SimCity Finally Getting Offline Mode, Modding, Too

After almost an entire year of declaring online was crucial to SimCity's infrastructure, and that an offline mode would never be possible, EA and Maxis finally announced offline mode would be coming to the beleaguered game for free in the next update. What a mess.

Over on the official SimCity blog, Maxis general manager Patrick Buechner broke the news. With Update 10, players will be able to play offline with all of the downloaded content they have, and will be able to enjoy the game on the go without having to worry about their internet connection. In case you forgot, way back when in March of 2013, SimCity launched as an online only game, which EA and Maxis both declared would not get an offline mode despite fan outcry. The launch was a horrible disaster, with players unable to enjoy SimCity consistently for weeks. At least now, 10 months after launch, there's a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

To make things even more interesting, EA and Maxis are also allowing modding within the community. There's a whole host of policies in place (which you can check out here), but by taking the game offline, players will be able to experience all the creations of other fans without worrying about breaking the game for the connected players. There will actually be some tutorial videos released by Maxis to show off some of their own in-house creations and how you can put your own twist on the SimCity universe when modding goes live.

Currently, Maxis doesn't have a firm release date for the update, but there will be more details coming soon. Hopefully the wait won't be too much longer, and hopefully people will be able to enjoy SimCity and put 2013's experience with the reboot behind them.