SimCity devs exploring the possibility of offline mode

It's taken nearly seven months to get the message across, but it looks like Maxis is finally looking into some sort of offline mode for SimCity.

As many are well-aware, the launch of the studio's once highly anticipated city-building simulation was marred with server issues preventing many players from logging on to play the game. For a good portion of its launch week, the servers were unable to support the number of players attempting to log in. Server issues have since been fixed, but the plagued launch certainly left a bitter taste in peoples' mouths and the desire for an offline mode still persisted. Thankfully, it seems like Maxis is finally working on a solution.

In a "State of SimCity" blog post, Patrick Buechner, GM of the Maxis Emeryville studio, wrote, "Exploration for offline mode is happening."

"Right now we have a team specifically focused on exploring the possibility of an offline mode," he said. Although he couldn't make any promises on when they'd have more information, he acknowledges that 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," he added. "An offline mode would have the additional benefit of providing room to the modding community to experiment without interfering or breaking the multiplayer experience."

That's right, elsewhere in the post Buechner revealed Maxis has begun "a discussion with our players with the ultimate goal of giving you space to mod while assuring all our players that the multiplayer experience is safe and has integrity." There's a current discussion going on with the community that you can take part in here.

"Our launch wasn’t what anyone on the team hoped for," Buechner admitted. "We think about this every single day, but we’re proud of how far we’ve come over the past few months."

Would you like to see an offline mode offered for SimCity or is it too late?