Maxis has 'no intentions' of offlining SimCity, but will look into it to 'earn back' trust

Developer Maxis does not intend to take SimCity offline, but will look into it as a way of "earning back [buyers'] trust efforts," according to a tweet from the official SimCity account.

General manager Lucy Bradshaw began fielding questions via Twitter this afternoon. When asked about an offline mode patch for the future, should the servers go offline in a few years, Bradshaw responded with the following:

We have no intention of offlining SimCity any time soon but we'll look into that aspart of our earning back your trust efforts.

— SimCity (@simcity) March 9, 2013

Polygon spoke with Bradshaw yesterday about the game's instability and the company's effort to quickly find a solution. Despite many fans' request to simply remove online requirements, Bradshaw said "an online interconnected world has been part of our design philosophy since day one."

"It wouldn't be possible to make the game offline without a significant amount of engineering work by our team," Bradshaw said.

Following up on offline modes today, Bradshaw replied as such:

@azbiker72 The game was designed for MP, we sim the entire region on the server so this is just not possible

— SimCity (@simcity) March 9, 2013

Bradshaw added that the game's online only design "is on Maxis," and that EA did not "force design" upon them.

SimCity launched earlier this week on March 5. From day one, the game experienced major server problems and waits, making it nearly impossible for players to access the game. Electronic Arts announced earlier this week that it would not offer refunds for copies of the game purchased digitally through Origin, though the company will give a free game to those affected, something also addressed today:

You'll be getting more information on the March 18th. And you will have choices.

— SimCity (@simcity) March 9, 2013

Polygon will continue to report on SimCity's progress. For our full coverage, check out the story stream below.