just not possible

— SimCity (@simcity) March 9, 2013

Subsequently, rumors started coming out that this was simply not true, and there was nothing in SimCity that would stop them from adding an offline mode. Eventually, Maxis acknowledged overwhelming fan demand for it, and stated they were looking at the possibility, as well as incorporating modding into it. Based on the timing of that statement, they seem to have been working on this for at least three months.

So, perhaps they aren’t 100 % sincere given the language they have used throughout all this, but Maxis is giving fans what they wanted all along. I do not think they will ever fess up that SimCity could have had offline mode from the start, but for what it’s worth, this was a step in the right direction. Stay tuned as Maxis shares more details on its implementation.