It's finally happening guys, over a year after release, the thing Maxis and EA told us was impossible is finally coming bear: SimCity is getting an offline mode - presumably because people have stopped buying it and the companies involved feel they can make more money from it by pandering to gamers and generating headlines at the same time.
"Yes, Offline is coming as a free download with Update 10 to all SimCity players," begins the update on the Simcity blog.
"In Update 10, you can still play solo in Regions on your own, or in Multiplayer with people from around the world. What’s new is the Single Player Mode, which allows you to play the game Offline by yourself," you know, the way every other SimCity game has worked.
One good part however, is that all of your previous online activities will be available offline and likewise, your access to different mods dramatically increases once you aren't threatening the "integrity," of the online play.
"So what does this mean for the Online game?" continued Maxis. "All of the benefits of being connected will remain including access to Multiplayer, the Global Market and Leaderboards. And all of your pre-existing saved cities and regions will still be accessible should you log-in to the Online game."
So the implementation sounds like it's been done well and there's going to be extensive bug testing before hand so hopefully it'll be a relatively smooth transition, but is it too little too late?
That's the general consensus from people in the comment thread. Most seem to be suggesting that this is something Maxis should have implemented from day one, or at the very least, as soon as it was hit with the backlash that surrounded the launch of the city building sim.
What do you guys think?