Offline, or Single Player, mode is now available for all PC and Mac SimCity players. It features:

Players have been begging for an offline mode on SimCity since before the game even released. Three-quarters of a year later, Maxis has finally stated that they are making an official offline mode available in Update 10. Patrick Buechner, the General Manager of the Maxis Emeryville studio, published this blog post about the change yesterday:

Let’s get right to it.

SIMCITY OFFLINE IS COMING!

I’ve wanted to say those words for quite some time, so my apologies that I didn’t take the time to say Happy New Year first.

Yes, Offline is coming as a free download with Update 10 to all SimCity players. 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.

Since launching in March SimCity has seen its share of troubles. In the last eight major game updates Maxis has targeted core areas of the game that the community believed needed to be reworked. Since its launch Maxis has strived to:

Today we look at an letter from General Manager Patrick Buechner, detailing the current "State of SimCity". Buechner's article is a post-launch breakdown that discusses what Maxis has worked on since release. In the letter, Buechner reassures the community that the SimCity team is constantly on the lookout for ways to improve the SimCity experience.

This afternoon Electronic Arts announced the first expansion pack for SimCity, Cities of Tomorrow, is currently in development for PC and Mac and will be released on November 12, 2013.

“Will the world of tomorrow be a utopia powered by clean energy or an industrial society consumed by mass commercialism?” said Patrick Buechner, General Manager, Maxis Emeryville. “With SimCity Cities of Tomorrow, players can build the future as they imagine it. Transport your Sims on MagLev, power your cities with fusion reactors or tidal wave generators, manufacture a legion of drones to serve your Sims and build massive MegaTowers that dwarf modern skyscrapers. We’re giving you plausible technologies to take your cities onto a journey 50 years into the future. What will you create?”