I guess I have to disagree with my brethren here. I never expected the solo mode to ever come with free upgrades. Only system fixes. Sim City, I can't imagine, would ever give away something as involved as a mass transit option. Free buildings? Yes. But when they introduced one way streets, for instance, it was packaged in a purchased upgrade (Rush Hour). I can't recall where MC posted explicitly that they would offer a free mass transit upgrade to solo players, in addition to the online players. Maybe there was a message "MC said that x will come out shortly." (substitute anything for "x"). I have heard non-MC people promise the moon and more on these threads.
In the end, MC is looking to make money off Cities XL. They can't be expected to be giving out free upgrades; that is not a sustainable business model. They could not afford the staff to keep the free upgrades coming for paid online users. There is an old saying in America, that I'm sure my friends on the other side of the Atlantic know: "You get what you pay for". The solo players paid for Cities XL as it stood at that point. The Planet Offer players are paying more, but also getting more in terms of small but consistent upgrades. To say that MC is involved in fraud is hyperbolic, at best.
That said, maybe MC can do what Sim Cities did, and have a paid upgrade for those who want the new functions. Sounds like a good capitalistic solution to me.
