On: SimCity Update: Straight Answers from Lucy

[minimaxir]

So, could we have built a subset offline mode? Yes. But we rejected that idea because it didn’t fit with our vision.

Hindsight is 20/20 indeed.

[anonymousab → minimaxir]

Heck, they could still do it easily. The game periodically does make encrypted/obfuscated local 'saves' which are automatically deleted over time.

If a release group (against all odds) beats them to it then all the better.