Once and for all: will the single player be playable OFFLINE or not ?

[Strelok]

I've made a topic about this a few months ago, but back then there was a lot of contradictory information.

I think this game looks really promising and shows a lot of potential.

The only deal breaker that would make me skip it entirely would be the requirement of a persistent online connection to play the single player.

Any new information related to this ? Will the single player in this game be playable without an internet connection once its activated and fully up to date or not ? Was there any official statement in the mean time ?

EDIT: I've already checked the F.A.Q on their official website and there's no information as to the game being "always online" or not. Is there something I'm missing ?

They only state that it's not a live service game which gives me hope of an offline mode.

[Teal V2]

No, cuz the game uses a mechanism where it gets data from an online server which is not stored on your PC, therefore it cannot run properly.

A dev explained it in their latest video.

They said, it is needed to avoid patches for every different platform. With this mechanism, when you run the game (from any platform), it always will run with the latest changes, as those data are stored on the servers that your game uses when you play.

[Strelok]

Thank you for the detailed answer and for being transparent and honest about this.

Unfortunately it's bad news for me, as I don't want to deal anymore with "always online" in games. I find it a major inconvenience and it will remain a deal breaker for me for the foreseeable future.

Nevertheless, best of luck with the game !

[😒]

Always online means you don't own squat, you are at the mercy of the company taking your money and shutting down whenever it's not worth it for them, which could be tomorrow.

Always online is for MMOs, big loss.

[El-Cid]

I agree with this. After being burned by Battleborn, Lawbreakers, and other online only games that have been shut down with zero access to the game I paid money for... never again. Won't be buying Outriders. Fool me once, fool me twice, I won't get fooled again.

[Strelok]

Originally posted by El-Cid:

I agree with this. After being burned by Battleborn, Lawbreakers, and other online only games that have been shut down with zero access to the game I paid money for... never again. Won't be buying Outriders. Fool me once, fool me twice, I won't get fooled again.

Yeah, I also got burned by Lawbreakers, unfortunately.

I'm sad so many games are going for this approach. There's no bigger attack on consumer rights than going "always online". Not because we can't be always online but because it makes a game have an expiration date and puts a kill switch into it.

Regardless of the good intentions of any studio or publisher (which I don't doubt) I have to remain skeptical and completely avoid "always online" titles because I've been burned too many times already.

[SE Toby]

As it's relevant to the discussion, allow me to paste in a post I had written in a separate thread regarding this matter:

Taken from this post:.

A fellow dev at PCF talked about the decisions regarding servers in this thread on reddit. Rather than copy/paste Pawel's lengthy explanation, I recommend having a read of the discussion in full.

I will be honest to you and say that the future is impossible to predict. 2020 is an excellent example of that. However, I can provide you some information about how things are likely to look.

Regarding sunsetting the game or shutting down servers, I feel the risk of this is extremely minimal. The backend infrastructure of the game is managed by Square Enix as the publisher, and it is hosted by robust mainstream providers.

Expecting those mainstream providers to fail is on par with expecting Netflix to fail.

As for Square Enix: While we're not a Netflix, we are a very large global business, have been in the video games industry almost since it's inception, and have extensive experience with running online games. We are not a start-up with an uncertainty around whether we'll still be around in 1, 2 or even 5 years.

The best example that I can point you towards there is the first launch of FFXIV in 2010 (and it's subsequent successful relaunch[www.mcvuk.com]).

Outriders is not a live service game, does not have the same running costs as a live service game, and it will never require the FFXIV relaunch treatment, but I mention FFXIV here as an example of our company's commitment to not letting fans and customers down.

[El-Cid]

That may all be true, but as soon as sales stop for this game and it no longer receives any revenue, the incentive to keep precious server resources active will disappear. I still play freespace 2 and diablo 2, both games over 20 years old. If they were online only...poof, they would be unplayable. That speaks more to me than your assurance that the servers will stay. Sorry, not buying!

[Setorrs The Lollygagger]

What i don't understand is why they are trying so hard to stop 'cheating' in a so called single player game with co op that is optional.

[EeazyLee]

No offline Mode - No Buy.
Sry i´m tired buying Games and then they shutdown everything.
Anyways best of Luck with that one.

[Daughter of Slaanesh]

So no offline, well that's quite the bummer. After Battleborn burned me I've had zero interest in playing online only games so I guess I'll be skipping this one. Nonetheless I hope the game does well in the end.

[StriderTien]

Yea. We've just literally till the end of this month to play whatever Battleborn we can and then it's over...forever. I spent top dollar on that game and, for various reasons, never really got the chance to play it all that much. I wouldn't mind playing it solo offline but that's not an option.

That game was literally hard earned funds flushed down the toilet. I'd have to be an idiot to make that mistake twice. And that was a Gearbox game. Last time I checked, because of Borderlands, that company can practically print its own money and they're still deep 6'ing it.

That being said, the whole "We're Sqeenix! We've been here forever and we ain't going anywhere anytime soon." spiel is some Newjack horse crap. Nobody thought Blockbuster was gonna go under either. And as for the Netflix analogy, well...Cuties kinda pissed off A LOT of people.

Game looks great. Not gonna buy another title with a built in expiration date. You guys at SE got till February to fix this. Do the right thing by way of your customers. God knows we've had your back for a very long time. Now that I think about it, I do believe I own every version of Final Fantasy VII available on every platform it's been released on. XD

[Strelok]

Originally posted by StriderTien:

Game looks great. Not gonna buy another title with a built in expiration date.

My feelings exactly. I have been following the game for a long time and I think it's really interesting, but I WILL NOT buy another always online game. I've been burned too many times already.

If they change their mind and allow offline play I will instantly pre-order. If not I will skip it completely.

Games should always be part of our collection if we purchase a copy. I'm strongly against reselling games, I support and respect the developers. I just wish that the respect was mutual.

Games shouldn't have a built in kill switch. Planned obsolescence and locking users out if a connection to remote servers can't be established are just awful.

[Super King Big Nutz]

I do believe sales might suffer because of this decision to go online only. Servers fail all the time (I have a friend that plays FFXIV and tells me server issues are quite common), and frankly people are getting tired of games they pay for but are still at the mercy of outside forces dictating when and if they can play, from server errors to maintenance down time. So yeah, unless things change for the better, count me out.

[HATFPWDCATE]

Originally posted by StriderTien:

Yea. We've just literally till the end of this month to play whatever Battleborn we can and then it's over...forever. I spent top dollar on that game and, for various reasons, never really got the chance to play it all that much. I wouldn't mind playing it solo offline but that's not an option.

That game was literally hard earned funds flushed down the toilet. I'd have to be an idiot to make that mistake twice. And that was a Gearbox game. Last time I checked, because of Borderlands, that company can practically print its own money and they're still deep 6'ing it.

That being said, the whole "We're Sqeenix! We've been here forever and we ain't going anywhere anytime soon." spiel is some Newjack horse crap. Nobody thought Blockbuster was gonna go under either. And as for the Netflix analogy, well...Cuties kinda pissed off A LOT of people.

Game looks great. Not gonna buy another title with a built in expiration date. You guys at SE got till February to fix this. Do the right thing by way of your customers. God knows we've had your back for a very long time. Now that I think about it, I do believe I own every version of Final Fantasy VII available on every platform it's been released on. XD

Not gonna lie i miss walking around blockbuster picking out movies the same way im gonna miss walking around gamestop.

[cadan1973]

Cheat trainers cannot be used on this game???...