SimCity will finally get offline single-player mode in upcoming update

[Russ Boswell]

Electronic Arts has announced that SimCity will include an offline mode with an upcoming game update. For anyone unfamiliar, the newest city creation title is currently "online only," forcing gamers to be connected to the internet and EA authentication servers in order to play. This can be quite the headache for anyone living in rural areas. The farther you venture into the barren countryside, the more that internet quality deteriorates. So you can imagine the struggle for some gamers when presented with the prospect of an always online title.

"Offline is coming as a free download with Update 10 to all SimCity players," states Patrick Buechner, general manager of the Maxis Emeryville studio. "When we launch it, all of your previously downloaded content will be available to you anytime, anywhere, without the need for an internet connection."

Maxis has a crew of hardcore gamers working tirelessly to ensure that this update is rigorously tested before release. Many early adopters may recall that the title had a slew of server problems and bugs when it first released. Maxis doesn't want to make the same mistakes, and it's good to see them concerned about quality. Unfortunately there is no word on exactly when we will see this update drop.

Post update, you'll still be able to enjoy multiplayer sessions and online features. But the new single-player mode will take place completely offline, allowing you to locally save and load at any moment, unhindered by servers. This is also welcome news to all you aspiring modders out there, as Maxis has just recently announced that SimCity is open to "creative reconfiguring."

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https://www.techspot.com/news/55308-simcity-will-finally-get-offline-single-player-mode-in-upcoming-update.html

 

[Mavrickx888]

"Yayyyyyyy!" - Me if this were 9 months ago.

 

[howzz1854]

This might after all be worth buying. I'll be keeping an eye on the deals.

 

[GhostRyder]

I think the phrase "A little tardy to the party" works well for this. Its good they are finally doing it, but the problem is that I have to use the word "finally".

 

[oldikes]

Theyve also said its not actually possible for them to make larger map sizes
Therefore, I dont really care.....lol...

 

[Guest]

I don't know...SimCity 4 and SimCity 3000 still work for me.

 

[Guest]

*Hit is weak son! That's all I have to say about that..

 

[Kevin82485]

Offline mode combined with much larger maps and I would be all over it, but it's disappointing that they're keeping the tiny maps. Maybe if the mod community can tweak it to have larger maps then I'll be in.

 

[lipe123]

Maps are too small. It's not Sim City.

If they don't let you build a city then the game is pointless.

 

[Coodu]

"Yayyyyyyy!" - Me if this were 9 months ago.

Exactly what I was thinking, I played about 50 hours and then moved on. The expansion is pretty cool, solves a few issues, but yeah the city size just isn't epic enough for me.

 

[David T.]

I seem to remember that EA claimed that offline play was impossible. It's seems that this comment was complete bullshit.

 

[gobbybobby]

But I thought they said it would be impossible for them to do this, Sure it took em over 6 months but, proves they lied! Glad they have done this, so we may play the game in 10 years time, when the servers no longer work.

 

[psycros]

We already know that piracy doesn't affect the bottom line of major publishers like EA to any significant degree, because the biggest selling games are all primarily online experiences (shooters, sports, competitive RTS, etc). Yet they keep forcing the always-online, socially connected, cash store BS down our throats. Because its not about piracy and never was - its about monetizing every single mouse click. With every passing week I become more certain that every decent PC game from now on is going to come from the Kickstarter/indie community.

 

[Emexrulsier]

I seem to remember that EA claimed that offline play was impossible. It's seems that this comment was complete bullshit.

Everyone knew it was bull **** after people were able to create their own local versions of the game and even mod area sizes within a month of the game being released.