SimCity connection troubles "almost behind us"; offline mode "not possible"

Maxis seem confident that online queues and congestion of SimCity's launch will soon be a thing of the past. In the fourth update to the community, Senior VP Lucy Bradshaw reports that, thanks to an increase in servers and various fixes, they are now able to get "virtually everyone" into the game. Bradshaw also states that game crashes have been reduced by 92% from launch day.

Of course, if you were to take the glass-half-empty view, that means it's nearly a week after the game's launch and some players are still experiencing delays and crashes.

"I'm happy to report that the core problem with getting in and having a great SimCity experience is almost behind us," Bradshaw writes. "Our players have been able to connect to their cities in the game for nearly 8 million hours of gameplay time and we've reduced game crashes by 92% from day one.

"A combination of optimizing our server architecture and response times, deploying these enhancements on both a series of new and the original servers and issuing a few critical client updates has achieved getting virtually everyone into the game and, once in, having a great time building cities and sharing regions.

"I had hoped to issue an “All-Clear” tonight, but there are still some elements coming together. Tonight and tomorrow we'll be monitoring each server and gameplay metrics to ensure that the service remains strong and game is playing great. We need a few more days of data before we can assure you that the problem is completely solved and the game is running at 100 percent."

It means that, for now, game features like the "Cheetah" speed mode remain disabled, to be reintroduced when the game's server strength is finally given a clean bill of health.

So what about an offline mode, to bypass potential server traffic. While the SimCity account has been dealing with some of the frustrated pleas of the game's would-be players, the responses have been at times contradictory. In one reply, the account claimed "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." Soon after, another reply gave a more definite answer : "The game was designed for MP, we sim the entire region on the server so this is just not possible."

Find out exact impact of the always-online requirement, among other things, in our SimCity review .

Thanks, Polygon .

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.