SimCity will finally be playable offline

A forthcoming update will remove the requirement to be online for single-player

What a difference 48 hours makes. On Saturday we talked about how Maxis was introducing modding to SimCity but were leaving some fairly restrictive rules in place to preserve the integrity of the multiplayer side. Today however, Maxis studio manager Patrick Buechner has announced that an offline single-player mode will be part of an upcoming update. 

So what will this mean for players? Patrick confirms that “all of your previously downloaded content will be available to you anytime, anywhere, without the need for an internet connection.” A separate singe-player mode will be available that has local save files. Staying online will of course give you access to leaderboards and all the online features you’d expect.

Adding mods to SimCity makes more sense now that the game will be able to be played offline as there won’t be any cheating to get top spots on the leaderboards. Still this whole thing has been a fiasco. Initially SimCity couldn’t be played offline, then some folks found a way, then offline play was a possibility, and now it’s arriving almost six months after the original release. The only silver lining I can see from this is that the publisher will seriously think twice before having an always-online single-player game that could work just as well offline.