I have a general question that I hope to get an answer too. Please follow along as I have to explain the situation that brought about this worry. I am currently forward deployed and will be for some time. I long times with out the Internet and my Xbox One cannot connect for weeks/months at a time. I recently received Batman: Arkham Knight, which of course I immediately threw into my Xbox expecting to be thrashing bad guys…only to have it tell me I had to patch it before I could play it off-line. I now have a $60 brick for the next several months. This brought a new worry about a game I am looking forward to even more, Halo 5. Will it have a similar Day One patch that will keep me from playing off-line out of the box? I really want to know so I can change how I purchase it. I would really appreciate knowing the answer to this question. I have already lost the ability to play split-screen with those I deploy with, it would be an even greater blow to not even be able to play this game the day I finally get it, which will be probably weeks after it is released anyway.
We won’t know for a while but my money is definitely on a Day One Patch happening. They may ship the discs but they keep working on the game up until launch and then throw all the extra stuff they finished into the full game via a day one patch. The MCC had one and a lot of other games do it too so I bet Halo 5 will as well. Sorry to hear about your situation though, that’s gotta be pretty awful.