One of the many botched launches that EA made last year was Maxis’ long awaited next installment in the SimCity saga. The game, which required an always online connection, ran into server issues at launch, and people who weren’t even interested in the game’s social features but just wanted to get the quintessential SimCity singleplayer experience found that they were being booted from their own games, and losing progress. Sounds like a disaster, quite like another high profile EA launch from last year.
Anyway, now, in what must be the textbook case of too little, too late, EA and Maxis are rescinding on their ‘original vision’ for an always connected SimCity experience, and adding an Offline Mode to the game. The new update, Update 10, will allow players the option to play offline, although the online mode is still there for those interested in it and the benefits that it offers.
The addition of the offline mode also allows for modding opportunities for SimCity within the single player game as well. Considering how active the modding community was with SimCity 3000 and SimCity 4, this should be a welcome bit of news for all involved.