SimCity offline mode coming in Update 10

Some great news from Maxis: SimCity offline mode is coming. Yes, you read that right.

At the end of last week this was being hinted at by Maxis and now it’s a reality. In a blog post from Maxis general manager Patrick Buechner he’s confirmed that the “feature” will be added in Update 10 for free.

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 Offline through its paces before we release it.

So players will soon be able to choose whether they want to play with the online features such as leaderboards, the Global Market and the multiplayer region play. All of your previous online saved cities will still be accessible should you want to continue with online features at any point.

An offline mode has been implemented by the modding community already, but it’s taken nearly a year for Maxis to realise its importance to keeping their fans happy and playing the game.