SimCity may finally be getting an offline mode for the city-building simulation in an effort to control tricky networking issues.
Maxis Emeryville general manager Patrick Buechnermay may have some great news for SimCity players, who long craved for an offline mode. A dedicated team is working on the possibilities of introducing an offline mode for the city-building simulation. This will fix all server connectivity issues that the company suffered in two of its fumbled launches.
Several gamers attributed the always-online requirement as the major reason for the city-building simulation disaster. Since the launch of SimCity on Windows in March and on Mac in August turned out to be devastating, EA Maxis is finally considering an offline mode.
"Right now we have a team specifically focused on exploring the possibility of an offline mode," Buechnermay wrote in a blog post Friday, discussing the "State of SimCity". "I can't make any promises on when we will have more information, but we know this is something that many of our players have been asking for. While the server connectivity issues are behind us, we would like to give our players the ability to play even if they choose not to connect."
"An offline mode would have the additional benefit of providing room to the modding community to experiment without interfering or breaking the multiplayer experience," he added.
Although, SimCity faced a major setback in its early stages as the developer had underestimated the game's demand. But several efforts have finally paid off for EA, as Buechnermay confirms that the game is now a huge success with more than two million units sold and a steady network despite a huge chunk of gamers online.
Besides the plan to launch an offline mode for the game, which is yet to get a confirmed date, EA plans to release a SimCity expansion called Cities of Tomorrow in November.
