Update: The patch is now available to download. “We’ve listened to our players and today we are delivering against their most direct feedback with the release of the new Single-Player Mode,” said Patrick Buechner, GM of Maxis Emeryville.
“Player feedback has helped us deliver 10 major gameplay Updates that have improved the experience with better tuning, new features and free content. This is the most definitive SimCity experience whether you choose to play Online or Offline.”
You can check out an offline mode walkthrough video below.
Original Story: Maxis has taken the SimCity servers offline to deploy update 10, which will add the highly requested offline mode.
The servers are currently offline while the patch is being deployed. The latest update on the official forums stated that the patch is now undergoing QA testing. Once the servers come back up players will finally be able to play SimCity without an Internet connection.
While in single-player mode players can manage multiple cities on any of the regional maps, but leaderboards, the Citylog, achievements, the friends list, player profiles, and the region wall will all be disabled. Single-player cities will be saved locally.
You can monitor the status of the patch deployment here.