Now of course I don’t obviously know either way but the thought of this mode being offline is concerning. I have gold so it’s no problem playing the mode but I am at that point renting my use of Forge. Anything you do create isn’t really yours anymore if you can’t access it years from now which may be fine for some but certainly not for others
I’m not the greatest Forger but I do like to create interesting spaces or architecture for myself either to drive vehicles about on or just because I enjoy being in that created space. In fact I’d happily buy Forge on it’s own. While a lot of Forgers will design for taking their maps online, there are others that just enjoy using the tool as a way of relaxing in their own worlds- very much Minecraft, Project Spark territory then which don’t prevent your creating to only being online. It’s very relaxing to walk about your own these creations and what with the much expanded toolset and items now in the new Forge, we really will be able to create the most beautiful spaces.
Offline Forge is a very big deal more than perhaps a lot of folk know and there’s little point to it if you can’t guarantee being able to access your work down the line when servers don’t exist- and while yes that’s not any time soon, it’s still an unknown at this point. You wouldn’t get any artist committing to anything if he knew it might not exist at some point after he’d done it
With the way things have gone recently I’m not so convinced 343 will do right by it’s fans on this but fingers crossed. Of course it’s up to 343 what they do but you have to question if it’s only for the majority of fans that they ever cater to
Anyway please place your bets. I’m guessing they will hide it behind Gold which is essentially just the same thing as renting being you have to top your gold membership yearly leaving you still at some point unable to play offline