SimCity finally getting an offline mode

They said it was impossible, but after months of dragging their heels, SimCity is finally getting an offline mode. The update will be delivered in the Update 10 patch, who’s launch date is still to be announced.

Maxis Emeryville general manager Patrick Buechner said in a blog post, “Yes, Offline is coming as a free download with Update 10 to all SimCity players. When we launch it, all of your previously downloaded content will be available to you anytime, anywhere, without the need for an internet connection. We are in the late phases of wrapping up its development and while we want to get it into your hands as soon as possible, our priority is to make sure that it’s as polished as possible before we release it. So, until then… testing, testing and more testing. As one of the final steps, we’re putting Offline into the hands of some of our most hardcore players, the DevTesters. This group of volunteers is going to put through its paces before we release it.”

Maxis also stated that the offline patch will also allow players to mod their game, a popular feature of previous SimCity titles.

Maxis had originally marketed SimCity as a massively multiplayer city building game. It would require an always-on internet connection as many calculations were supposedly being done through the cloud. The initial launch was plagued with server issues that prevented people from playing the game. A hacker team later found out that the game could indeed run offline. The cloud servers were only being used for save files and communication with other players’ cities.

SimCity has also been criticized for its broken AI and numerous bugs. Many gamers around the web have accused Maxis of releasing it as an unfinished beta. Kotaku named it one of their biggest disappointments of 2013.

Maxis seems to be advertising the offline mode as a new feature, but it’s really something that should have been there from day one. It serves as an excellent case study on how strict DRM can hurt profits.