Skip to main content
Join The Community
- Join our community
11
Premium Benefits
24/7
Access Available
21K+
Active Members
Commenting
Join the discussion
Exclusive Articles Coming Soon
Member-only articles
Weekly Newsletters
Weekly gaming & entertainment news
Member Badges
Earn badges as you go
Exclusive Competitions
Members-only prize draws
Curated Deals Coming Soon
Tech and gaming deals worth grabbing
GET COMMUNITY ACCESS QUICK
For the quickest way to join, simply enter your email below and get access. We will send a confirmation and sign you up to our newsletter to keep you updated on all your gaming news.
By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
FIND OUT ABOUT OUR MAGAZINE
Want to subscribe to the magazine? Click the button below to find out more information.
Find out more
GET Community ACCESS QUICK

Join the GamesRadar community for quick access. Enter your email below and we'll send confirmation, and sign you up to our newsletter.

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Background
Welcome to GamesRADAR+ Community !
Hi ,

Your membership journey starts here.

Keep exploring and earning more as a member.

MY ACCOUNT

Badge picture
Earn your first badge
Read 1 article to unlock your first badge.
Keep earning badges
Explore ways to get more involved as a member.
Latest Games News

Latest Games News

Breaking gaming news and updates

Read Now
Latest Games Reviews

Latest Games Reviews

Expert verdicts on the newest releases

Read Now

See what you’ve unlocked.

Explore your membership benefits.

Explore
Member Exclusives

Stay Ahead with GamesRadar+

Get the biggest gaming news, reviews, and releases straight to your inbox.

Explore

Sign Out
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+
US EditionUS CA EditionCanada UK EditionUK AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
    • Game Insights
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • Big in 2026
      • Big Preview
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
    • Genres
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
    • Franchises
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • Insights
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
    • Computing
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
    • Accessories & Tech
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
    • Video
    • GR+ Replay - Submit Your Clips
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
  • home
  • Games
    • View Games
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • Big in 2026
      • Big Preview
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • View Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • View Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • View TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • View Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • View Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • View Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • View Hardware
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • View Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • View Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
    • View Video
    • Video
    • GR+ Replay - Submit Your Clips
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Trending
  • Saros review
  • Arc Raiders
  • The Boys S5
  • Best turn-based RPGs
  • Submit your clips. Win prizes
  • Delta Force giveaway
Don't miss these
Shapez
Simulation Games Steam blocked this Factorio homage's early access release 5 times - now it's sold 2 million copies
Slay the Spire 2 classes
Roguelike Games Slay the Spire 2 won't get an endless mode, but creator says "maybe a modder" can "make it work"
No Man's Sky
Survival Games No Man's Sky updates take "2-3x" longer on Switch 2 and Steam Deck as devs have to beat "impossible memory constraints"
InZoi zois taking photos together
Simulation Games InZoi boss isn't fazed by "a few hundred thousand returns" as the 1.0 launch looms
The Sims 4 screenshot of the Enchanted by Nature expansion pack which shows a fairy in a yellow outfit and other mythical creatures standing underneath trees
The Sims The best Sims 4 expansion packs to buy right now in 2026
Cities Skylines screenshot of a cityscape showing buildings framing roads, with skyscrapers opposite a river in the background
Strategy Games The 15 best city building games to play in 2026
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream
Simulation Games Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream won't allow Mii and item sharing or any real online functionality at all
Final Fantasy XIV
Final Fantasy Final Fantasy 14 "can't afford another failed expansion," fans say, as unofficial census reports significant player drop
The Sims 5 Project Rene: a purple screenshot of the the upcoming game.
Simulation Games Project Rene: Everything we know about the future of The Sims
A young girl and a tiny ghost in Nier Reincarnation
Action RPGs As fans revive Nier Reincarnation, game devs say giving live-service titles offline versions is hard
Slay the Spire 2 classes
Roguelike Games Slay the Spire 2 dev teases 3 new modes, including something "very competitive"
The Sims 4 burglar
The Sims The Sims 4's microtransaction Marketplace has officially shown me the door after 24 years of Simming
Palworld
Survival Games Palworld 1.0 is "still in the oven," lead says, teasing we'll see more "when it's nearly done"
A parade rolls down the street in the Race Day DLC for Cities: Skylines
City Builder Games Steam reviewer spends 30,000 hours playing Cities: Skylines, decides it sucks: "BY FAR most frustrating, enraging game"
Screenshot from Peak's Play It Your Way update shows a player standing in front of a campfire.
Co-op Games Peak co-dev says endless content updates would mean titles like its iconic friendslop hit "wouldn't exist"
  1. Games
  2. City Builder
  3. Sim City
  4. SimCity

Maxis is 'exploring' offline mode for SimCity

News
By Connor Sheridan published 4 October 2013

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Flipboard
  • Email
Share this article
Join the conversation
Follow us
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more


By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

You are now subscribed

Your newsletter sign-up was successful


Want to add more newsletters?

GamesRadar+

Every Friday

GamesRadar+

Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.

GTA 6 O'clock

Every Thursday

GTA 6 O'clock

Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.

Knowledge

Every Friday

Knowledge

From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.

The Setup

Every Thursday

The Setup

Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.

Switch 2 Spotlight

Every Wednesday

Switch 2 Spotlight

Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.

The Watchlist

Every Saturday

The Watchlist

Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.

SFX

Once a month

SFX

Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!


Join the club

Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.


An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Subscribe to our newsletter

SimCity may yet receive an offline mode. The latest iteration of the city management series was slammed for requiring users to play online when it launched in March, but Maxis maintained that an offline mode didn't fit with its vision for the game (after abandoning the argument that server-side calculations made it infeasible).

Maxis Emeryville GM Patrick Buechner says the studio has been looking into the possibility in a post on SimCity's official blog.

"Right now we have a team specifically focused on exploring the possibility of an offline mode," Buechner said. "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."

Article continues below
You may like
  • A young girl and a tiny ghost in Nier Reincarnation As fans revive Nier Reincarnation, game devs say giving live-service titles offline versions is hard
  • A parade rolls down the street in the Race Day DLC for Cities: Skylines Cities: Skylines gets its first proper expansion in 3 years as its disastrous sequel again settles for smaller DLC packs
  • InZoi zois taking photos together InZoi boss isn't fazed by "a few hundred thousand returns" as the 1.0 launch looms

Whether the offline mode is implemented or not, former fans may want to check out the game's state after seven months and seven major updates. Unfortunately, it looks like they can stop waiting for larger city sizes, one of the other most-requested changes.

"After months of testing, I confirm that we will not be providing bigger city sizes. The system performance challenges we encountered would mean that the vast majority of our players wouldn’t be able to load, much less play with bigger cities. Some of the experiments we conducted to improve performance on bigger cities will be rolled into future updates to improve overall game performance."

SimCity's first expansion pack, Cities of Tomorrow, will hit PC and Mac on Nov. 12.

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
TOPICS
EA
CATEGORIES
PC Gaming Platforms
Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan
Social Links Navigation
Former GamesRadar+ News Writer

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.

Read more
A young girl and a tiny ghost in Nier Reincarnation
Action RPGs As fans revive Nier Reincarnation, game devs say giving live-service titles offline versions is hard
 
 
A parade rolls down the street in the Race Day DLC for Cities: Skylines
City Builder Games Cities: Skylines gets its first proper expansion in 3 years as its disastrous sequel again settles for smaller DLC packs
 
 
InZoi zois taking photos together
Simulation Games InZoi boss isn't fazed by "a few hundred thousand returns" as the 1.0 launch looms
 
 
The Sims 5 Project Rene: a purple screenshot of the the upcoming game.
Simulation Games Project Rene: Everything we know about the future of The Sims
 
 
The Sims 4 burglar
The Sims The Sims 4's microtransaction Marketplace has officially shown me the door after 24 years of Simming
 
 
Battlefield 6 screenshots from season 2 showing soldiers firing guns in a gas cloud
Battlefield Battlefield 6 devs hear your cries for bigger maps "very loudly," but they'll "need some more time"
 
 
Latest in Sim City
SimCopter
Sim City Unreleased SimCopter 64 build turns up over 25 years later
 
 
Sim City EA's shutting down Maxis Emeryville, home of SimCity and Spore
 
 
Sim City SimCity owners getting the offline mode they (thought they) want(ed)
 
 
Sim City SimCitys Cities of Tomorrow expansion is part Demolition Man, part Judge Dredd
 
 
Sim City SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow expansion pack coming in November
 
 
Sim City SimCity hits Mac on August 29
 
 
Latest in News
Square Enix's Hikaru Tamaki smiles at crowd
Final Fantasy Final Fantasy 14 dev got his job when he interviewed Yoshi-P as a journalist and asked him for a job
 
 
Final Fantasy 14 producer Naoki Yoshida in a T-shirt apparently teasing one of the new Evercold jobs
Final Fantasy Yoshi-P won't tell Final Fantasy 14 players what the new tank and ranged physical DPS jobs are
 
 
Slay the Spire 2 classes line up on red background
Roguelike Games Slay the Spire 2 devs say the Doormaker mentioned in negative Steam reviews is actually weak
 
 
Diablo 4 character with scarred face stares intensely at camera
Diablo Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred is so big that Blizzard decided the new season doesn't need its own theme
 
 
Jaz Sinclair as Marie and Erin Moriarty as Annie in Gen V season 2
Superhero Shows The Boys spin-off Gen V is cancelled after two seasons as prequel Vought Rising gets release date
 
 
Scooby-Doo: The Movie
Live Action Shows Netflix's live-action Scooby Doo prequel finds its Daphne in Ghostbusters and Five Nights at Freddy's star
 
 
LATEST ARTICLES
  1. Square Enix's Hikaru Tamaki smiles at crowd
    1
    Final Fantasy 14's battle system planner got his start at Square Enix when he interviewed producer Yoshi-P as a journalist and "used the opportunity to ask him for a job"
  2. 2
    Yoshi-P won't tell Final Fantasy 14 players what the new tank and ranged physical DPS jobs are, but he will dare you to look at his T-shirt for clues
  3. 3
    Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred is so big that Blizzard decided the new season doesn't need its own theme, but it will include "major system upgrades"
  4. 4
    Slay the Spire 2 devs say the Doormaker boss that sparked so many negative Steam reviews is actually "slightly weaker than the other Act 3 bosses"
  5. 5
    The Boys spin-off Gen V is cancelled after two seasons as prequel Vought Rising gets release date

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google Add as a preferred source on Google
  • Terms and conditions
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Careers
  • About us
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...