Planetary Annihilation update adds offline play later this week

There are a number of reasons why a videogame might require a connection to the internet in order to run, but they all suffer from the same inherent drawback: no connection means no play. Fortunately, that will soon cease to be an issue for Planetary Annihilation.

"We’re happy to announce the release of the offline server. Coming in an update this Thursday (October 9), offline server allows you to take over the galaxy in Galactic War without connecting to the Internet," Uber Entertainment revealed yesterday. "You can also battle against your frenemies or the AI over a LAN."

Player-operated server functionality is also in the works and will be added to the game "down the road."

Uber recently announced a new Kickstarter for the robots-vs-monsters RTS Human Resources, but said in a prior update that the new project won't impact the ongoing development of Planetary Annihilation. "Work on Planetary Annihilation will not stop if Human Resources funds," the studio wrote. "Both games will have a team dedicated to these separate projects."

The update, as mentioned and barring unforeseen circumstances, will go live on October 9. While you wait, find out what we thought about Planetary Annihilation by way of our review, which you can dig into right here.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.