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EA consider SimCity offline mode: “no intention for the moment… but we’ll look into that.”

simcity_disaster

EA’s SimCity is obviously struggling, and the problem stems from game’s need for a persistent online connection. The servers it requires just can’t keep up with the player numbers during peak times. In a series of tweets from the SimCity account, SimCity executive producer Lucy Bradshaw has responded to repeated requests by users for an offline mode. Unexpectedly, there’s some hope.

EDIT: We’re not sure if the second tweet is referring to a possible offline mode, or a previous question about map size, and have changed the headline to reflect the confusion.

In the first tweet, Lucy says that “We have no intention of offlining SimCity any time soon but we’ll look into that as part of our earning back your trust efforts.”

But, she continues….

“We’re definitely looking into this as we know it would improve your experience.”

Adding an offline mode to the new SimCity would be a spectacular climbdown for EA and Maxis. The developers have repeatedly maintained that the online connection is fundamental for the game to work. The game is built around the concept of economic sharing; players are able to feed each-other resources, power, and even workers.

But as we’ve repeatedly seen, the server capacity simply isn’t there to cope. In the last few days EA have asked affiliates and partners to stop selling the game, while Amazon have withdrawn the digital download from their store.

In the meantime, EA are to offer SimCity players a free game, even if they’ll refuse refunds to those who’ve purchased it.